Dolomite Alps and South Tyrol
In the middle of July, we went to Northern Italy to see the Italian Alps once again. To start our journey around the Dolomites, we arrived at Bergamo Orio Al Serio airport, at the airport picked up our Fiat (it was booked in advance, we used Economy Car Rentals as usual) and went to the mountains.
Our temporary residence for about a week in the Italian Alps was supposed to be a small mountain village Canazei where we got a nice apartment for a very good price.
Accommodation in the Italian Alps
From Bergamo, we went to the East and then, after passing Garda Lake, turned to the North. With a few stops in some very beautiful places near a lake and further in the mountains, we reached Canazei ski resort village in the late afternoon. The landlady did not speak English at all, but with some additional help from the German language, we settled in the booked apartment, which was surprisingly large and located very centrally on the main street (we made the booking using fassappartamenti website; according to our experience, I can recommend it to others, though be aware that deposit might be required).
Alpine resorts
Canazei and other surrounding villages (Campitello di Fassa, Mazzin, Pozza di Fassa, Vigo di Fassa) are known as popular resorts located in the Trentino-Alto Adige (or Trentino-Sudtirol in German) region, near to the border of another famous Italian Alpine region Venetto (mostly known because of Cortina d’Ampezzo ski resort).
Area around Trento
Trentino-Alto Adige is an autonomous region consisting of two provinces – Trento and South Tyrol. This region previously was part of the Austrian Empire. Perhaps, it is my personal feeling – many things reminded me about our previous visits to Austria. For example, many urban areas still have double names (one in Italian, another one in the German language), like Bolzano/Bozen, Virgolo/Virgi, Gargazzone/Gargazon, Castelrotto/Kastelruth etc.
Bolzano is a nice town worth visiting, to walk around it and enjoy the surrounding landscape. It is called as “Gateway to the Dolomites” because of its location (since 2009 Dolomites have been listed as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site). Whatever your destination, you can choose any road in the mountains to see beautiful towns and villages including those mentioned above.
Another day we visited Piramidi de Segonzano – an ageological phenomenon, a masterpiece made by nature. These are sandstone columns reaching heights up to 20 metres. We have seen similar rock formations in Bulgaria – Belogradchishki Skali (Belogradchik Rocks), although each of them has its own personality.
Alpine hiking
Our major event, of course, was whole-day hiking in Dolomites (this was not the only hiking experience during this trip, it was the major one for sure).
There is a mountain lift in Canazei (just a few minutes walk from our rented apartment) to go up higher in the mountains (we started our trip at about 2300 metres above sea level). There are many other lifts in the surrounding area. After arrival at the starting point, you can find many marked hiking trails suitable for anybody wishing to enjoy the beauty of nature.
We walked about 11 kilometres in the Italian Alps and spent about four and a half hours in the mountains. In the afternoon we got back home by public Alpine bus. There is not much to add here about this hiking experience because those feelings you get in such adventures are unforgettable and should be experienced personally to remain in memory.
When planning our trip to the Italian Alps, we didn’t know that the Canazei town festival was scheduled for the weekend. That was one more amazing experience we had there. In the evening, there was a parade on the main street of town (we were watching it in full from our balcony). The next day town was full of people, various attractions, food from local producers and small private exhibitions.
It was very interesting to watch what hobbies people have – many houses were opened to the public and demonstrated different kinds of interesting stuff including workshops, embroidery, historic collections and many more. Almost everybody had their own guestbook of exhibitions or workshops. It seems that those are very old traditions because entries of guest books were dated from the previous century and covered a very wide geographical area of visitors.