Into Italy!

We retreated from Italy, we had spent 4 nights there and chosen our time poorly, the week after the Day of the Assumption, big holiday.

We chose the old Brenner Pass road to exit Italy back into Austria and as we drove through I was reminded of Arthurs Pass, except for the huge outlet shopping mall that was creating a shopping frenzy. Brenner had the same drizzle, steep dark hills, railway infrastructure and little chalet houses.

Brenner Pass

We had taken another Chausson owner’s recommendation to visit the Stubaital Valley and the little central campsite. It had views all around, grassy hillsides, pink limestone crags (are there Dolomites in Austria?), large yellow church and next to our truck, the alpine water trough made of a hollowed out log, decorated with carved Eidelweiss, clear icy water pouring into it.

Sculpture seat on the 'real tramp'

We stayed at Camp Stubai for 4 nights. It was sited next to a cable car which gave us an effortless ride to the ‘tops’ for an easy walk among the alpine flowers one day and a real tramp (I am not talking in a good way) another day. The day of the real tramp had no breeze and burning sun, and as we were squishing our toes at the end of our boots on the way back down to the cable car, para-ponters were hauling their equipment to their launch pads.

Back at the truck Stuart poured icy water from the trough into a washing basin apiece and we sat in deckchairs drinking cold Pepsi and soaking our feet while watching the para ponters twirling above us on the thermals. While soaking our feet we noticed a young couple setting up their tent opposite and obviously pleased with their site, as they were taking 360 photos on their phones. Don’t know if they caught the two old people with their feet in washing-up bowls but we gave a cheery wave.

While in Austria we watched farmers making hay. I have no farming background but it seems an awful lot of work to end up with what seems a small amount of hay. Some fields are too steep for tractors so the cutting is manual, using a big lawnmower. The raking and turning is all manual. The grass doesn’t seem to attain much height before it is turned into either hay or silage. The farms look very small and must enjoy subsidies from the EU for them to continue as working units. Perhaps a lot of them run B&Bs and guesthouses as a sideline. Travelling above the farmers on the cable car there was a real scene of ‘one man went to mow... two men went to mow’ the most we saw was 3 men in a meadow, disappointingly no dog.

Time to give Italy another shot so we went back over the Brenner Pass, a different scene this time – the sun was out, the roads had light traffic and the towns looked prettier. Then Mr Cock-Up visited, – at the end of the pass there was confusion between the satnav and what we saw and we turned right instead of going straight ahead. There was no way out, we had to go on the autostrada when we really just wanted to drive through the pathetic little barrier to get to the other side of the road.

Back along the Brenner road in the direction we just came from, paid the toll at the first exit, got back on the autostrada, paid the toll and back where we started.

Lake Braies

We headed for Lake Braies and ended up being ushered into a squeezy spot by the parking warden. ‘It’s OK Stuart, we can open our door without hitting the truck next door’.

It was a hot gravelled carpark and there were a dozen motorhomes squished together. It didn’t look like the picture in the aires book but we made a coffee and stared out at the rows of cars filling the carpark. The next door neighbours had an Italian soap opera on their television and then they erupted into their own soap opera. We couldn’t see or understand them but there was shouting and rounds of what sounded like teenage tears; the bouts of tears would start up again without the shouting – just anguished exclamations and sobs. Stuart wondered if we should ask for our money ($NZ30) back.

The surroundings were spectacular, great dolomite cliffs, clear blue sky and pinetrees as we walked up the road to find the lake. After we walked past acres of car park, and the REAL aire which was full up, it was like deja vue. It really was Lake Louise (Canada) all over again including the hotel, boathouse and row boats, lakeside walk ..... Truly beautiful. We did the lake circuit accompanied by thousands of others all talking flat out when there was a dramatic ‘mama mia’ (not quite but something similar) near us. A mother was rushing into the lake pulling out a baby buggy laden with the family bags – luckily the ‘baby’ had been pushing the buggy and he set up a wailing, proclaiming innocence I assume. We had arrived in Italy indeed.

Lake Braies

The highlight so far has been our stay at Misurina. The aire was placed in a fantastic spot with views of pinky-blue limestone peaks all around with swathes of pinetrees stretching up to the snowline. In the large open meadows cows were grazing, their bells tinkling. The German man parked next door told us of the big ticket item – walking the Tre Cime di Lavadero. Catch a shuttle nearby.

The bus went up a series of switchbacks higher and higher, into the Parco Natzionale Dolomiti. The views were stunning – series of mountain ranges in regression, the close ones showing mid blue with the distant ranges a pale blue. The days walk was to circuit the three peaks (Tre Cime) – huge rock megaliths. As we passed as close as the path would allow, we could see tiny figures scaling them, gaining footholds in the crenalations and striations on the otherwise monolithic faces.

The three peaks at centre of the circit

We were not alone, we were accompanied by thousands of other visitors, mainly Italian as the 4 hour track looped past 4 refugios selling food and drink. We stopped at the largest – it must have been 5 stories high, for expensive luke warm cans of coke. It was a cloudless day and we were in full sun all day, I was looking forward to my can of Radler (shandy) in the fridge. However, we hadn’t even disembarked the bus before Stuart said ‘lets go for a bike ride’. Someone is going to get his money’s worth out of Misurina!

Lake Misurina

 I argued for another nights stay and had to clean out my precious supply of coins to pay for the parking – the machine only takes coins and parking is 18 euros a day (NZ30). The polizei make their rounds checking up.

That day we caught a Landrover shuttle up to 2200 metres on an ex-military road near to where we camped, up to the WWI battle site between the Italians and Austrians. Monte Piana/Piano had seen 14,000 soldiers killed on the site between 1915–17. The area was huge, with trenches and gun emplacements and tunnels spread over the pockmarked limestone landscape. The sharp needles of the Dolomites once again were the backdrop wherever you looked. Stuart went into a tunnel at a machine gun station and popped head and shoulders out where a gunner would have stood. Conditions must have been extremely harsh, a far cry from the pleasant summer afternoon we were enjoying. There were no crowds at this open air museum and no 'ealth and safety either, you had to be alert to where you were walking.

Monte Piano/Piana

We walked until we were tired of it and still didn’t see it all, we chose to walk the hour back down to our truck. Too tired to cook, we had pizza on the restaurant terrace next to Lake Mizurina.

Next big ticket item is Venice and I need to do some research beforehand.