The Dolomites

Well, it is cold....I mean freezing, frigid, icy,...... COLD!

We collected our Mercedes (after some booking "clarifications") from Venice after our disembarkation from The Costa Luminosa and headed towards the Alps........brilliant white and shining in the distance. It was a little further/longer than we had anticipated but the journey took us through some magnificent countryside and eventually up to the alpine village of Madonna di Campiglio......via some seriously switchback roads.

Mike and Wendy are experienced in these conditions and therefore prepared but Wendy and I quickly piled on the layers after our first stroll around the town until the cold stopped creeping in to our bones. Visions of "Michelin Man" would not be  out of place!

Mike & Wendy on our first "venture out" after arrival. The layers increased significantly after this!

Our Chalet however, built in the traditional, very wooden style with pine panelling throughout, is very comfortable and, with temperatures at -2 during the day and dropping to  -13 degrees at night, it needed to be.....but that is what ski resorts are all about.

Quite woody - very comfortable.

Madonna di Campiglio is a beautiful village tucked high up at the end of an Alpine valley surrounded by magnificently tall, steep mountains swathed in snaking ski runs with impossible looking descents.
As it is just the beginning of the ski season there are quite a few (but not packed yet) skiers getting around and any number of ski lifts with bubble gondolas giving the skiers access to all the surrounding peaks from anywhere in the village.

View from the top of one of the ski runs.

There were lots and lots of skiers on this more challenging run, from six year olds to veterans, but I was mighty impressed with this bloke on one leg. It is very steep! 

View from our window.

The village itself is very quaint, especially with its  dusting of snow. It straddles a small, frozen river with a pond what is just about ready to serve as an ice skating rink......still a bit soft around the edges though!

The river from a bridge.

Getting about is a bit slippery....and requires some effort dressing and undressing every time you enter a shop, restaurant or residence but there is a surprising number of shops, quality restaurants and skiing type things to do. Already Wendy has found a number of Christmas shops as well as an "Aladdin's Cave" of goodies which I'm sure no amount of cold, ice or snow will deter her from frequenting.

The main square about 4.00pm. The light and temperature drops significantly when the sun goes down.

The Dolomites are quite a spectacular mountain range. They are formed from sedimentary rocks from eons ago being pushed up, mangled and twisted by the mighty forces of tectonic plates colliding to create these magnificent monsters. We were fully intending to visit the top of the mountains to have a closer look but we also noticed that these Europeans live a very sophisticated life and we were intrigued by the label on a local map indicating  a "bar and grill" at the top of the mountain?  So, of course, that would be the mountain we would investigate!

At the top - Dolomites behind.

A gondola ride up (10 Euro round trip and they were empty on the way down ...except for us!) was close by our chalet so off we went to find hundreds of people having a "slap up" meal at the top of this mountain. Not just a sausage sanger either.....hot meals of lasagne, chicken wings, hot chips, salads (not that popular) grilled meats on a skewer (quite popular) all in a cafeteria .....and draught beer whats more.... in big steins.

Lunch

Well, when in Rome!