Discovering the Dolomites

When telling people about our recent trip to Italy, everyone asked, “Where in Italy?” Answering with Northern Italy and the Dolomites pretty much resulted in blank stares. Most people that go to Italy for a summer vacation go to see places like Rome, Florence, and Tuscany. Few people I have spoken to are even familiar with Northern Italy. And most have no clue what the Dolomites are.

I didn’t know either until our last trip to Europe when we did the Edelweiss motorcycle tour in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. We enjoyed that so much that we asked our guide what tour he recommended for us next.

After a bit of research, I learned that the Dolomites, in Northeastern Italy, are part of the Alps. Once I saw an image or two, I was sold. I love the mountains anyway, but mountains with amazing motorcycle roads are the ultimate destination.

I was really looking forward to seeing the Dolomites with my own eyes. But since we arrived in Castelrotto very late on Tuesday night, we didn’t get to see much.

So imagine my delight when I peeked out of the window early Wednesday morning and saw this…

After a nice, leisurely breakfast, Hubby and I were off to explore. It was just as magnificent as I had imagined.

Not only was it gorgeous to look at, the roads were cool, too.

And that made this motorcyclist very happy.

It takes an awful lot of concentration and constant focus to ride a motorcycle. Especially when riding roads through the mountains where you encounter lots and lots of switchback (180 degree) turns. Like the one in the following picture that goes through a tunnel!

Since I had to commit my full attention to the ride, I didn’t get to dwell on the unhappy stuff lingering in my brain. Which was a good thing.

The sky was overcast off and on all day, but the scenery was still spectacular.

It’s a shame our luggage space was so limited, I could have brought this alpine frog home with me.

The next shot is at Falzarego Pass.

If you’d like to read more about our day and/or see more pics, you’ll have to pop over to my Appalachian Tours blog. I didn’t want to repeat the entire post here.

I did, however, create a little slide show to share. The images were shot with my helmet camera.

The show is about three minutes long. It has music, too. So make sure your speaker volume is adjusted before you click on the image to start watching.

As awesome as our jaunt into Switzerland was on Monday, I LOVED riding through the Dolomites. The Swiss Alps are pretty, too, but there’s just something about rocky, craggy mountains.

Stay tuned, there’s still lots more to come.