Moena and the mountains.

We feel like we crossed more than a province border when we entered the Dolomites, and particularly when we crossed into Trentino-Aldo Adige , one of the five autonomous provinces, or regions of Italy.

Think Heidi. Wooden chalets, green pastures , cold blue rivers in each town, the neatest wood piles you can imagine and mountains covered with pines and larches, and or snow. It is stunningly beautiful and we have spent days gasping in awe as we rounded a (usually hairpin) bend to see another snow capped peak.

The village we stayed in is called Moena and it is the start of the Val di Fassa, a skiing region that Jock visited rather a long time ago (when he was in his twenties ) and where he did the best skiing of his life.

The province Trentino-Aldo Adige is autonomous in order to protect its cultural and linguistic heritage. Autonomous regions get to keep more of their taxes and provide more services locally , which you would have to imagine would suit people seemingly so fundamentally different from the majority in their country. In fact the area was part of Austria till the Second World War. This region has excellent roads and services, is clean as a whistle and incredibly well organised.Those mountains certainly make for cultural and linguistic borders!

The official languages of the province are Italian and Ladin , or Ladino , which is, I’m told, a mixture of German, French and Italian. But in the province itself there are apparently four dialects of Ladino, one for each valley!

We were staying at a B and B and our hosts Christina and Eric are locals, so were a great source of information and it was certainly interesting hearing them speak Ladin to each other. I felt very proud when Eric asked me “Vur ist da Frau?” and I could respond “with Mutter” !! (Mother, of course). I was peeved I hadn’t said mit Mutter, which would have expressed a good part of my German language skills!

In school they learn German or English, as well as Ladin and Italian. It seemed to us that most people had German as their third language, rather than English, and why not, with the borders so close.

We drove to the ski slopes on what must be one of the great drives of the world. It was a day long round trip from Moena passing through hamlets, villages and ski areas, nearly all of which are now closed. One was still open though, in the glacial area of Marmolada and we stopped and watched for quite some time, as not surprisingly, there was a lovely wooden deck outside a cafe where we could sit in the sun, have a beer and watch the slopes.

Jock really enjoyed the German and Austrian beers here, which they serve cold.

We had two days of bright sun and temperatures in the low twenties , so in all the places where there was snow it was melting rapidly, so there were drips and running water sounds on all our stops.

After that I spent a day exploring Moena on my own, while Jock was laid low with a cold, and took our hosts dog, Stephy, for a long walk on the local paths. And they do have paths here. Walking and bike paths galore so I was very happy and so was Stephy, who is now my very best new friend.

Timber is huge here, with houses being decorated with wooden ceilings and carvings, and decorative wood carvings gracing most doorways. The wood piles are a work of art in themselves, and logging is a big industry.

We noticed huge swathes of pine trees had been knocked over in the forests, over many valleys and many kilometres. Christina told us that they had a massive storm last October and having had very heavy rains, the trees were uprooted in the storm. Amazingly, no damage was done to property or people, even though the roads were still quite busy at 9.30 at night. The damage was only in the forests, but it is immense and a clean up has been under way ever since. Climate change, of course.

I ate some sauerkraut and Jock had wurst, and we both enjoyed Christina’s home made Easter panetonne.

I have some more quirks of Italy to add now that we are at the end of out trip, and might do a separate post. but want to review here my earlier comments about Italian drivers. I still maintain they are skilled and defensive but after many weeks of driving, no longer think they are patient and polite. We have certainly had some hair raising moments, and are still amazed that they think nothing of overtaking on double white lines on bends and in tunnels! I am pleased to say that I do think my brain finally adjusted to the right hand drive, and I was also able, eventually, to pass through the tunnels in the mountains without having a panic attack……

We were issued with a Jeep for our last rental car, which passes as a compact car in the mountains, where the roads are decidedly wider, and that seemed like another parallel universe, compared to our little Epica.

So now we are not far from Venice, ready to go to the airport tomorrow and so to England and family. I can’t really believe our time here has ended. Its been long enough to feel quite at home in some ways. We have left plenty to see should we ever be able to return and I wouldn’t hesitate to come back………

I’ll be back in touch when we get to Helsinki. (Apart from a separate post of photos).

E stato un piacere – It’s been a pleasure. Xx