Well, we woke to a beautiful day this morning, albeit very cold still in Val Gardena (The Dolomites) Italy. Time to move on again, but before we do, we have time for a short stroll through the valley above where we have been staying for the last couple of days. It was a gorgeous view of the enormous dolomites, walking through pine trees along a path to a church, then up a switch back track to the ruins of Castle Wolkenstein, a short distance along a closed via ferrata (cable path), passed the Stations of the Cross carved out of tree stumps, above the town and back to the car. It was a really pleasant walk with the most amazing views again and it snowed for the last 10 minutes as a parting gift to us.

After our walk it was time to head to our next destination, which was about 3.5 hours or a bit longer depending on how many wrong turns we take to Lake Iseo, Italy. After a major mistake with booking.com where our cleaning costs (70,00 euro) was almost as expensive as the accommodation itself and didn’t include parking costs, we accepted my blunder as it still was cheaper than any accommodation we would get at home. On arrival we decided it was well and truly worth the cost. We are staying right on the lake with an amazing view and a lovely apartment, balcony, open fire and cooking facilities. Yay, another home cooked meal compliments of Benny’s culinary skills. I made one of his recipes tonight. Thanks Benny.

The Italian’s still drive as wild as they did 2 years ago. No wonder they all have side-swiped car damage, they drive down streets wide enough for 1.5 cars and pass at mad speeds for the room available. On the freeway they drive fast, but not as fast as the Germans. We arrived safely in the daylight, in time to shop and have a rest before dinner. I do not now what has come over us.

Oh, and we paid the tolls today 12 euro as it would have added over an hour to our 3.5 hour drive.

The stations of the cross images are for Mum. I added an extra 15 minutes to our walk to get the first 6 as they weren’t along our planned walk to find out later when I looked up the names of each station that there were 14 not 12 and I had missed the last 2. Sorry Mum.

Tolls 12,00