Ortisei, Italy (Days 1 & 2)

What we did:
- Mid afternoon, after finishing up our Croda da lago hike, we started on our way to Ortisei. Super cool couple hour drive through the mountains in the Val Gardena region as we drove through valleys and quaint little ski towns. Absolutely pouring rain for the last 45 minutes though so tested that Jaguar 4WD. Steph may or may not have left a permanent handprint in the passenger seat armrest
- Showered and threw in some laundry while the rain let up. Then wandered the town and grabbed pizza at a local hotspot that Trent voted his most satisfying Italian pizza yet (jury’s out if that was due to hunger or truly superior redsauce)
- Slept in a bit the next day and then rode the “Seceda” mountain gondola from town for a 4ish hour beautiful hike. Weather ended up gorgeous as we traversed the top of the mountain, winding across valleys and rock fields with some of the most expansive views of the mountain ranges around us yet. Great refugio halfway through for you guessed it - more beers and food. Big success! Mountains are sick.
- Grabbed dinner at the same spot as the night before (2nd time we restaurant double dipped of the trip) and capped the night with some local wine at a vibey wine bar. Italian wine withdrawls are immement for Steph.
- Earlier wake up to hike “Alpe Di Suisi”, again taking a funicular from town to the top. 75 and sunny so could really see the surrounding mountains on our 4 hour loop trail. Felt like we were straight out of “Sound of Music” as we crossed the grassy alpine meadows, just a bit less frolicking and singing. Hit another refugio for food/drinks and vibes halfway through.
- Grabbed our car in town and headed to Austria!

Where we ate:
- Dinner round 1 at Mauriz Keller - two redsauce meat pizzas (Trent’s favorite pizza of the trip). Fresh off her Coravin success in Cortina, Steph ordered another and it was possibly the single worst wine ever produced - think overaged apple cider vinegar infused with syrup
- Refugio Firenze for lunch 1 - We split another dish of Speck, eggs and potatoes with Italian beers
- Dinner round 2 at Mauriz Keller - Trent got a mixed meat platter and Steph delicious pasta. This place rocks
- Refugio Rauchhutte for lunch 2 - Steph had “Kaiserschmann” which is a delicious cross between a funnel cake and Swedish pancake. Trent with delicious cheese and speck pasta
- Breakfasts were just breakfast bars and hotel coffee

Fun facts:
- Cortina and Val Gardena are rated the top two ski resorts in Italy
- Lots of life planning conversations and time for thinking on these hikes. Scary stuff but hey tranquil mountains are good for that. This trip had been the perfect reset for us!
⁃ 1. We decided that our apartment will be in either Bucktown or Lincoln Park and will be the long term apt we have until we go to the suburbs so need it to be nice (two bed, two bath, garage parking, in-unit, lots of windows). No more moving!
⁃ 2. We are going to lease a car (Jeep Compass or Honda passport) instead of buying because owning in the city will destroy the car and lets us both get new cars when we eventually move to the burbs
⁃ 3. We identified a wedding venue that we really want and almost justified putting $7k down sight unseen to guarantee a good date but decided that was reckless and we’ll visit at home…
⁃ 4. We decided our home lifestyle of always being in a hurry/stressed needs to get more controlled. Starts with waking up and working out before work (know our fam laughs at us waking up early) so we can study, cook and hang after work. We’re doing it!Read more