Ortesei, The Italian Alps

This morning we bid farewell to the nuns at Casa il Rosario, strapped on our packs, and headed to the termini. We hopped on the trenItalia bullet train, heading north to Bolsano. Along the way, we saw the landscape change from ancient city, to agricultural fields with round bales of hay, to apple trees covered by netting to protect them from hail, to hills, then majestic limestone mountains capped with snow! It took a little teamwork to figure out how to find the right bus after departing the train, (line 350), then when to get off the bus, (yeah, this looks about right...). We ended up finding our cute little apartment about 2 minutes after the bus dropped us off! After a warm welcome by Sophia, (owner of the apartment where we're staying), including some trail recommendations in the Dolomites, we headed into town.

Ortesei is gorgeous, with green rolling hills and the Dolomite Alps jutting up in the background. Because it is so close to the Austrian border, German and Italian are spoken with the buildings resembling German chalets.

We grabbed a panini and toasted our arrival with steins of beer! After visiting a local grocery store to pick up provisions for breakfast and snacks, we headed back to our apartment to rest up for our big day of hiking in the Dolomites tomorrow!Read more