The Land of Carbs, Wine, and Gelato: Italia

After what seemed like the most nightmarish travel day we've experienced to-date, it was quite refreshing to see a familiar face and meet some new ones. We met back up with Jenna's friend, Courtney, who we stayed with in London, and her friends Sam and Felicia at the Treviso Airport just outside Venice and crunched five people plus baggage into a hatchback rental car. Off we went to Cortina d'Ampezzo for a nature-filled few days of hiking, via ferrata-ing, mountain lodge breaks, and incredible views with Courtney's other friends, Serhat and Lilia, as well!

Morning Views from Our Air BnB

For context, a via ferrata is a protected climbing route that uses steel pegs and cables to mark out the general route along a variety of horizontal and vertical rock faces. The climbers wear harnesses, lanyards, carabiners, helmets, and other safety gear to clip in and make their way across the route. Every 5-20 feet there are segments broken up by steel pegs so the climber will continually use his/her carabiners to clip in and out and traverse the route. It is rare that a climber needs full tension on his/her lanyard, but there may be times when this is necessary as hand and foot hold points are sometimes difficult to come by and require the climber to hang out over open air with hundreds or thousands of feet of nothing below them! Safe to say I'm about as hooked on via ferratas as I was when I first came across scuba diving a few months ago.

Since each day entailed hiking and/or taking on a ferrata in some portion I'll just summarize to make it easier. Jenna had injured her knee and was sick so she was stuck on the couch for most of the days, unfortunately.

Itinerary Summary

Day 1: Hiked near Lago di Misurina where we free-climbed rock formations to take a few pictures, followed by pizza and beers at a restaurant overlooking the lake and nearby mountains after hiking down the trail in a light drizzle. A mountain bike race/event took place on a portion of the same trail we hiked.

Lago di Misurina

Close-Up of the Squad

Top of the Day 1 Hike

Day 2: Felt like mountain goats as we hiked from a parking lot near Rumerlo up steep ski runs and along the base of vertical rock faces; Snacks and hot chocolate at Rifugio Pomedes overlooking Cortina and our hike; Found out our planned ferrata was closed, but chose another nearby easy route to complete our first ferrata (minus Courtney who had done one in Switzerland already); Took the ski lift back down the hill; Downed some celebratory beers in town at a small cafe; Dinner party at our AirBnB for our group of seven (7) where I went into a food coma and feel asleep on the couch while the rest played Cards Against Humanity and shamed me with a photo before leaving

Day 2 Squad at the Rifugio

Via Ferrata'ing Around the Mountain

Cortina Valley Views

Day 3: Half of the group headed back to real life while Courtney contracted a death grip of the 24-hour flu; I walked from the BnB to a nearby decaying Olympic ski jump facility (Cortina hosted some events in the 1956 Winter Games) where I found the slopes of this event - both take-off and landing - are at ridiculous angles; Wandered around in the woods until I found the trail head; Visited Lago di Pianozes, Lago d'Aial, Lago Pian del Conte; Nearly became roadkill as I navigated walking along hairpin turns, blind corners, and through short tunnels along a cliffside road that Audi A8's, Porsches, and hundreds of motorcyclists ripped through just so I could get to a viewpoint of the entire Cortina valley; Sat dangling over this viewpoint's cliff edge for fifteen (15) minutes taking in the view and much-needed breeze; Courtney, Jenna, and Lilia managed to take an afternoon cable car ride up to a lightly snow-covered area with some sweet views and a short hike

Ski Jump from 1956 Winter Olympics

Looking Over Cortina from the Near-Death Viewpoint

Cable Car Viewpoint

Day 4: Courtney returned to life and drove us to Passo Tre Croci for our day's hike to Lago di Sorapis where we tried to explain the baby blue water color with our vast scientific backgrounds; Sat in silence eating snacks at a viewpoint above the lake that included so many more layers of mountain ranges off in the distance; Downed more celebratory beers in town at the small cafe; Jenna asked for marinara sauce with her dinner to which the Croatian waitress replied she had no idea what that is and that no one has ever ordered like that before; Ended up with a great chat at the end of the dinner with the waitress after she realized our friend, Lilia, is from Bulgaria; Downed the free grappa she gave us after we laughed off Jenna's ordering faux pas with the waitress

Lago di Sorapis Hike and Views

Day 5: Drove to an area near Pian de Loa to start our waterfall hike; Arrived at the viewpoint and stood in awe for a few minutes; Hiked down to begin our overly easy ferrata back up the other side of the cliff; Met Jenna on the other side and hiked along the cliff edge and behind the Cascate di Fanes to snap some Illini pictures with Courtney, Jenna, and I; Ferrata'd down the other side of the cliff and hiked back to our car with our deadbeat legs; Cooked a feast of chicken, potatos, eggplant, tomatoes, prosciutto and cheese sammies; Packed up for our early morning departure as depression of actually having to leave Cortina set in

I-L-L from Cascate di Fanes

Via Ferrata'ing Our Way Up Cascate di Fanes

Cortina d'Ampezzo is an amazing ski town - one that we all agreed we need to get back to ASAP no matter what season. Our trip fell on perfect timing as the weekend we arrived was the first that most of the seasonal visitors left. Each day the town still had a decent amount of traffic so I can only imagine what busy season is like. Cortina is sprawled across a decent-sized valley with pockets of houses, businesses, and restaurants mixed in with farm and grass fields. The whole valley actually used to be a corral reef underwater until the faults which created the Alps moved and created the elevation changes. The main area of town is filled with winding streets, some high-end shopping mixed with outdoor and rental gear stores, and plenty of restaurants, coffee shops, and gelaterias. Turns out we found a cozy cafe with outdoor seating early on that served both our morning coffee and after-hike drink needs so if anyone heads to Cortina check out Caffe Bar (or Bar Sport on Google Maps)!

Views Around Cortina

Our AirBnB turned out to be in a great spot as well as we were fortunate to wake up each day to sunrises over lightly snow-capped surrounding mountains and plenty of greenery. The inside had a ton of woodwork, balconies to take in the great weather and views, comfortable beds to help us pass out and recover for the next day's activities. If we would've had another three (3) months there I still don't think we would've been able to cover all of the ferratas and hiking paths.

On the sixth day we took off before the sunrise from Cortina heading to Treviso to drop Lilia off at the airport, return our rental car, and move on to Venice by bus. We arrived to our hostel by one of the many water taxis that run through Venice a little after noon and took the rest of the day to wander the streets and narrow walkways trying to avoid the throngs of other tourists parading around the area. After settling on a lunch spot and filling up, we found an open square with benches and kids playing pick-up soccer games, riding scooters, and chasing bubbles. It felt like the perfect place to take a load off for a while escaping the other tourists. Eventually, we decided to get our own bottle of wine and find a gondola to take us through some of the canals. Of course as soon as we found one, rain started coming down so we found some shelter and started in on the bottle while overlooking the main canal. The rain lightened up to barely a drizzle and we decided to brave the conditions for a ride finally. I'd have to say it was quite uneventful besides floating past a house where Marco Polo supposedly grew up, but now we can say we've taken a gondola ride through Venice!

Rialto Bridge

Sunset over Venice

The next morning saw Jenna and I leave Courtney behind in Venice as we headed for Lake Como. Smaller towns lined the most accessible areas and hillsides of the lake and provided beautiful contrast to the green landscapes as the houses were painted all different colors. Unfortunately, we only had about enough time to set up camp before rain set in and continued seemingly non-stop for the next two (2) days. Looking back on it, it might not have been the worst thing to happen to us as it allowed us to plan out quite a few things down the road and in the near future. It would've been nice to at least have had a full day without rain so we could properly explore the whole area, but we settled for about an eight (8) hour period where sun actually shone through! We took advantage of this and hopped on a few of the water taxis that move people between towns to explore Tremezzo and Bellagio (probably the most expensive area in Lake Como). When the sun does shine the views are that much better and I can only imagine how it looks from a few thousand feet above the lake if we had time to hike up. Food around the area was quite disappointing if I'm being honest though - not much to write home about as the campground offered us the best meal.

Lake Como Views

Off to Milan we went for the next stop which turned out to be a fairly low-key two (2) days. On the first day we just walked around the city hitting a few churches, the city park, an old fortress, and the Duomo after taking care of getting our next train reservation. We walked through what appears to be the up-and-coming area where they are trying to create a main drag with plenty of shopping and eating. While in Italy you, of course, have to go to Eataly so we wandered around the three-story shop, tasted some free samples, and then had an early dinner outside in the sun, followed up by gelato from Grom on our walk back to the hostel.

Duomo di Milano

Our last Italy day involved getting to sleep in a little and then heading by train down to Genoa on the Ligurian Sea. Genoa is where Jenna's family originated from, which was the main reason for going. Turns out it's quite difficult to find a panoramic spot in Genoa as even the local information desk employee incorrectly informed us of such a supposed spot. We're not quite sure of the purpose for the funiculars if there isn't a decent pano spot to view the city, but at least walking to what we thought were viewpoints provided us with a bit of a workout. All-in-all Genoa turned out to be more industrialized and slightly more run down than Milan. There are a few sites to see such as Christopher Columbus' house where he grew up, museums, and a few attractions around the large port in town.

Piazza di Ferrari

Two Towers by Christopher Columbus' Home in Genoa

I'd say Italy definitely made its way into the top-3 of our trip so far and we barely explored all that is has to offer. Not a bad way to start off exploring it though!