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Tuesday

What can I say about Tuesday? I’d planned to get up for sunrise and head up towards the outskirts of Bolzano, however when I woke up I was faced with torrential rain, I thought I’d woke up back in Newcastle!!! I checked the forecast for the rest of the day and it was the same everywhere so I decided to forget about photography for the day and just enjoy the place for what it is, a beautiful old town set in a stunning location. I parked up in a “free” car park (that turned out to be the most expensive car park i’ve eve parked in) and set off for a wander. I stopped for a coffee and bought some bits and bobs to take home, Laura (my wife) loves hot chocolate so naturally that found it’s way into the bag along with some chocolates and biscuits for her and Grace. I then had a walk about the town, with no real plan I just wandered to see what I could find. It was lovely just being there without worrying about what photo I was going to take next or where I’d end up for sunset etc, spending the day relaxing and seeing a different side of the places I’d been to.

Before I left for Italy my dad gave me a great bit of advice ….

“find the main square of the towns you visit and then go the streets that surround them, you’ll get a much better deal and won’t pay tourist prices”

This worked a treat as behind the main square there was loads of little shops, cafés, restaurants, bakeries etc at a fraction of the cost of on the main square. I avoided being stung for expensive coffees and food. Actually, throughout my trip I lived by this ethos. I avoided busy tourist areas and ate in small local restaurants, the food I had was tremendous and I met some lovely people. Yes the language barrier was greater in the smaller towns but as long as you can say a few terms you can get by and the effort seems appreciated.

I had a B&B booked for the Tuesday night so I was close to the airport for flying home on the Friday, so as I wasn’t going to get a nice sunset I decided to leave Bolzano early for the long drive to Montebelluna. My route was to take me over Passo Rolle, which is one of the highest mountain passes in the Dolomites and one I was really looking forward to driving. Some of the mountain passes I’d driven earlier in the week were fantastic and this one promised to surpass them all. Unfortunately as I got to the pass and started the drive up the heavy rain turned to sleet then snow. I drove into a tunnel and when I came out the other side the snow was lying 2″ deep. 1/4 mile up the road the snow was almost 4″ deep and the car was starting to slide so I figured it’d be better to go back and go the other way around. I hadn’t driven the road before so I didn’t know how much further I’d have to drive into the snow before it started to ease off so I decided to turn back. I called the B&B owners who were fine with the delay and said they’d wait up for me, it turned out that my little detour back added 4 hours onto my journey so instead of arriving at 6pm as panned I arrived at 11:45pm! Luckily Luca & Yeyes who owned the house weer very accommodating and had a laugh at my expense. I sat up with them for an hour or so chatting about my daft journey and what I’d been up to the previous days, they even fed me beer which was good of them! We said our goodbyes before bed as they had to leave at 6am for a hospital trip, they were expecting their first child and had a routine check up! I had a shower then settled into bed for my last night.