16.-23.09.2017 - Italy -> Maniago - Farra d'Alpago - Sistiana

The last entry is already a while ago. Italy or rather the Dolomites are to blame. We escaped from the weather from Salzburg to Villach in northern Italy. That was the right decision because it rained all day and there was even snow and only 3 degrees on the pass through Carinthia. But driving through the Alps is worth a day alone. However, you also need a day for it with a vehicle like Käthe. Rumbling, she raced up the mountain passes again, and I was relatively happy with the decision to use the vignette to use the highways. I marveled at the bridges and road construction skills throughout the drive and immediately wanted to become a road builder.

Scarcely behind the border near Villach towards Tarvis, we experienced a sudden change in mountains, nature, language, landscape design, and architecture. I couldn't stop marveling. The mountain villages seem deserted and old but at the same time attractive. Tired from driving and satisfied with the new destination, we didn't want to go much further inland. We stopped in Maniago, known for its knife-making craftsmanship and a beautiful little town at the foot of the Italian Dolomites. The surrounding landscape is lined with huge, now dry riverbeds that only hint at what will come rushing down in the spring. In Maniago, we found a free mobile camping site in the city with electricity and treated ourselves to our first pizza.

Unexpectedly, we ended up in a very nice local place, and I was happy that my Spanish enabled me to understand Italian to some extent. It got even better after half a bottle of wine. From the beginning, the casual atmosphere and the family-like atmosphere captivated me. This would be confirmed again and again on our journey through Italy. Italians are incredibly open. You can't stand anywhere without someone stopping or asking if you need help. For example, in the morning when we took a walk through the village and got surprised by the rain. We enjoyed our ice cream in a shelter and saw a man and greeted him friendly, after 3 minutes he came out of his apartment again and ran to his car with an umbrella and drove over to us and waved us in. We didn't understand a word except that we were stationed at the campsite. He brought us there and waved goodbye again - a beautiful world.

After Maniago, we continued into the mountains. We found a beautiful place - Farra d'Alpago, on a beautiful lake surrounded by several 1500 - 2800 peaks. Here we wanted to stay for a while and explore the surroundings, and that's what we did for 4 days. We went on several beautiful hikes into the surrounding forests - we were surprised by beautiful beech primeval forests and old Roman hiking trails.

Another noteworthy trip was to the 'local city' Belluno - a winter ski town that looked very rich and snobby. However, the surroundings, the mountain rivers, and the old town center made up for it. The icing on the cake were the over 2000-meter mountains covered in snow at night, which looked like powdered sugar had been sprinkled on them.

Another very nice excursion was to Lake de Mis. It is located in the valley between huge mountains. It is difficult for me to always describe so much beauty and I'll leave it to the pictures. Here we went on a very nice hiking trail through the surrounding mountains and then set off from Italy.

Uncertain if we should already leave Italy or not, we decided for Italy and drove again to Sistiana to a campsite by the sea. Unfortunately, we didn't like it very much because we couldn't leave the campsite without a car and a train passed by the campsite every 3 minutes - a contrast program. However, I enjoyed a very nice bike ride along the Mediterranean coast and through the vineyards. I was amazed at the completely different vegetation and climate because we were only 70 km south. However, we noticed that we are not yet ready for the sea and packed our things early and continued our journey - I'll reveal the next destination next time.