The Italian alps

After visiting my relatives on my father's side, we continued to drive northeast to the Alps to visit our good friends the Mongardis and the Guidicinis during their august vacations for about five days. We arrived in Venas where the Guidicinis have an apt and got immediately lost on the way there. We ended up on a very narrow uphill winding road. I continued to drive uphill hoping to find somewhere wide enough to turn around, all the while hoping that we would not encounter another car coming in the opposite direction. Immediately after this thought materialized in my mind, a car appeared. God Damn! So, I stop, and the car heading towards us stops and the driver gets out of the car to try to figure out how we can get by each other. And wouldn't you know it, it's Bruno Mongardi! He and Mariangela and Laura (who I call Lulu) are coming back from a hike,while Paolo Guidicini (Laura's husband) is waiting for us at the apt! This was really hilarious. Anyway, clearly we manage to get by each other and follow them to the apt.

Paolo G. immediately presents us with three sleeping options. Either both my father and I stay with them (same room, twin beds) or we both stay with the Mondardi (same room, twin beds) or we separate and each get our own room. Immediately my father and I jumped to option three. The reason is because the night before we slept in the same room, two twin beds, and my father snored all night and I remember falling asleep somewhere around 5am. Separate rooms SOLD!

So, I stayed with Bruno and Mariangela and this is the view from their porch! This is Il Pelmo, as you can see, it looks like an enourmous throne. This mountain is the one I hold dearest from all the times we came here when i was a kid.

This one is viewable from the back of their apartment. This peak is Antelau. The houses shown are typical of the area.

Paolo Guidicini and Paolo Maso on the way up San Marco.

Antelau deserves another look.

And here we are at Lake Misurina. During the winter this lake is completely frozen over and covered with snow.

Here is another shot of the lake. From this angle you can see the chair lift that brings skiers and hikers up to the top, depending on the season.

I couldn't decide which shot I liked more so I decided to include both.

We took a walk around the lake, and here is a picture of the hotel from the other side.

The next day we went to Cristallo, another peak and yet another mountain we used to ski down. We took the chairlift up to this point and then walked down to the lake shown below.

Very nice lake at a very high height.

The brat pack.

Walking up from the lake.

View from where we had lunch. The mountain we are looking at here is Faloria, we used to ski on the trails that you can see on the right side.

Me, with Faloria in the background

Me, with Il Pelmo covered by my head.

That old brat pack again.

Bruno Mongardi, the joker.

On the way down from Cristallo.



Serious climbing was involved. :-)





A margherita.





Here we are hiking up to the Cinque Torri (Five Towers)





Omage to the Virgin Mary on the trail up to the Cinque Torri. Italians love the Virgin Mary. Love her.






Le Cinque Torri!!! (we also used to ski down from here, one of our favorite slopes).






The Italian Alpini trenches used during the first world war against Austria. After the war, Italy made out with quite a few peaks that were a part of Austria. Here, the trenches and cannon holes are all pointed towards the last valley they had to hold and the Austrian alps.