Summer Sojourn:

Our first night in the Dolomites was a one night stopover in the small town of Venas just west of Valle di Cadore in the Southwest Dolomites. We planned this stop to break up our drive through the mountains. This is a beautiful but less traveled section of these mountains. We really liked it. Our hotel had outstanding views and was adjacent to a bike path that runs a considerable length of the Dolomites utilizing a converted small gauge railroad track much like "rails to trails" in the states. As soon as we unpacked our stuff we jumped on the hotel bikes and headed into the next village for dinner. We were unsuccessful at finding an open restaurant but the ride was
nice with plenty of tunnels and views (palisades). Once back in Venas we found a trattoria and got some pizza.

View of the Dolomites from our hotel room

While eating, Ali drew the attention of some locals with her, Stewart..."Look what I can do" act from Mad TV. Later we settled back in to the hotel and the girls serenaded me from their upstairs balcony.

Olympic ski jump

Our first impression was that some of these Belluno villages (not all) were run down. Along our drive we saw a dilapidated olympic ski jump structure that we assumed was from the 2006 Turin Olympics, and we observed a lot of buildings in disrepair.

In talking with locals we learned of governing differences between this province (Belluno) and its neighbor Trentino, our next destination. Trentino is provided more financial autonomy than typically applied to Italian provinces. For example, it is allowed to retain a larger portion of the local taxes provided the money is reinvested to drive the local economy. More typically, the Italian provinces allow Rome to redistribute these funds throughout greater Italy. This local control afforded to Trentino has spurred growth and a more impressive infrastructure overall. We were discussing this with someone and they told us to keep an eye out for signs of this as we passed into Trentino the next day, "...if you pay attention you'll see how the roads are kept in better repair". Sure enough the next day, as soon as we crossed into Trentino, we immediately encountered road repair equipment and noticed nicely trimmed medians. Still, we enjoyed the Belluno area of the Dolomites very much and would return in a heartbeat. The people were nice, and the villages small, friendly and easily navigable. We also learned that this area was once renowned for high-end eyeglass production before the manufacturing moved overseas. Now they are striving to bring in more tourism to revitalize the area.

Old small gauge rail line converted to dedicated bike lane

Our hotel, Hotel Meuble Villa Gaia was very nice and we would recommend it to anyone. Well kept, clean, extremely well run with friendly owners who made you a nice breakfast in the morning. I took a great morning run that presented some outstanding scenery. As I did I thought, this would be an excellent place to do some long distance bike touring. As I would learn later in our trip, this part of Italy has invested heavily in their bike paths.