Thursday: 17th August: Weather: 16°C to 34°C: Coolish morning in Cortina, Very hot in Bolzano
Bolzano: 3.0k walk: 1hrs mins: 5pm to 6pm: Walk to Eurospar Supermarket in Bolzano
Accommodation: Villa Anita Apartments Bolzano
Queue at bike rental Dobbiaco
I think I’ll stop to smell the roses
YES! I’ll stop to smell the roses
62 Euro at Euro Spar - enough cheese, sausages, salads, bread, butter, beer and wine for a whole week
Evening storms Bolzano
Highlights. Not too many today. Just getting from Cortina to Bolzano, a 3hr bus and train trip without any extra buses thrown in because of train breakdowns was a highlight in itself. Then getting to Bolzano when the temperature was 34°C was a memorable highlight, but not in the amazing scenery category.
We’re awake at 6am to a cool morning at 16°C and have our usual jetboil cup of tea. A bit more sorting and packing before going down to a lovely buffet breakfast at 7.30am. Same as yesterday, but wth a fruit topped tart to go with everything else. We check at reception for the exact location of the Cortino-Dobbiaco bus, and lucky we did, because it was one hundred metres down the road from where the local Line 1 bus stopped opposite the hotel. We finish packing and roll down the road to the correct stop, and the bus arrives exactly on time at 10.07am. Cash only! Another scramble for notes and coins. The bus is packed, we think with hikers but when the bus pulls into Dobbicao, the hikers turn out to be bikers, and queue at the bike rental store. We read later where there are bike rental stations all over the South Tyrol where it’s possible to ride and drop of the bike in the next town.
The Dobbiaco to Fortenza train is late, thank goodness as it gives us time to scramble through the jargon at the ticket machine just in time to buy two tickets to Fortenza for 31 Euro for two adults. The sign indicates the train will leave from Platform 2, so we haul our bags down the steps to the underpass and up the steps to the otherside and wait with the other passengers for the Fortenza train. Suddenly there’s an announcement in Italian which we don’t understand, and we see everyone rush down the steps again, via the underpass and up to Platform 1. Not to be left out, we tag along and re trace our steps, hauling our bags back to Platform 1. Ten seconds later the train arrives and we all pile on to a full train with standing room only.
We’re not sure if this train turns into a train, bus, train, bus sage like our arrival a few days ago, but it’s all godd and sails all the way to Fortenza, arriving late at 12.14pm. Again, there’s a rush down the steps, through the underpass and up the other side just in time for the Bolzano Train. We came to the conclusion that all Italian trains are late and Italians spend their lives rushing from one platform to another, down the steps, through the underpass, and up the steps on the other side, hoping to make a connection. It only works well when all trains are late together.
We step off the train at 12.59pm in Bolzano to a hot 34°C, dry day. We’ve been traveling for 3 hours rushing up and down steps between platforms, so time to sit in the park for a cup of tea and bun from breakfast, as our check-in time at the Villa Anita Apartments is 2pm. The place is easy to find on google maps, now that Ian has a new Windtre SIM card in his phone, and 1k and 15 minutes later we’re at this old pink-washed villa set in a lovely garden. A young girl is there to meet us at reception, and shows us to our apartment. It’s on the 3rd floor in the attic and it’s huge. But the bed is a small double bed! Oh well, we’ll make do as the lounge, dining, kitchen is very spacious. We need a cooling shower and some quiet time to sort out our stuff and re-assess what walks we’ll do for the next 7 days we are here. Bolzano’s average August temperature is supposed to be 16°C to 28°C , not 22°C to 34°C, so it seems Bolzano is also caught up in the European heatwave.
We rationalise we’ll just leave early in the morning to get out of town to walk high in the Dolomites everyday. I have a list of walks to do and the Bus Line numbers we need to get to the start, so with this information, we trot off down to Bolzano Autostazione, where there’s 6 lanes of buses coming and going. The lady in the ticket office is extremely helpful and suggests we take the 45 Euro 7 day pass to anywhere and everywhere in South Tyrol. This suits us perfectly, and we walk out with 2 x 7 day passes, plus a book of time tables for all the buses in the region.
Down the road to walk along the river cycle way, past the rose bushes which I must stop and smell, then around the corner to the EuroSPAR shop, one the receptionist at Villa Anita suggested. It has everything we need, and 62 Euro later (about AUD$100), we walk out with enough beer wine and food for the entire week. The accommodation is the most expensive cost in the Dolomites. We paid AUD $400 (and that was a cheap deal) in Cortina, and here it’s AUD$260 per night for the apartment, but the food is comparable, if not cheaper than in Australia.
Back to our apartment and before we even unpack our bags, we sit down to an icy cold beer. Soon after, dinner is boiled Italian sausages and salad with bread and cheese, probably the same menu every night this week. Eating out doesn’t come with all the salads and veggies. We sit listening to the storm which brings rain and a cooling breeze before bed at 9.30pm