An Unplanned Year

We’ve left the beauty of Venice and are in a gorgeous valley in the Tyrol region of Italy via Verona, then through a mountain pass.

Today was an admin day at the start of a 3 day timeout. In Verona we stopped to buy food and essentials (wine & toothpaste) for three days. Leaving Verona we were quickly aware that we were driving through a wine region – Bardolino and Valdadige Terra del Forti regions so google advises us.

There were vineyards and vines EVERYWHERE. Anywhere there was flat ground or ground that could be terraced, there was a row of vines.

We had an interesting drive up/down the mountains with numerous switchback through villages transitioning from skiing season to hiking season.

We’ve a beautiful little cottage with a wood burner to keep us cosy and no television to distract us from the scenery.

After an evening listening to an audio book and watching the fire, we slept well and awoke to another lovely day. After a slow start and some washing being done we went out for a walk.

We wandered around the village and along the river before walking up a hill to where there is a waterfall. It is fairly small at the moment-we guess the spring thaw has already happened?

We then traced ourselves back along the creek/dry creek bed, back into town.

Where we stopped for our holiday beer.

We continued across the river, back to where our place is and found a path up the hill. It led us past some waterfalls and a deep clear pool that Kevin thinks we’re swimming in tomorrow!

There was an information board at this pool about a cave system Gorgo Santo that had been explored here for the last hundred years. So far about 1.5km has been mapped. Just above the waterfall we found the cave system entrance just above another pool.

We then wandered back to our place to have some lunch, picking wildflowers as we went – ended up with about 19 different flowers!

A lazy afternoon of rescuing our laundry from around the garden and napping.

Our last day here was a lazy but  expensive admin day. Ireland awaits us in just over 2 weeks so we’ve been booking accommodation. Ireland is much more expensive than Europe for accommodation!
We did still manage our holiday beer by going 5 minutes up the road for a drink. The village just to the east of here, Brancafore, has lots of decorated houses, including one with a last supper fresco!

The village also has a beautifully decorated church.

It is larger and more richly decorated than the one right next to our accommodation.

It has been lovely to just look at the hills and breathe the fresh air.

Today we head to Milan and start the next busy weeks.