Lana sets the alarm for 08:45 as we need to be ready to leave the apartment by 10:00. I did get some sleep last night so feeling much better today. Our VRBO host Maria shows up at 09:50 to check out the place and electronically return our $200CDN deposit. All is good in the apartment and we have a good chat. We are out the door by 10:00 and arrive at the water bus station for water bus boat 4.1 or 5.1 Our destination is station P. le Roma where we will find our rental car. It is a sunny and windy morning so the lagoon is pretty choppy.
Water bus station floating up and down with the waves/turbulence.
About a forty minute boat ride along the lagoon and then into one end of the Grand Canal to Piazzale Roma area. We use my app to find the Hertz office. We are surrounded by car traffic! Feels very weird after no cars for the last three days. Lana is definitely better at getting her bearings and figuring out which way we need to talk to get to a destination using the app :)
The start of the conversation with the Hertz agent doesn't go so well. I reserved the car online (Expedia) under my name. I then requested to have Lana as the primary driver and use her credit car to pay. This way we get full insurance coverage through our credit card. Nope. We are told the car can only be under my name and Lana would need to be added as a secondary driver at 10Euro per day and we couldn't use her credit card. First time we have encountered this. The agent is following his rules, but this is Italy where nobody follows any rules? Oh well, we don't have any options as there are no other cars/deals available. We got a great deal at $311CDN for nine full days with a car that can hold our three suitcases and two backpacks.
Another thing is we were wanting to know how much grace time is there on the car return? Normally you might get up to one hour past your pickup time just in case of traffic or being late. The agent indicated "29 minutes" and then wanted to start the time from when I met up at 11:00. Not fair when by the time we get to the car it is about 11:35. The agent relented and we get 29 minutes from 11:35 so basically have until 12 noon on the day we return the car to the Venice airport. Why 29 minutes and not an even 30 or 60 like in North America is a mystery to us--but then again, this IS Italy and all we can do is laugh.
We need to wait "five or ten minutes" for a driver to pick us up and take us to where our rental car is held. We wait outside the office and witness the pure chaos of traffic/drivers/pedestrians that is Italy. The young guy shows up about fifteen minutes later and drives us to a place a fair distance away. I ask him about speed traps/radar cameras and get great intel on how to better avoid speeding tickets in Italy. We have our Garmin GPS ready as we will need it! It becomes operational within a couple of minutes and we are ready to brave Italian drivers and traffic. It is now about 11:45 and we are close to the freeway that will get us out of Venice and towards the distant mountains.
Our Economy category rental car (Fiat Punto) from Hertz through Expedia.ca
Car corners well, but not much power for acceleration or steep inclines.
We are driving to the Dolomites/South Tyrol area of northern Italy. Specifically, the Alta Badia area comprised of six villages that cater to the ski season. We are staying in the village of San Cassiano (1534 metres). It will be more than a two hour drive north and west and mostly uphill to gain elevation. A fair amount of the drive is a freeway with a toll. You stop at the toll booth and take a stub generated by the machine. Eventually, we came to a point on the freeway where you stop and then pay based on where you joined the freeway. You pay into a machine either with cash/coins or credit card. I think it cost us around 7Euros. If we didn't take this toll road it would have added almost an hour to the already long trip.
Once we are off the freeway, we really start to climb into the mountains. Some of the climbs are hairpin turns. We are talking incredible hairpin turns. Many zig zags up mountains and down mountain roads.
Example of some of the zig zags on the roads.
Country road driving and fortunately very few cars on the road going our way. For much of the country road trip we were not handicapped by traffic. You have to keep to the speed limits though as they have cameras set up. The scenery on the drive as we got into the mountains was spectacular! Lots of green here as well. Check out the pictures below.
Dolomites peak
Another Dolomites peak
Now entering Alta Badia area! Notice the three different languages welcome words?
With our Garmin GPS it provides the estimated arrival time. Funny that during our trip we were always getting there later and later (13:50, 13:55, 13:57, 14:02, etc. etc.). A couple of times we stopped for road construction. Plus, we did come up on some slower traffic. The motorcyclists here take lots of chances in passing up and down the hills. They will cut right in front of your car if in danger from oncoming traffic. So many German license plates on this road. We arrive around 14:15 to our Airbnb apartment. The host is Egon and he works in the office as they have a number of suites they let. Quite a steep and windy road up to their place high on the hill. We have undercover parking though.
You might be wanting to know why our blog title is "Are we in Deutschland?" given we are indeed in Italy. Northern Italy was German speaking and German/Austrian culture until end of WW1. The Austrian/Hungarian empire lost and this was one of their territories. The Italians took over and gradually have tried to get a more Italian presence and feel. The area is still predominantly German speaking (70%) with a population that has the same genetic roots as Austrians and Germans. Many of the names and businesses have German/Deutsch references. Plus, it seems from our early impressions of San Cassiano there are a lot of German tourists here. Lana's brain is switching into German--yayy!!!
As well, our first exposure to the businesses, tourist office and restaurant in San Cassiano is everyone speaks German first. Written language can be in German. Good news for us as Lana's German is pretty decent and mine minimal. Much better than our Italian!
Example of this part of Italy having a very Deutsch presence.
San Cassiano (picture online). This place and Alta Badia in general remind us of Whistler back home.
San Cassiano town below a distant Dolomites peak (our pic).
Do you get the idea we love the Dolomite peaks? Hard to really see in the photos but they are beautiful combination of grey and a light salmon pink colour.
Shopping at Despar supermarket this afternoon. We learned in Venice and now in Cassiano that when in the fresh fruit and vegetable section you need to put on plastic gloves. Great idea as it ensures the product you may purchase is free of other people's germs/bacteria.
This video shot by Lana demonstrates how you do 'self-pricing' in the supermarkets/grocery stores in Italy:
We walked to the grocery store and tourist office in San Cassiano and then back again. About 40 minutes worth of walking. We stopped for an apple strudel at a Backerei and sat outside in front of the shop to eat half of it. Delicious! We got some literature at the tourist information centre. Our grocery bill at Despar was 27Euro. Walking home I start singing songs from the Sound of Music :)
Dinner tonight is at Ristorante Pre De Costa located about a five minute drive from our Airbnb. My research indicated it was quiet, cosy, casual, hospitable, great scenery and local Ladin cuisine. We arrive a little after 19:00. To reach this unique restaurant you turn onto a farmers road and then park on a gravel road/grass beside a pasture. Stunning location as you can see from our picture below. We were the second table. A group of six Germans eating at another table. Our server was wearing an authentic German dirndl dress! Our meal was excellent in all ways.
Plus, I tried a glass of red wine being a grape native to the Alto Adige (South Tyrol) area. The grape is Lagrein. We loved it! A full-bodied red wine much like a Cab Sauvignon. It paired perfectly with my lamb. Reminds me that glasses of wine in restaurants here in Venice or Alta Badia are much cheaper than Vancouver. Here the average price is 4Euro for a decent pour. Compare that to Vancouver in the $12 to $14 range.
Ristorante Pre De Costa (renovated old barn from the '50s) and check out the Dolomites looming from behind.
As you can see the Menu is in Italian, Deutsch and English with a combination of dishes from both Germany and Italy, Lana can't decide what to order as it all sounds so good.
Bread basket for our table. The interesting large piece in the top right corner is a local bread called Schüttelbrot. Crispy with a taste of licorice from anise seed. We loved the small round pieces--crunchy like a cookie but light and tasted like bread. Served along side was a small side of quark herb cheese--another typical german type accompaniment with bread. Sorry we ate it all before we remembered to take a picture of it.
Schüttelbrot packaged.
Lana's garden salad (salat/insalata) as she is missing vegetables on this trip so far. You put on your own dressing made with olive oil, vinegar and some salt/pepper.
Lana's dish of Filet di Vitello with Porcini Grigliati and Patate. Fillet of veal with mushrooms and potato. Very flavourful, tender, perfectly cooked and mushrooms done just right. We realize we haven't been eating a lot of meat since being in Italy (Venice)--more fish and seafood and a little meat on pizza or in a pasta sauce.
Randy's dish of Costicine di Agnello with Grigliate and Tortino di Palate and Insalata. Basically lamb cutlets with potatoes and salad. The lamb was tender, juicy and very tasty. The potatoes are like little crispy potato pancakes!! Lana says who doesn't like potato pancakes?!??!!!
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