Treviso

The closest airport to Cortina is Treviso, so regardless of rain, if time permits Treviso is a really nice place to visit.  If you set your TomTom to Treviso Piazza Doumo Parking lot, this is where you end up. Treviso is also near Venice, you can catch a bus to Venice from the airport or city.

 Probably one of the best deli's I have found in Italy.  But since I was flying Ryanair I was not able to purchase anything to take home.  Well, I could purchase anything but Ryanair would mark up the baggage check, so forget about it.

 Treviso has a river that runs around and through the city.

 The level of the river seems really high, I'm concern this area might have an issue as the snow in Cortina melts.

 Once it starts raining in this area, it just keeps raining.

 Rain.

 Rain.

 The main church in Treviso is okay with taking photos as long as you don't use a flash.

 A fresco in the crypt of the church.

Snowboarding Cortina

This past weekend many lifts were closed due to an overload of snow, this of course made no sense.  Luckily a few were runs were open, no lines of people and the lift tickets were discounted.   First things first, got to figure out the parking lot situation.

Ask anyone in Northern Italy, this is the best 4X4 on the road today.  Ice, snow, rain, tsunami, it can drive circles around a Range-rover, Mercedes or any other four wheel expensive car.  

 Snow banks were well over my head.

 Snow plows were running low on diesel.  This thing rolled up like it was a normal car.

 It was almost a lost cause trying to clear the roads up to the mountain.

 Road signs were not helping much too.

 We actually drove past the ski mountain and had to turn around.

 Yes!  I'm there!  Found the trail head, the first day we snowboarded the mountain known as Socrepes.

 It was kind of amazing how few people were here.

 About 30 minutes after we arrived they opened up a second run with about a foot + of fresh powder.

On this snow, if you slow down, you just kind of sink.  It's really quite exhausting to get up and going again.  

 This lodge was towards the top of the second lift.

 Later in the day the clouds started to clear and it made it possible to see the town of Cortina in the distance.

 Next morning the clouds cleared again and mountains around the town of Cortina became visible.

 Looking at the current status, 5 lifts were open, plan was to snow board Ra Valles and Col Druscie (top two green checks).

Since so many runs were closed, we were able to get a 20 euro lift ticket... but needed to wait 30 minutes for the 1/2 lift ticket to start.

To get from the base of the mountain to the lift area you needed to take a cable car.  Some people walked up, but I did not join that group.

 The second lift to a higher mountain was closed, you can see how the cables disappear into the clouds.

 This was the location of the 1956 Winter Olympics Slalmon runs... I think this was the last time the mountain had this few skiers on it.

 Great trails through the forest.  On the second day I had to take a bunch of rest during my runs.

Cortina d'Ampezzo

Cortina d'Ampezzo is a small town located on the southern end of the Dolomitic Alps in Northern Italy, about 45km from Austria.  The town of Cortina d'Ampezzo sits in a valley that is surrounded by mountains and ski lifts, this town was also home to the 1956 Winter Olympics.   Bus service is not great, so you more or less need to drive here.

 The weekend and day I arrived in Cortina was the most snow that they had in 13 years.  And who would have thought, to much snow actually shuts down most of the ski lifts.

 But because of the crazy snow most people who know what's going on did not come up to Cortina this weekend and the few lifts that were open were mostly empty with untouched powder style snow. I will put up a post about snowboarding soon.

 The little town is wonderful, lots of German influence.  Sometimes its hard to tell if you are in Northern Italy or Southern Germany.

 Saturday night was kind of quiet but most restaurants were open.

 People were shocked at the amount of snow.  I think they were plowing all roads and sidewalks continuously throughout the day.  And the plows were super-indstural size.

 Boun Giorno... Good day!

 In the distance you can see the Cortina clock tower.  Most of the weekend was low clouds, I saw the mountains around the city only a couple of times.  It was difficult to see the mountains even when snowboarding.

 We drove a Fiat Panda 4X4.  To our surprise this is one of the best 4X4 vehicles.  It was able to out-drive a Toyota Land Cruiser up a slippery snow covered mountain.  We were able to park the car almost in the lobby, car on the left.  But maybe it was not so safe to park under that snow that built up on the roof.

 Got to shovel snow off the roof.

 Looking north towards Cortina Centre.

San Ciro Festival

Once a year the Comune of Grottaglie celebrates San Ciro, also known as Saint Cyrus of Cyrus and John. Saint Cyrus practiced the art of medicine and healed the sick without charge.  This festival is really popular, it seems like everyone in Grottaglie come out for the party.  

 This festival noted for having a large bonfire.  The structure built is about two stories tall, made with what looks like olive tree and grape vine branches and has a front door.

 I was not sure if this event would take place, on the morning of the bonfire heavy rains hit Grottaglie followed by strong wind.  The wind lasted into the evening, from the photos you can get a good idea what direction the wind is blowing (I'm facing north'ish)

 From the time when the bonfire was lit to the time fire started to burst through the walls of the structure was around 30 minutes.  Between lighting and fire was tons and tons of smoke that got blown over a large area of the city.

 But once the structure got a little dried out the fire took off, it was kind of amazing.

 All safe though, a small team of Vigili Del Fuoco, GRT's bravest fire-watchers were keeping an eye on the fire.   They also had a single fire truck off to the site just in case.

 The wall of the structure appeared to be several feet thick.  I guess this burned for a couple of days but I did not return to check.

 Beyond the bonfire, it was a typical Italian festival.  You could get some nuts and walk around looking at many shops and vendors setup to sell stuff.

 This is the statue of San Ciro.

The base of the statue reads: "San Ciro, Medico Eremita e Martire. 1997"  Or "San Ciro, Doctor Hermit and Martyr."

 Always easy to find the festival, just follow the arrows!