I Have No Idea Where We Are or Where We've Been

 

My daughter-in-law set the itinerary for our first week together in Italy. We picked them up outside the Venice Airport and immediately drove to the Dolomites. 

We're now in a village called "Ortisei" which I thought might have something to do with "six grains" but our hotelier explained it's the Italian version of the German name for Saint Urtijei--which is also the German name for Saint Ullrich. We drove through some scary roads to get here, but I have been assured that on the return trip to Venice we'll take conventional roads. 

Here in this village most everyone speaks three languages: Italian (with a German accent), German (with an Italian accent), and Ladin--which is a language spoken only in parts of the Dolomite Mountains. I asked our hotel clerk to speak some of it to me and it sounds like a really guttural German--which before I heard it, I wouldn't think there could be something more guttural; but this language has sounds from way further down the throat than German.

Children at school are required to study all three languages. I looked up Ladin on the web. The locals call it Ladino, but that's also the name of a Jewish language spoken mostly in Israel. Northern European, Ashkenazi Jews speak Yiddish, while Jews from Sephardic regions speak Ladin. Many of the Jews who settled in Spain were Sephardic and Ladin has very strong Spanish elements. The Ladino of the Dolomites is not at all related to the Sephardic Ladino.

We arrived Tuesday afternoon but this is a ski town that's mostly shut down before the ski season so we couldn't find anywhere reasonable to eat. There are some really swanky hotels that are open (and our less swanky but still impressive hotel and a few grocery stores are open. We got some groceries and put together a fairly German meal and then the kids did their homework. I needed to decompress after the stressful drive--I think the first time I've been carsick while I was the driver.

 

The vistas here are incredible. We hiked through several areas, and I heard a Scottish fellow explain my own experience to his friends, "I can't believe I took so many photographs of the same mountain peak!" 

This is really the end of the summer tourist season so there aren't huge crowds; but we still run across quite a few people taking in the scenery from all over the world. Most of the people we encountered yesterday were from Germany. 

After a late lunch at a ski lodge, we stopped to watch a farrier shoe a couple of horses. A herd dog (looked to me like a blue heeler) brought me a piece of bark about the size of a fifty-cent piece with the expectation that I would play fetch with him. Since it only weighed about 2 ounces, I couldn't throw it more than about 10 feet, but the dog was overjoyed. I noticed a stick that was about 6 inches long and showed it to the dog. He was happy to fetch it but wouldn't drop it when he brought it back. I tried to take it out of his mouth but he was resolute.  After a minute or two, he spit out the piece of bark and indicated he was ready to continue with the fetch game--but only with the bark.  We threw it several times and he'd pick it up with the larger stick still in his mouth, bring it back and spit out only the piece of bark.

The Dolomites

 I remember the first time a saw the Dolomite mountain range from the train in Italy. While I love the Rocky Mountains, the vistas of these mountains are breathtaking. I learned something this week about the pine trees in these mountains. They're deciduous conifers, called Larch. The needles turn yellow in the fall and drop so they aren't evergreens. Here's an autumn scene you won't see often of pine trees.

I also wanted to share the view outside our hotel room window.

We have had other friends visiting us for the past couple of weeks. It's made it difficult to keep up on posts, but I'll catch up soon.

Everywhere looks like a scene out of "Heidi." It's apparent that people mow everywhere. In talking with my son, we concluded that it must be to reduce the fire danger. I don't think I'll ever feel overwhelmed having to mow my lawn in Salt Lake.

My oldest son and his family are visiting for a few days. It is wonderful to see them and hear them.