Tiff & Jared's adventures

Ciao! Jared and I spent two days in northern Italy. We drove the three hours from Innsbruck and ended up at our first destination, Lago di Brais. Holy hell was it beautiful, but touristy. Tourists were literally coming off the bus loads. It is one of the most famous lakes in the Dolomites, for good reason. It belongs to the municipality of Prags which is located in the Prags valley. During World War II it was the scene of the transport of concentration camp inmates to Tyrol. Additionally, it is the largest natural lake in the Dolomites. We brought a nice a la carte lunch of bread, salami, mozzarella, olives and a salad and ate while watching the wooden canoes moving around the water. We finished our lunch and walked around for a bit before heading to another lake in the area. We didn’t really have a set plan for the day so we strolled around some trails for a bit and played some cards next to a lake before heading to our AirBnB. We stopped in San Vito di Cadore to grab a quick bite (some really tasty pizza), before heading in for the night.

The next morning, we woke up early to get to the trailhead for the Tre Cime di Lavaredo hike. We had to pay a 30 euro toll just to get up to the trailhead parking (but soon we’d realize it was totally worth it). Tre Cime di Lavaredo literally translates to the three peaks of Lavaredo, and they are probably one of the most famous mountain groups in the Alps. Until 1919 the peaks formed part of the border between Italy and Austria. Now they lie on the border between the Italian provinces of South Tyrol and Belluno and still are a part of the linguistic boundary between German-speaking and Italian-speaking majorities (we did hear a lot of different languages). History fact: Since the front line between Italy and Austria during World War I ran through the Tre Cime peaks, there are a number of fortifications, trenches, tunnels, iron ladders, and commemorative plaques in the area. The hike basically traversed around the base of the three magnificent peaks, with Refugios, or mountain huts, sprinkled throughout the trails. The terrain was really rocky, almost like another planet. It was a pretty flat hike for the first part, then we began to ascend against the side of one of the peaks. Soon enough we made it to the saddle, and from here we got a completely different view of the valley. There were trails everywhere, going this way and that. There’s even a UNESCO hike traversing 150k through the Italian Dolomites, but I’m not sure if it passed through the area we were in. We continued to walk and made it to a bigger Refugio, with stunning views of the peaks and food! We’re on top of a mountain so it was cash only, and we had just enough to scrape together for a kids Bolognese spaghetti. Talk about meal with a view! We began our descent back to where we started – we descended a few hundred feet into the valley below before ascending back and around the peaks. All in all without any stops, it probably would have been about a 3-hour loop, but with all our stops for pictures and exploring, it took us about six hours.

We left the Dolomites midday and started driving to Vicenza to meet my cousins. My mom’s first cousin that she grew up with lives there, and we spent the night with her and her family. It was very nice – we went out for pizza and I got to see all of my cousins after almost a decade! We spoke in broken English and broken Italian, and with the help of Google Translate, it was perfect. We had to leave the next morning to keep with our itinerary, but I’m so glad we got to stop.

The next morning, we left for about a five hour trip to Zermatt – back to Switzerland! Zermatt is a southern Swiss town known for its skiing in the winter and its hiking in the summer. It was a little touristy and ritzy for our taste – we had to drive to the town before it, pay to leave our car, then pay to take a train into Zermatt. Of course we were literally getting off the bus loads when we got to Zermatt. Unfortunately, we got there too late to do any hiking so we walked around town to find the best view of the Matterhorn. The Matterhorn is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetrical pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps, whose summit is 4,478 metres high, making it one of the highest summits in the Alps and Europe. The peak really looks just like Mount Crumpit from How the Grinch Stole Christmas with it’s crooked, jagged peak.  We walked around to a less crowded section of town and found an amazing view looking right up at the peak. We then went into town and finally tried traditional food at a Swiss restaurant – not going to lie, not the biggest fan of Swiss food! We had raclette, rosti and breaded chicken (not Swiss). Very cheesy and very heavy. After dinner, most of downtown was pretty quiet and shops were closed up, so we took the train back to the car and proceeded to our AirBnB.

The next day, we left early for Chamonix, our last few full days of our trip. Chamonix is home of Mont Blanc, known to be the highest mountain in (western) Europe. Fun fact: Mount Elbrus is actually the title of highest in Europe. Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in the Alps and the European Union. Its elevation is 15,781 feet (4,810 m) above sea level. Our timing wasn’t the greatest – the day we arrived was the day they were shutting all of the cable cars and trains down for the season. So, we were able to take a train up to the Montenvers glacier, but unfortunately it was too late to see the Ice Caves or take a cable car anywhere. We walked around the top for a bit, looking at the glacier and taking a little hike while eating our sandwiches. We took the train back to town and spent the afternoon walking around the town, strolling into artisan shops of macaroons and cured meats (got the best salami and prosciutto for our sandwiches). We spent a little more time researching that night to find a hike we were sure we could do without access to cable car or train. We ended up going to a Nature Reserve and hiking ~12km to Lac Blanc. This hike was no joke. It was over 3,000 feet in ascent and the beginning of the hike started steep and kept going until basically the top. It was probably the most challenging hike I’ve ever done due to the steep ascent so quickly. The weather was also so crazy! We started at around 9AM and it was very cold but once we got moving and the sun stuck out, I had shed about three layers. Then, we got to the lake finally and the sky was completely overcast. I was wearing four layers and still cold! The lake itself was OK – the views were much more pretty. On our way back down, legs shaking from fatigue, we ran into our first ibex.