September 5, 2024: Arrive in Val di Fassa: Land at Venice international airport and meet your guide for a private group transfer to Val di Fassa (4,593 feet) in Italy’s Tentino region. After checking into your hotel, enjoy a trip briefing and aperitif, followed by a welcome group dinner. Accommodation: Locanda Degli Artisti, Canazei
Val di Fassa (from internet)
Located in Trentino in northeastern Italy, Val di Fassa is one of the major and most well known valleys of the region. The alpine valley is most famous for its Dolomites, which in 2009 became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here you will find the Sella Group, Sassolungo and the Catinaccio mountains, in addition to the Marmolada, the most majestic mountain of the Dolomites that at around 10,000 feet boasts the highest peak of the Monti Pallidi.
Weather: hot and thunderstorms in Venice, 60s and rain in Canazei.
We made it to a local cafe for breakfast,
and back, before the heavens let loose. let’s hope this gets the bad weather out of the way for the rest of the trip.
The worst of the rain felt like it occurred as we had to walk to the van transfer pick up point to get to the airport. I thought we were prepared for every eventuality EXCEPT I forgot to ask for the license plate number of the van. We got to the pick up area and there was no driver with a sign because it was pouring rain and the driver didn’t want to get out of her van (no tip for her). We did have her phone number, but I found out at the moment of need that Vena’s phone (the only one of us with a local SIM card) didn’t work when it was damp. She finally got it working and we forced the driver to get out of her f'ing van to walk over to find us. ANYWAY…. We got to the airport in good time.
We spotted the MT Sobek sign and found out we were the last to arrive (we were early), and met our traveling group (bar 2, more on that later).
Vail and John are together and from Davidson, North Carolina. Vail is almost a dead ringer for Jen from TMB. In fact, we found out Vail is her middle name and her first name is Jen! John runs a group of AllState agents. Vail works in an e2e logistics company. They also have a long distance relationship.
Sussan, from Alexandria, Virginia, is in her 80s and traveling alone. It turns out she is originally from Iran, and is rather needy, but more on that later. Lisa had an introductory email exchange with her via FB before traveling, so at least there was an initial introduction before the trip.
Julie, BryAna, and Lea are all from the Bay Area - Sacramento. They were part of our WhatsApp group originally (later kicked out, but they don’t know that). They rather snubbed Lisa when she tried to introduce herself. - we aren’t sure how to take this.
Joe (67) and Loren (63) are brothers who travel together on trips whenever Joe invites (and pays for) his brother. Loren is still working (psychologist) and Joe is a retired radiologist. Joe has been “everywhere”. (BTC)
Tracy, 47, is from Mountain View and is a veterinarian with very strong and direct views on things. Everyone started asking her and telling her about their pets.
We thought Mary and Thaddeus had canceled, but they met us at the hotel. They were here for 2 days acclimatizing. Tad (short for Thaddeus) seems to be rather ill, perhaps something like dementia? She seems to need to help him remember several things, but he is still able to interact quite well.
On our 3 hour drive to Val di Fassa I sat next to Loren, who was between me and Kim. In 15 minutes Kim was able to find out if he played pickle ball, so that started quite a lot of conversation about different sports topics. Poor guy was probably very glad to be at the hotel after 3 hours of my/Kim’s conversation.
Some pictures of our trip to the hotel
The weather didn’t improve much - still rainy - but the view got better as we got to the mountains and above the tree line. We made one bathroom stop and I tried a couple pasteries which were amazingly great.
The hotel was absolutely marvelous and includes a hydro tub. Some rooms also have a steam/sauna. Their instruction book talked about everything except how to set the temperature. Only later we found out that this is centrally controlled, so all the windows stayed open.
I made a quick walk around the town which was quite charming
Our briefing was at 6:30 where we met our main guide - Paula - who is a certified mountain guide from this area. She explained the dolomites are a part of the Alps, but are made from different rock (dolomite rock). We will be walking around three regions and tomorrow will be our hardest elevation walk. The briefing was very civilized and we were offered a glass of wine/fizz and an appetizer of a local fish paste on toast (tasted better than it sounds), before going into dinner.
Dinner was very tasty - I had probably the best steak tartare I’ve ever had, made from the local beef. This was followed by risotto and finally I shared a portion of venison with Lisa. The venison was also exquisite. Desert was millefuille filled with cream and fruit and a coffee.
All this really got me in a great mood for a great trip.
Got my notification - yeah!