Ten o’clock at night, and it’s still light enough that I could read outside if I wanted to.

Back to everyday life, and work. Two weeks to go before I take a longer vacation. The week in Italy was by necessity as early as possible in the summer, and the timing of our Estonia trip was also determined by external factors, and the gap between them too long for me to take the whole time off.

There’s a bit of a heat wave going on; the weather here is as hot as what we had in Italy. We went out for lunch to the (temporary?) food-court-slash-park on the quay in Marievik.

Got woken up at 7:30 this morning by some kind of repetitive yowling. I’m guessing it was the house cat who was feeling amorous.

In the morning, a drive from Riva del Garda to Milan through torrents of rain. Literally rivers of rain pouring out from parking lots, through gaps in garden walls, etc.

Ran across the remains of a traffic incident, and people chasing a deer kid in the road, which was probably related.

The Milan airport is Armani-branded.

There’s a lake, and it has boats, so we went for a boat tour. Like in Venice, we opted for an ordinary scheduled passenger boat going from town to town, rather than a sightseeing tour.

The boat took us to the small town of Limone, a little ways down the coast of Lake Garda. As the boat approached town, we were curious about the odd large stone structure that dominated the view. From the Internet I learned that these are old terraced lemon orchards. There are more of those, further up the hills. Some have been restored and turned into tourist sights.

The one closest to the harbour was all hidden behind walls and not open for visitors. There were a couple of small openings in the wall that allowed us to peek in, though.

We weren’t particularly interested in Limone itself – it was just an excursion – so after a brief walk and an ice cream, we took the next boat back to Riva del Garda.

The lake was full of people on all kinds of small craft, mostly windsurfers and small Optimist dinghies. In places the lake looked like a boat soup. I’m guessing there was some kind of sailing camp or course going on, or more likely several of these.

We also saw a kind of board that was new to us – a wing foil. Like a windsurfing board, but instead of a vertical sail attached to the board, these had a large free hand-held wing, and a hydrofoil under the board. They zoomed past like rockets.

By the way, I’ve generally been quite happy with the photos my phone camera takes, while my big camera is out of action, as long as I stay away from the zoom. I guess it switches to a different lens when I zoom, and then the picture quality becomes horrible, like you see in these last three photos. I tried taking a few pictures of flowers while we were hiking in the mountains, but had to throw out every single one of them.

We’ll have nice views for our drive back to Milan tomorrow – that’s our road snaking along the side of the lake.

Back in Riva del Garda, we walked around. The city centre isn’t very large so we could cover almost all of it.

When we didn’t know which way to go, we aimed for leather goods shops. I bought my favourite handbag here in Riva del Garda many years ago (and replaced it with an identical one) so I was hoping I could find something similar again. Small backpack handbags are hard to find. We saw all kinds of lovely bags, but not the type I wanted.

There was apparently a road biking competition that finished here today. We’ve been seeing loads of cyclists, especially around Cortina d’Ampezzo, and posters for bicycle events.

During our boat trip, we spotted a cable car going up to some kind of edifice halfway up the hill. When we ran out of promenade streets, we went to check that thing out. It turned out to be a ruined old bastion, with nice views back down towards the town.

When it was time for dinner, everyone was in agreement – there was no way we’d find anything that would beat Officina Verde, where we ate yesterday. So we went back for more. Since everyone had sampled everything, we knew exactly what we liked best, so instead of the set menus we picked our favourites.

“Something something with hints of the sea:”

Burrata of fermented cashew nut, with a heart of basil and home-made tomato relish:

Lasagna, mille strati style:

Mango mousse sticks with a yuzu chocolate coating and mango sauce:

First a longish but scenic and eventful drive from Cortina d’Ampezzo to Riva del Garda.

Speaking of driving, this our car for the week, and the nerve-wracking driveway to the parking lot behind the house in San Vito di Cadore. We booked a smallish manual car. (Because we knew we’d be on twisty roads in the mountains, and we also wanted it to be not too difficult to park.) Instead we got this monstrosity – neither smallish nor manual. It was technically better than what we had booked – or at least more expensive – and Hertz didn’t have anything closer to our wishes available anyway, so this is what we had to deal with. This driveway had the car’s proximity sensors on both sides beeping at maximum level all the way, at least twice a day. Yay.

It wasn’t actually raining when we arrived in Riva del Garda but the weather forecast promised an imminent thunderstorm, so we stayed in for a few hours and watched a movie instead. That thunderstorm never arrived so I felt a bit cheated.

After the movie we walked towards the town to find dinner. We were again staying on the outskirts of the town, and the path to town went along some lovely little lanes, past smelly jasmine bushes and a waterfall.

We ate at an absolutely lovely vegan restaurant – Officina Verde. They had three set three-course menus, one Japanese-themed, one vaguely Mexican, and one with an Italian flavour. Since there was four of us, we tried all of them.

Every single course wowed all of us – we were constantly exclaiming about just how delicious everything was. And interesting and innovative, too. We could sometimes not even figure out what we were actually eating. How do they come up with these things? Vegan burrata made from fermented cashews, with a basil filling? Marinated tofu in a hazelnut crust, with a smoked pepper sauce? (Neither of which is the photo below – that’s just a vegan uramaki roll.)

A thunderstorm did arrive while we were about to have dessert, and was so violent that we had to move inside, even though we were under a canopy. The water was splashing everywhere, and the noise was making it hard to have a conversation. The sky was flashing constantly. But by the time we were ready to leave, the storm was over, and we could walk back without even opening our umbrellas.

We’re still in the Cortina d’Ampezzo area today, and went for a hike to lake Sorapis, which is said to be one of the best ones in the region. As you can see from the photo above, yes, it’s absolutely stunning. (6.5km each way, just over 400m of ascent & descent, which was one of the deciding factors for us picking this particular hike, because Ingrid’s knees don’t like walking downhill much.)

Like most beautiful places, this one is reportedly absolutely overrun with tourists during high season. Even now there were quite a lot of people. Had this been a Swedish hiking trail, I’d have described it as crowded. There’s not even a proper parking lot near the trailhead – people just park on the side of the road, tens and tens of cars. We parked ours a bit further down the road and just walked an extra 800 metres or so.

We’ve been really happy with our choice to come here early in the season, as soon as the school year ended. Not only do we avoid the worst of the crowds but we also get slightly cooler weather. Which is still not very cool – the temperature has been in the high twenties most days – so I can only imagine how much we’d be suffering here in July.

The trail starts as a broad path in the forest in the valley and then snakes its way up the side of the mountain.

The further up you get, the narrower the trail, and in places it gets quite tricky, with scree slopes and rocks and cliffs. Some sections – where the trail was narrowest and the drop next to it steepest – even had cables to hold on to. Some people were doing this in city sneakers, others with small dogs that they had to carry… I’m not sure what they were thinking.

At the end of the trail, just after a mountain hut, there was the famous turquoise lake. And it felt like there were people everywhere, lots of them posing for photos. We were rather hungry but there wasn’t even enough space to sit down and have a picnic anywhere, so after a brief water stop we trudged onwards, to the other side of the lake, where there looked to be a meadow.

The thing that looked like a meadow was indeed one, and there were fewer people there so we could sit down without feeling like we’re elbow to elbow with someone else. We had a nice, long sit-down lunch, with bakery bread and fresh nectarines.

Just as we were swallowing our last bites of food, it started raining lightly, so we scrambled to get our rain gear on (and our boots) and headed back down the mountain. The lake looked almost otherworldly, with its bright turquoise waters under the gray skies.

The walk downhill was easier in some ways, but also wet and slippery in places.

By the time we got back to the trailhead, the kids were rather tired and sat down right there, and waited for us to bring the car to them.

Today we went climbing via ferrata routes. If you haven’t run across that term before – it’s mountain climbing but with protection all the way. You’re climbing up and across cliffs while being attached to a steel cable by two carabiners at all times. Or, for our Estonian readers, it’s like the adventure climbing park in Otepää but in mountains instead of treetops.

Eric and I did this before, ages ago, before the kids arrived. We went on week-long holidays doing nothing but via ferrata climbing. Now that Adrian and Ingrid are old enough, it’s time to induct them into the club as well.

Cortina d’Ampezzo is a ski resort in winter, and there are cable cars lining the mountains in various directions. The two via ferrata routes we did today were in the middle of what is a ski slope in winter. Not just any ski slope – according to our guide, this is where the World Ski Cup runs happen.

The first route, Ra Pegna, is a beginner-level route and goes up the rocky tower on the left of the ski run.

At the top of the tower, there’s actually enough of a flat spot that you can sit down and have a breather. (It was rather hot today.)

You can see the entirety of Cortina d’Ampezzo from there. San Vito di Cadore is just outside the frame, to the right.

As usual, coming down is more arduous and less fun than going up.

Now that we were warmed up (and had verified that everyone was up to the challenge and enjoyed this activity) we tackled the route up the right-hand tower, called Ra Bujela, somewhat more difficult and longer.

It was trickier to find a good handhold or foothold at times, but our guide Manuel was at hand and attentive, and ready to give advice when needed, so we all got to the top without any real trouble.

From there we could see Ra Pegna in all its glory.

Here are some photos by Ingrid to show that I was also there:

And some more photos by our guide Manuel:

This morning we left Venice and Mestre behind and drove to Cortina d’Ampezzo.

In the afternoon, we hiked the loop trail circles around the famous three peaks of Tre Cime di Lavaredo.

Starting at the Rifugio Auronzo, the trail initially loops behind the mountains, so you can’t see them very well. But the trail is pretty stunning in and of itself.

We had a late picnic lunch as soon as we found a place where we could step off the trail a bit. Immediately, birds approached us in the hopes of food scraps. Looks like alpine choughs are the gulls of the mountains.

(And I am clearly a noob when it comes to using my phone camera, even getting my finger in the picture. That just never occurs with an actual camera – you’d have to make a real effort to make that happen.)

The start of the trail is just over 2000 metres above sea level, but since we gained all of those 2000 m of altitude in just half a day, we felt them. Nothing like real altitude sickness, but enough to make us feel slightly short of breath when walking uphill, so we had to pause quite often.

There were still significant amounts of snow up there – packed drifts taller than us. The sun was quite hot, and the trail was like a little stream in places.

The trail itself had been cleared of snow, so we were walking in a canyon between tall walls of snow.

Rounding the mountain, the shapeless lump was starting to separate into three distinct peaks…

… and a kilometre later, we got those dramatic vistas of the peaks nicely lined up next to each other.

Many people seemed to turn back at this point. Got the views, done. We continued along the trail as it circled a wide valley to the north of the peaks, with more beautiful views.

There was some threat of rain but nothing that actually materialized.

The Dolomites are generously equipped with huts, much more than I am used to seeing anywhere else I’ve hiked – we passed 4 rifugios during the 10-kilometre loop. I can imagine how crowded it must get here during high season.

The last ridge is never actually the last ridge!

Bonus photo by Ingrid:

Today we took the boat to the island of Murano, with its glassworks.

After some initial aimless wandering, we picked one of the workshops to visit. Wave was a wonderful place.

They do offer tours, but there was also the option of just hanging around in one corner of the workshop and watching the glassblowers at their work. This was far more interesting than a more formal tour would have been. It was fascinating to see how all the different steps of manipulating the blob of glass led to the final product. Several times we thought we knew what effect a step would have – and then they did something to twist it to something completely unexpected.

Another amazing workshop displayed seaweed glass sculptures by Davide Penso. If I was rich enough to have more rooms in my house than I knew what to do with, I wouldn’t mind having something like this in my home.

That’s not going to happen, but we did want to bring some small glass item home with us from Murano. There was a lot of choice, but at the same time many of the shops seemed to sell copies of the same kind of things, with less variety than I had expected. I guess people come here with specific expectations when it comes to design and style.

Aside from the glassworks, Murano seemed more residential and everyday than the main island of Venice.

Boats everywhere, still, of course, used like cars and vans would be in any other city – such as for parcel delivery.

After a lovely lunch at restaurant Alla Vecchia Pescheria (where the food was, of course, served on flatware of Murano glass) we headed towards the lighthouse and the waterbus stop there.

We took the waterbus to the island of San Michele for some shade and walking. The entire island is a cemetery and photography was prohibited, so I can only share a view of the entrance, and one of the waterbus quay.

The evening brought more walking, and a pretty mediocre dinner. In fact we haven’t been very impressed with the restaurants here. Lots of focus on meat, of course; difficult to find places with more than one or two vegetarian options. Salads, when offered, have oftentimes been no more than uninspired piles of ingredients – like a tuna salad consisting of a bed of lettuce, then a pile of tinned sweetcorn, and another of tinned tuna.

Great gelato, though! Gelatoteca Susa had a wide range of excellent ice cream, with both classical flavours and more modern ones – dark chocolate with lemon, or mango with grapefruit. I didn’t remember to take a photo, but luckily Ingrid did.

And then it was evening again.

We could certainly have entertained ourselves here for longer – museums, churches, other islands, etc – but two days did not feel too short.

Bonus photo by Ingrid:

I took so many photos of the canals of Venice that I couldn’t fit them all into the daily post. Here’s some more.

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