Wow! We just had an incredible weekend visiting Tre Cime in Northern Italy!! It was on Dan's bucket list, so I did some research Saturday morning and just decided to go for it. Now or never right? I'm at the point where I don't want to miss out on doing things because a lockdown might happen, so we have to make the most of each weekend! The weather was supposed to be pretty good and the sky was clear (very important in the mountains!), so I booked an Air B&B as close the our hiking spots as possible, went to the commissary to stock up on snacks, packed our overnight bag, and hit the road around 12:30 pm for our 2-3 hour drive.
The drive to Tre Cime was INCREDIBLE! I took so many pictures out our window because the mountains were gorgeous, the sky was blue and clear, and the fall trees were stunning! I took my Dramamine this time around because the last few trips up the mountain were making me a little queasy. We stopped around 2:00 for Emma to get out and get some fresh air because her stomach was hurting. She has said this before but our last drive up the mountains was super windy, so I didn't think about today's drive bothering her. The fresh air helped a little but then a few minutes later, her lunch decided to make a visit. We quickly pulled over again, conveniently in a supermarket parking lot, grabbed some trash bags and wipes and got cleaned up. Poor girl!!! We still had an hour left to drive and we were only going to be going farther up the mountain roads too. She had a rough time on this trip! We pulled over again at a beautiful lake near Tre Cime to take a few pictures and then hurried off as it was already 4:00 and we only had an hour left of light!
We had to pay 30 euro to drive to the parking lot at Tre Cime but then we were able to drive up pretty high and walk up a hill to get the great view. It was stunning!! I am glad we were able to see the sunset there! Although we couldn't really see the Three Peaks because we didn't hike out, we still loved the view and the snow on the mountains!
Here is the link for others who want to check it out! (Parking Lot) We didn't stay too late so that Dan wouldn't have to drive back down in complete darkness. Our Air B&B in Padola was just over an hour away from here, so we hoped for the best for Emma and drove back through the mountains in the dark to find it. Once there, our host greeted us and showed us our room, and then we ate a few snacks and went to sleep! I will say, it was the most uncomfortable bed I have ever slept on in my life. It was actually a pull out couch for us and one for the girls in a bedroom attached to ours. It was super hard and squeaky, so we weren't well rested at all the next day!
Day 2
Sunday, the girls were up and ready by 7:00, so we ate the muffins that I had packed and loaded up. Our car was frozen! We didn't expect it to be in the low thirties in the morning!! The frost was pretty though, and we were able to see a little bit of snow on our morning hike. Dan found a kid friendly trail in the Dolomites that was only 30 minutes from where we stayed. We hit one slick spot on our drive and that was enough for me. I can't imagine making this drive when there is actually snow and ice everywhere, but there were a lot of ski spots that we passed! The views again on the drive were absolutely beautiful! We saw so much without even hiking! We even pulled off at a tiny waterfall along the way. I was surprised that there was so much German on the signs but we were SO close to Austria! So close...yet we can't even cross over! We found the parking lot called Parkplatz Fischleinbodenhütte, bundled up as much as possible, and started walking! Ava was not happy to be taken from her cozy warm carseat with the ipad into the freezing cold strapped to me, but she was fine once we started going and fed her snacks. Lol. The path we were on was just straight and actually would have been stroller friendly. It was freezing for the majority of the morning (so cold that my iPhone couldn't handle it and died), so we did just over 3 miles which took us to a little playground and lookout spot and then back to the playground to look for Emma's mitten..and back to the lookout spot... and back. Ha! Poor mitten, it is gone forever.
Eventually, I'm hoping we can work our way up to some more difficult hikes with great views, but this worked for what we were able to do! The playground was so cute! Of course, this was the highlight of the day for the girls. It was still frosty though so they couldn't do everything, but what a view for a playground!
Emma did great on the way back and we didn't have any more incidents, thankfully! I slept on the way back, the girls enjoyed their ipad time, and Dan did a great job driving the whole trip! We are definitely going to go back- probably every season to try different trails and experience all seasons in the Dolomites!
Here are the rest of the pictures from my phone! I put them at the end so you can stop scrolling if you've had enough. Sorry our windows and windshield were SO dirty! Ahh!!
Hope you enjoyed the view as much as I did. But if it wasn't good enough, then come visit us in Italy!!
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