Santa Magdalena is a small village (population 340) in the Dolomites of Italy. Chiara's Ficarelli family have been here before and it is one of their favorite places, so they had recommended we all meet up and holiday together.
Where is Santa Magdalena on the map?
Our early morning flight from Glasgow to get us there was cancelled - after we had checked in! So Bill had to reorganise things. We bussed to Edinburgh, and flew to Paris, We stayed a night there, then flew to Verona.
Then we trained from Verona to Bressanone in South Tyrol, Italy (Bressanone in Italian language. also known as Brixen in the German language).
Our final leg was bussing from Bressanone/Brixen to Santa Magdalena. Here are photos from the train.
The bus is on time. We are in Italy, but it feels like Austria - everything is very organised and smart.
We had planned this trip some time ago to get together with the Ficarelli's. But as of last week Chiara is Lachie's fiancé. Lachie proposed to her when they were in London the week before.
Bill and I bought some champagne (duty free) to celebrate. Also in the picture here are Chiara's mother Manuela, her brother Mattia, and his partner Emily.
Paolo and Bill are on the couch behind Lachie.
Not looking as happy as I was.
The sun set. It was a stunning location.
The famous mountaineer Messner grew up here. Messners seem to be everywhere, many of the streets and buildings have the Messner name on them.
The Ficarelli's and Lachie organised everything. Bill had a break from tour master. The plan for day one: Bus to a cable car, then hike across the mountains and down to our village.
Chiara had brought a spare pair of boots for me as I was scared to roll my ankle. (I have done this before while tramping in NZ.)
We all have a coffee before going to the cable car. Lachie wants to buy glasses before we go up.
Chiara, Manuela, Paolo and Bill
Mattia, Emily and Lachie (Lachie with his Euro200 glasses he has just bought, primarily for biking which he is now in to.)
Next you might be asking what all these people do. Mattia is a geneticist / computer scientist who researched gene mutation. Emily is Marketing Design Manager for Google. They are both in London.
Chiara and Lachie are studying for PhD's - Chiara's in ethnography? Lachie's the history of machine learning in computers. Manuela teaches English at a high school in Reggio Emilia. Paolo has his family balsamic vinegar to attend to, he has retired from working for a German government agricultural development organisation. Manuela and Paolo also run an organisation they set up for Filipino immigrant women in Italy.
This is the mountain range we are going into.
Closer up. We will go to Funes by cable car, then across and down to Santa Magdalena - with lunch on the way.
My knee hurts right from the get go. Chiara says we are all down hill. We are clearly not and we climb and then go down hill. The views are incredible.
We stop for lunch.
Then we are walking again.
We look back through the trees on where we had lunch.
The views keep coming.
A break. As Manuela says "the two chiefs".
The three Kermodes.
It was a 6 hour hike. My knee was still so sore. I attributed it to no orthotics and different shoes! No complaints. My ankles were still intact.
We said good night to the Dolomites.
The next day Bill and I took a rest but the others hiked again.
After that it was a biking day. We hired electric bikes. They could go. Lachie used the electrics very little. I was nursing a sore knee so I powered up as much as I can and used my legs very little! We all started together. We biked to a cafe and had coffee and strudel.
On the way Manuela, Emily, Bill and I stopped at a stunning small church.
From the cafe the youngies went off one way, the oldies another led by Paolo and Manuela. We headed to a cheese place Manuela had remembered. Things we saw on the way.
When we got to the cheese place, it was closed. Manuela went into the house, and the owner came out to open it for us.
We stop and admire farmers and machinery in action on these very steep slopes. Steeper than Awaawaroa in Waiheke (a property we have bought with the hope Chiara and Lachie might live there at some stage).
We meet Mattia who is solo riding on the way.
We had a lovely lunch in St Pietro. Paolo took a picture.
The next day the Ficarellis had organised a winery visit for us all (Mattia had a 'just me' day), near Bressanone / Brixen. We took a 45 minute bus ride to Bressanone, and then another bus for some wine tasting. We were heading to Neustift Abbey winery https://www.kloster-neustift.it/en/winery. Novacella Abbey has been producing wine since 1142, for almost 900 years, and is one of the oldest wineries in the world.
There was shopping before the winery though.
Bill, Robin and Paulo had a coffee and talked about Scadavari clams for a lot of the time. There is no room in their bags for shopping..
I spotted a blog photo opportunity.
Then off to the Abbey for our tour. We crossed a river and caught a mini bus. It was right on time. Wish they had these small buses in Waiheke.
We got to the abbey. There was more to see than just the winery.
These people did a more comprehensive tour than us if you are interested: https://throneandvine.com/visiting-novacella-abbey-neustift-monastery/
We went on to the winery tour.
I learnt the monasteries shelter the vines. They have watering systems along all vines. They only water if they have to - best not to. Lots of vines. I can't remember much more.
I wanted to sit and try the wine. Then we did. We had a sommelier. She had her hand behind her back as was the tradition to show she wasn't poisoning you. Back in the day they poisoned wine to kill you.
She used words like good body, structured, fruity and others I don't remember. I liked the dessert wine the best.
After we returned to Santa Magdalena, Chiara, Lachie, Manuela and Paolo went to the river. I went to join them. Lachie had gone back by the time I got there.
Going back to our apartment I saw Emily. I was taking a few more photos and grabbed one with her.
On our last full day we went for a lovely long lunch at a 'slow food' restaurant Chiara had found. 'Slow food' is about using local produce, sustainably grown.
The chef talked to us about each course (in Italian). It is so yum.
When we got back, I got a few shots from where we were staying.
And a last beautiful sunset.
Thank you Ficarelli's and Lachie for organising a wonderful stay in the Dolomites.
Thank you Dolomites for a fabulous week.
