In the morning, I took the city bus I had asked about at the hotel and headed to the rental car office. The office was on the third floor of a building and a little hard to find. There was only one man in the office, handling everything himself, and it was only then that I discovered the car had no navigation system. How carelessness of me. Worse still, there was no road map either. He simply said, “You can use Google Maps.” At that moment, my mind went completely blank.
(Thinking back later, my wife had always prepared a Garmin device whenever we drove.)
I had imagined a leisurely drive to Cortina d’Ampezzo, enjoying the mountains and towns of the Dolomites along the way, so I felt utterly lost. But this was a mistake of my own making. Unless I dealt with it myself, there would be no moving forward. I gathered myself and set off.
The car was a six-speed manual transmission, and first of all, I could not get it into reverse. I accidentally shifted into sixth gear and nearly drove into the wall in front of me. In the end, I had to ask an older gentleman nearby to back the car out for me before I could finally start. I had driven one a few years earlier, yet I had completely forgotten that I needed to lift the gear knob to engage reverse.
Once on the road, I had no idea which direction to go. For nearly an hour, I kept driving a little, pulling over to the roadside, and checking Google Maps again and again, partly as driving practice. Originally, I had planned to go to Lake Carezza, but without a guidebook and after taking the wrong road, I seemed to be heading toward Siusi and Castelrotto instead. No wonder the valleys and mountain ridges looked strangely familiar.
Elegant towns such as Ortisei appeared one after another, but I had no peace of mind to appreciate them. Then I remembered that a dermatologist whom I deeply respected was traveling in the Dolomites with his family. To my surprise, he was staying in a mountain hut in Ortisei at that very moment. I sent him a message on Facebook saying, “We almost crossed paths!” He replied, “Indeed we did!” equally astonished. The world is a small place.
After taking several wrong turns, I finally reached Passo Pordoi, the highest point on the Great Dolomite Road and a place of magnificent views. There, for the first time, I stopped for a long rest and felt that the way ahead was finally opening up. How blue and expansive the sky was, and how grand it looked together with the rocky peaks. I stood there for a while, completely absorbed in the scene.
From there, I only needed to descend the mountain road toward Passo di Falzarego. At last, the town of Cortina d’Ampezzo came into view far below. My hotel for the night was further up a mountain road toward Misurina. I was relieved to arrive while it was still light. I felt grateful to my faithful little Fiat.
Then came a delightful surprise. I was told that from that evening, in front of the hotel, there would be Latin music and light refreshments served to guests—and everything was completely free. Champagne and juice flowed endlessly, plates were piled high with olives, and there were fried onions, potatoes, and delicious canapés as well. I ate and drank to my hearts’ content. All the struggles of the day simply melted away.
The weather was perfect, and tomorrow—at last—I would go to Tre Cime di Lavaredo (Dreizinnen).
(To be continued)
Note: When I asked the waiter, he said it was
perfectly fine to upload the photos.
Passo Pordoi,
Cortina d’Ampezzo
