i dolomiti

This weekend we ventured as a class to the dolomites and stayed in Cortina. I will say, I think that this weekend was my favorite weekend thus far in Italy. Not only were the views spectacular, but hiking and having adventures up in the mountains was so much fun. The mountains themselves were picturesque and it was surreal to see these pretty views in person. It's crazy how you can see pictures of these landscapes and think they’re beautiful and then it’s a whole other experience to see them in person.

            During our free time on the first day we took a lift up the mountain to explore. It was insanely foggy when we first got up there and we weren’t able to see 15 feet in front of us at first. When the fog cleared, and thank goodness it did, I got the see the prettiest view of Cortina below with spectacular mountains behind it. I am beyond grateful that the afternoon cleared up because I can’t imagine not being able to see what the fog was covering up. After the group explored where the tram took us, we took it down one time and a small group of us decided to walk down the rest of the mountain for a hike. They said that there were pretty lakes on the way down and the hike was supposed to take about only an hour and a half. Well, we saw one lake, which was fairly small, still beautiful, but more so just funny for us. We think we go pretty lost at certain points, although we were always headed down the mountain, we somehow ventured too far away from Cortina. Our hike ended up taking over two hours, so we ran for a good portion of the end of it. It was pretty funny and we still made it back in time for dinner, but I was definitely sore the next day for more hiking. It was a beautiful hike down and we were all so glad we did it.

            The next day we went to a new mountain and hiked and got lunch after. Altogether we saw some amazing things and I’m so happy to have been apart of the experience in the Dolomites!