Where We Are Planted: The Dolomites

September 24th is Barcelona's huge holiday called La Merce. For a full week, the city turns into one large fiesta, with multiple music stages, parades, fireworks, wine tastings, food trucks and more! Since we have been here for La Merce and participated in it's happenings before, we took advantage of the four day weekend we had, and went to the infamous Dolomites.

The combination of seeking cooler Fall weather and longing for more outdoor adventure and natural beauty led us to the Italian Alps. We have spent a good amount of time in some other parts of Italy, but we had no idea that the north actually feels much more like Germany than Italy. In fact, it was Germany until after World War I. So while we expected a long weekend of eating pizza and pasta, we actually found biergartens and knodel. No complaints from us!

We couchsurfed with a great host who was from the town we stayed in, Bolzano. Each evening he helped us pick out a new hike for the next day, showed us the maps, gave us his extra mittens and gloves, and sent us on our way in the morning. He was extremely helpful and truly shaped our weekend into an incredibly memorable time.

The views on our hikes in the Dolomites were breathtaking. We could not get enough! It was deeply refreshing to breathe mountain air every day and eat Alpine food in mountain huts prepared slowly by local German-Italians.

We hiked to a farmers house that serves all their own food, wine, etc. They spoke no English, but their food tasted great!

In Bolzano, we also enjoyed the old town, the surrounding vineyards, castles, and apple trees! Just before we left, we were able to take the train to Verona and spend the evening there before heading to the airport. We saw some locals dancing in front of the Colosseum and finally got our Italian pizza.