Back With a Capital Vengence!

BST w/ Roo and then flew to Italy :)

I've been looking at photos of the Dolomites for the past zillion years so it feels super surreal being here. I downed a croissant and cappuccino and headed out from Passo Falzarego and immediately struck up a conversation with Lorenzo the oral surgeon from near Milano who happily gave me a brief WW1 history lesson and oriented me to the peaks. We hiked a few hours together and shared a beer at the Navolau Rif which was already rocking out (to Johnny Cash) at 10am.

Lorenzo and I parted ways and I looped all the way around the Navolau to the Cinque Torri and then back to my tiny car. Favorite quotes of my Lorenzo meeting... "I hear marijuanna is now FREE in Colorado" and "Traveling solo is good, you can think...and cry."

I've been in Europe about 30 hours now and all I've consumed is bread, cheese, coffee, beer, and Proseco and that is totally acceptable! Sometimes I think I was born on the wrong continent...

Tomorrow I'm going to climb through the Cengia Martini - a 1.1 km tunnel - and I'm not psyched because I hate being underground but I have to do it because it is history!

Another cloudless day in Dolomiti - molto caldo! 

Hiked up to Lagazuoi Grande via the inside of the mountain (WW1 tunnels) . One of the neatest things I've ever done - this totally wouldn't fly in the U.S.! Except a sign advising a helmet, headlamp, and good boots there was no other regulations. The tunnels were super slippery and super creepy, but luckily there was a window to the outside every 5 or 10 minutes. You could explore side tunnels and walk out on ledges dropping 2000 feet holding on only to a slippy cable and see old sleeping quarters and bombs and stuff. 

I then looped around a ridiculous gorgeous glacially carved valley - Val Travenanzes before hiking back through trenches and more ruins. What a beautiful place for a war!