JT Sarmento
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Riding into Bolzano was like entering a fairytale; the landscape dramatically changes as you approach the towering Alps. The area is most well-known for being an iconic skiing destination, with towering Alpine mountains in every direction. Rolling green hills and limestone jagged peaks are characteristic of the region. The architecture shifts from Venetian to Austrian and German baroque styles. The region itself is an autonomous part of Italy known as South Tirol, and it's very different culturally from the rest of Italy. For example, the official language is a German dialect. Our farm in Ritten was a 20-minute cable car ride up from downtown Bolzano, followed by a 10-minute train ride through a plateau near the top of Rittner Horn Mountain. Spending four days in this area was like a dream. It was some of the best hiking I've ever done. We spent one day hiking in [missing location] and another in Val Gardena. The peaks of these hikes were simply stunning, rivaling Patagonia for awe-inspiring views. The entire area contains what I'd call a lifetime of climbing and hiking. While I still give Patagonia the edge in terms of raw beauty, the Dolomites region certainly gives it a run for its money. What's remarkable about these mountains is their sheer size. You start at basically sea level and drive up a winding one-way road, climbing thousands of feet almost all at once. In California, this is not common, as anyone who has driven to Lake Tahoe knows that I-80 is a gradual incline for a long way. This was the opposite – a steep switchback incline for 30 minutes to above the treeline. What was even crazier is that once you got to the top of the initial steep grade, it begins to level out into more rolling hills, but thousands of feet above Bolzano. Unlike the Sierra Nevadas, where it's mostly alpine desert, these hills are extremely lush, with an abundance of wildflowers and tall grass as far as the eye can see. It was serene.
One of the best parts of the Dolomite region was that it seemed relatively uncrowded, with hardly any tourists. Many times, locals asked us what we were doing there, as they seemed confused. We found it amusing that the locals seemed unaware of their majestic surroundings. Certainly, in Ritten, there were no tourists, as it was a small mountain village. This was a stark contrast to the rest of Italy, where each city seemed overrun with tourism. We look forward to returning to this region again, as it was definitely one of the best experiences of our trip so far.