The air is fresh, we are wearing a couple of layers, we have arrived in Cortina d'Ampezzo in the heart of the southern Dolomitic Alps of Northeastern Italy, meeting up with the John's from Hawaii. How I love that we can converge from different parts of the world and all arrive within a few minutes of each other.
Number 42:
New mountains, arriving in the Dolomites.
The meadows, which are swathes of an almost shockingly bright green dotted with spring flowers, give way to the pine forests, followed by a transition zone of scree slopes before the grand, jagged rock formations soar straight into the deep blue of the sky.
This scenery is staggering.
John took us on a drive with really tight switchbacks to see some of the passes and mountains. The infrastructure is good so these special mountain formations, which have names, are accessible by car. It will take me a few days to get orientated and start to recognize these peaks, the one name that is sticking is the 'queen of the Dolomites', Marmolada, the highest peak here at 3 343m.
