Day 26 - Aaaah,the joys of being flexible

He had enough of Venice so we decided to get out of the big city so we went to the Italian Alps the Dolomites. This was a tramatic experience getting out there because once we arrived we realized that we forgot our first painting on our first train :.( We tried calling the train station and operators but everyone kept hanging up on us becuase we don't speak Italian... jerks! Getting nowhere fast, we decided to head up the mountain to try to find a place to stay for a night. This was a 10 minute gondola ride up through these beautiful mountains and green rolling meadows...incredible! When we arrived, the tourist office was closed. This was just not our day. Here we are in a place we have no idea about and no leads or phone numbers of places to stay. Everywhere required a hike in and the tram didn't have baggage storage. Great, now what do we do? We talked to a local store owner and she gave us some suggestions of some refugies to stay at (mountain cabins). It was getting late and we were getting quite hungry so we took the closest one, a 30 minute hike...uphill. When we arrived very much winded (the uphill was a 46-60 degree incline) we found our place to be a wonderful, small, family-owned refigie. Our lady checked us in, gave us keys to a great room that overlooked the meadows and mountain peeks, and...COWS!!!!! Mark was pumped! All of his bummer feelings about that poster went away for a moment. Has anyone experienced true Cow Bells? Well, they are great! Your very own windchime...24-7. So, we headed down for our free dinner (not knowing what to expect). We were served soup with a matza ball in the middle. Before we had the chance to "order some more food", our waitress comes by with a salad. This is nice, we felt a little spoiled. THEN she brings us a pasta dish with chicken, yummmm, this is nice! We got up and looked around the place, took in some more views, and went up to the desk to ask a question. She says, "you're not finished yet!" We ended up getting dessert on TOP of all that food...for FREE!
After we finished our meal, we were stuffed, and very happy!
The evening got even BETTER! (I know, it's hard to believe.) This really nice looking, younger couple comes out to the deck and I kinda strike up some conversation with them. They were Italian and VERY good with their English. Yeah. They also were new parents with their adorable little baby boy in hand. Right away all 4 of us hit it off. We sat and talked for a good hour before going off to a restful nights sleep...to cowbells. :)