Day 27 - Hiking the Dolomites

I don't know if any of you actually look into what Mark and I are experiencing, but if you have the time, I highly recommend you to check out the Dolomites on the Internet. Google it, it's amazing!!! This is probably the only place (so far) that we would realistically come back to. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, we have thouroghly been enjoying Europe, but this place is something else! AND, we have an official invitation to come back and stay with our new friends, Brigetè and Paulò. Yes, we moved in quickly...breakfast was spent chatting away and ooing and aahing over their cutie baby. We think these people are great, totally the type of couple we would hang out with if we lived closer. (They even fit the criteria of all our friends here, they have a kid!) Brigetè is the talker and she loves to talk. Her English is very good considering she's Italian. The thing I love about her is that she's very blunt. :) Here's an example that Mark and I loved...I asked when they wanted to start having more babies, she answered, 'Well, tonight is a good night to start.' We got a kick out of Paulò's response...I think he's probably used to her by now. Anyway, back to the "Hiking the Dolomites"...we had our breakfast of bread and tea and then we were off to the Tourist Information Booth. The lady told us what bus to hitch and then we were off for a good 2 hour hike up hill to another Refigie at the top of a mountain. This hike was great! Cows everywhere! Mark has this fettish about cows that I was very unaware of. He thinks they are the greatest animal alive! Every time we heard cow bells in the distance, he'd stop and find out where they were coming from. Pretty cute. :) (I have a feeling that we'll be blowing up one of the many pictures he's taken since we've been here...hopefully we find that Vienna poster soon!) At the top of the hike we had a nice lunch over-looking the mountains. Mom and Dad...you guys would have eaten this up! Well, we decided that this wasn't high enough...we had to go to the next level, 45 minutes later, we were glad we did. Fortunately each place we came to had a bathroom (I've been consuming a TON of water on this trip and my bladder just isn't stretching like it's supposed to.) The hike down took FOREVER, we were really ready to be finished. So, a good hour later we were on the bus back to our area, with another 30 minute hike ahead of us...uphill. Exhausted! But, we had something to look forward to...our FREE dinner. :) This dinner was spent with our friends as well, Brigetè made a bunch of phone calls to the train station for us, (as you now know, the people out here don't like to speak to those who don't speak Italian) she didn't get anywhere, but what a sweetheart for trying! We closed the place down, everybody else had already gone to their rooms and we were just chatting away. It was great! I must be honest, thinking about saying good-bye to them the next day made me a bit emotional (I didn't let anyone know that though).
Good Night. Slept Well. Rome tomorrow.