Tag Archives: Val Gardenia

What I do after a European trip

20 Jan

20 January 2025.

Getting home from a trip there’s a lot to do in a jet-lagged state: unpacking, laundry, restocking the pantry and refrigerator, doing the delayed fall garden chores, convincing the cats we still love them.

But the real work starts once jet lag passes: organizing photos and updating our books. This takes hours and hours to ensure the accuracy of every recommended URL, the schedules for buses and lifts, the most recent transportation pass offers, and to write up new hikes and changes to prior recommendations. Ah, retirement! But this is a job.

January 1 we published the 4th edition of “Walking in Switzerland’ Berner Oberland” and January 18, “Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena” came out in its 6th iteration.

For those dreaming about these locations, we offer inspiration to plan the trip with logistics seldom found concisely presented online. From transportation to trailheads, each walk or hike is described clearly so you can be certain every hike is within your ability.

Here’s a description of each book and a link to purchase in the US. For other markets, consult your respective Amazon site.

Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena

There are many hiking guides to Italy’s Dolomites featuring long treks of 4-6 hours, as well as multi-day ventures and the famous via ferrata. What makes this one so special? This is a guide to easier options for walking in Italy’s breathtaking Val Gardena! Seniors, people with children, and anyone who wants to experience the mountains but not climb them will benefit from the 23 walks that are carefully described.

We guide the hiker through the breathtaking scenery using itineraries suitable for anyone who likes to walk, likes to be in nature, and who enjoys Italy, but may not have the stamina for longer, more strenuous hikes.

This unique guide includes 23 walks in-and-near the Val Gardena towns of Ortisei, Selva, and Santa Cristina, as well information on when to visit, how to get around without a car, and sample itineraries to help you plan your stay of 3, 5, 7 or more nights. Of special interest will be the easy hikes in the amazing Alpe di Siusi.

Included are maps, directions to the trailheads, walking time and distance, where to eat along the trail, beautiful photographs, and details on how to use the system of mountain lifts and buses to access the high meadows and breathtaking Dolomite views. You will discover delightful rifugi, mountain restaurants offering shelter and great food making each walk a special expedition. In addition, every walk is accessible by public transportation!

The authors travel to Ortisei frequently exploring this mountain paradise discovering and documenting the walks to share with you so you can be certain every hike is within your ability.

Walking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland

Switzerland’s Berner Oberland is a hiker’s paradise, whether you like easy paths or dream of attempting the Via Ferrata. This book will guide you through breathtaking scenery using itineraries suitable for anyone who likes to walk, likes to be in nature, but may not have the stamina for longer, more strenuous hikes. Seniors, people with children, and anyone who wants to experience the mountains but not climb them will benefit from the 21 walks that are carefully described. Also included are instructions on local transportation, sample itineraries to help you plan your stay of 3, 5, 7 or more nights, and suggestions for other excursions as well as rainy-day ideas.

The authors travel to Switzerland frequently exploring this mountain paradise completely via public transportation, discovering and documenting the walks. Even non-walkers will revel in the scenery as they ride mountain trains and enclosed gondola cars to amazing vistas.

What do I do after a European trip and after the book updates are published? Plan the next trip! Most likely with a cat or two in my lap.

Sven and Molly are happy to have us home.

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Best of this-and-that    

31 Dec

31 December 2022.

Inevitably we are bombarded with “best of” lists and year-end compilations. If you hate these lists, just stop now because I am going to assault you with mine. I would love it, however, if you would respond with some of your favorites. They might become mine in 2023.

Best Book

Recently, I tried to recommend my favorite book of 2022 to someone and found myself perplexed: I have several I enjoyed so very much I had the devil of a time picking one.

Goodreads tells me I read only 32 books this year, 11,921 pages, ranging from travel books (5) to mysteries (12), and assorted fiction (15). Goodreads does not have a log of my cookbooks, but I know I read two new ones cover-to-cover for inspiration.

No single genre nor author shot to the top, rather my list is of entirely different specimens.

Tied for top book of 2022: Horse by Geraldine Brooks, West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge, and Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. I think Gayle recommended all of these to me. I shall heed her every word on books to read.

Runners Up:  Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig, and A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway, both by Amor Towles.

Best Picture

We watch a lot of movies. Some are forgotten as soon as they finish. Some of my 2022 favorites are much older than 2022. We aren’t necessary current in our viewing so thank goodness for streaming.

The Fabelmans tops my list.This one will stay with me awhile and we will rewatch it soon. The acting, the script, the arc of the story, and the truth in this movie come together in a rewarding manner.

Others of merit: She Said (gripping!), The Outfit (Mark Rylance), Nobody (Bob Odenkirk), and Vice (Christian Bale as Dick Cheney is a transformation to behold).

Best TV Series

We have a real weakness for great series. While none of these will make my all-time top-10 series list, they are excellent entertainment and far better than network series. Not included are series that are ongoing that we started in years past like Vera, Shetland, Better Call Saul.

The following are in alphabetical order as I cannot pick a favorite.

Alaska Daily: Hilary Swank as an investigative reporter. Cliffhanger on season one. Will there be a season two?

For All Mankind: Alternative history drama about the space program starting in the 1960s. Particularly interesting to those of us who lived through the era. Awaiting season 4.

Gaslit: Julia Roberts as Martha Mitchell and Sean Penn as John Mitchell in another stunning transformation.

Grace: We are suckers for British detective dramas. Season 3 is due out soon.

Inside Man: Stanley Tucci and David Tennant. Too bad it was only a mini-series.

Karen Pirie: Another British detective drama but aimed at a younger market than most. Thoroughly enjoyable.

The Restaurant: This is an outlier. I have two seasons under my belt and am looking forward to the final 10 episodes. In Swedish, with subtitles, so demands attention but extremely well-done with interesting characters.

Best Meal

Ahhh, so many good ones! Sazón in Santa Fe, Recipe A Neighborhood Kitchen in Newberg, and Tina’s in Dundee. But the standout for me was in Geneva at Boccadasse: Italian food cooked by Italians in Switzerland. It was the last night of our fall trip and we feasted on octopus with potato puree, Vermentino (one of our favorite wines with seafood), seafood pasta, and semifreddo. Absolute heaven and so memorable!

Polpo con crema di patate
Semifreddo. There was no sharing.

Best New Recipe

Slow-cooker Shrimp in Purgatory. OMG is this good! https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022265-slow-cooker-shrimp-in-purgatory. New to us this year, it is on the list for frequent repetition.

Best New-to-us Hike

Rifugio Emilio Comici to Mont di Sëura in the Alpe di Siusi. This was a difficult hike for us with a 900 foot descent, beyond what we usually do, but so terribly rewarding in that we did it. We self-congratulated for hours.

Looking back over the trail we hiked.

Best Urban Walk/Hike:

Mount Tabor. I had not been up on Mount Tabor in over 10 years so revisiting with my walking buddy, Grier, was a delight in rediscovering the area. Grier and I also hiked the Alameda Ridge in spring, which is a contender for Great Urban Walks. Thanks to Laura O. Foster’s books on Portland walks we are still discovering treks even after 30+ years living here.

Best Household Improvement: Molly & Sven joined us in January and March, respectively. Such a joy to have their lively selves cavorting about the house, even if they do want breakfast waayyyy too early.

Happiest of New Years to everyone! Tell me, what were your “bests” in 2022?

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Two Books for 2022

20 Feb

19 February 2022.

Perhaps I should repurpose my worn out boots like this Swiss gardener did.

EDITORS NOTE: These books were updated in 2025. Here are the links to the current editions, US site. Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena and Walking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland . If you are purchasing from another market (UK, DE, etc.) please go to your country’s page and be sure to look for the 2025 editions.

1.2 million steps. That’s what my Fitbit logged on our trip last fall to update our two easy-hiking books. Converting that to miles, between 400-480 miles in 10 weeks.

No wonder I needed a new pair of hiking boots when we got home.

Those steps have come to fruition at last: the 2nd edition of Walking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland (updated link to th edition in Jan 2025) and the 4th edition of Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena are now available on Amazon in all markets worldwide in Kindle and in paperback. (These URLs are to the US site. Listed below are links to the sites for the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Please search your country’s Amazon site – Italy, Germany, Japan, 4India, etc. – if you are buying elsewhere.)

The Val Gardena book still features 23 hikes and minimal changes were made in this edition. We checked the local information and retook many of the hikes, rechecked URLs, transportation, cost of passes, and so on. For those with earlier versions, there are not a lot of changes and significant ones are noted on our updates page at ProjectEasyHiker.com.

An outing not in the book is one we call “A Path to Lunch,” an easy but satisfying outing in the Val Gardena that can be split into two shorter walks.

Seven new hikes were added to the Berner Oberland book for a new total of 20 outings. We spent 28 nights researching in the area last fall and never ran out of ideas for easy hikes. While the new book is the only place we’ve written up all of the new hikes, updates to walks featured in the first edition are on ProjectEasyHiker.com.

All of the hikes in both books feature maps and all of the maps are available to download to your mobile device.

Most notable this visit versus our last trip in 2019, there are now great apps for transportation in both Switzerland and the Südtirol. The SBB app links travelers to all modes of transportation: train, bus, boat, and mountain lifts with an interconnected route planner. It is also an easy platform for buying tickets on the go.

In the Südtirol, the südtirolmobil app offers timetables and a trip planner that are invaluable when you are on-the-go.

As always, we are happy to answer questions and get your feedback. Please drop us a note at ProjectEasyHiker@gmail.com.

Happy Hiking!

UK sites: Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena and Walking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland

CA sites: Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena and Walking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland

AU sites: Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena and Walking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland.

All other markets, please search your respective Amazon site.

(Link usdated to newest versions in January 2025.)

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Val Gardena book now in third edition

21 Feb

21 February 2020.

EDITORS NOTE: Both books were updated in 2025. Here is the link to the current edition, US site: Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena. If you are purchasing from another market (UK, DE, etc.) please go to your country’s page and be sure to look for the 2023 edition.

It has been a very busy month. Having just released our book Walking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland on January 26, we’ve updated our book of easy hikes in Italy’s Dolomites. Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena is now available in its third — and best — edition. Just released on Amazon overnight last night, the big improvement in this edition is that it includes maps for every one of the 23 easy hikes described in the book.

We first published “Walking,” or as I like to call it “WIVG,” in early 2017. Each year we’ve made it stronger, but I am really delighted that we found a tool to help us create maps. Each hike has a printed map and a link to an online map with an elevation profile. The viewer can customize their experience by selecting the type of map (Street, Satellite, Cycling and more), zoom in to see more details, and also personalize a timer based on individual walking speed. Maps can be downloaded in eight different formats.

For fun, here’s one route, a very easy but delightful art walk on a small mountain called Monte Pana where views over the valley from almost 7200 feet are accompanied by an art installation. Take a look and discover the Troi Unika. (NOTE: As of 2025, we no longer recommend this walk as the trail was poorly maintained when we walked it.)

Mountain path with artwork
The emblem a the start of the Troi Unika, a very easy walk.

WIVG is available in paperback as well as Kindle, and if you are a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you can read it for free. Our books are also available in Amazon Marketplaces worldwide such as Italy, the UK, Japan, and India.

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Walking off the pizza

19 Sep

19 September 2019.

It is so wonderful to have fine Italian pizza again! Nothing in the U.S. compares, for us. Here, we each eat an entire pizza and while full, we never feel bloated or grotesque. And my jeans still zip the next morning.

Pizza

The culprit: Pizza Golosa, which means ‘delicious’ or ‘gluttonous.’ Fresh mushrooms and cherry tomatoes with spicy salami and gorgonzola. Ric had a Siciliana with anchovies, capers, and olives.

Italian pizza crust is made from a type of flour that is more digestible. (Ask any Italian about digestibility and you’ll be entertained for hours.) The toppings are fresh and pure and distributed with a light hand. Each ingredient shines on its own and together, well,  Mamma mia what a product!

Pizzeria & Steakhouse La Tambra in Santa Cristina is our favorite in the Val Gardena. Usually, we make the trek to La Tambra in the evening catching the infrequent and elusive night bus back to Ortisei. The other day, while tromping around on Monte Pana and Mont de Sëura, we realized that it was almost lunchtime and Santa Cristina was only a chairlift away. Does La Tambra serve pizza at lunch? Turns out they do, and as it was a sunny day, we could dine on the terrace. But what to do after lunch? It was only 14:30 and we certainly could use some steps to retard the growth of fat cells after eating THE WHOLE THING.

Ric’s idea? Walk back to Ortisei on the Sentiero del Trenino. This mostly level path takes one between the towns of Santa Cristina and Ortisei where the WWI supply train ran from 1916-1918. Eventually, it became a tourist train which operated until 1960. This area was part of Austria when the railway was built and was annexed by the Kingdom of Italy after WWI. Some 6000 Russian and Serbian POWs were conscripted to build the line, which they accomplished in only 5 months of brutal day-and-night labor.

WWI picture

Photo from one of the informative panels along the route. 6000 Russian prisoners and 3500 locals were employed in building the WWI rail line to resupply the front. This was Austria at the time.

We started our walk a bit before the official start of the path, launching our pizza-stuffed selves off the terrace of La Tambra and making our way up to the picturesque church in Santa Cristina. The cemetery is stunning and beautifully maintained by the families. Seasonal flowers are planted on each gravesite.

More-or-less beneath the church, a tunnel used by the narrow-gauge train was reopened in 2017 with informative displays about the line. It is well worth a 15-minute detour to walk the 203-meter tunnel and study the displays. The tiny renovated station house (from tourist train days) has short films of the trains in action.

Click any photo for more detail and a slide show.

Looks like a model train set but it is the refreshed tunnel and tiny station building for the old narrow-gauge railway.
The tunnel is a short walk (203 meters), even pavement, well-lighted, with historical panels.
How the train looked in happier times, ferrying tourists.
Informative panel depicts the old route used first in WWI to supply the Dolomites front and then as a tourist train until 1960.
An entry in the journal of the priest from Nov 1918. Austria lost this region to Italy in WWI.
I am including this for those who might try to find their way here. We missed the sign and overshot so entered from the western end. Coming up form the Tourist Info Office, watch for this sign and turn right to find the eastern entrance.

Continuing on after the church, one heads steeply downhill. We encountered cyclists going both directions but felt exceedingly sorry for one guy who was pushing a pram uphill while his wife struggled along behind. We’ve done this hill in both directions and would vote to go down every time. Ugh!

S. Cristina pat

This path is steeper than it looks. After this descent the rest of the path is mostly level.

Then the path levels out and it is a delightful stroll to Ortisei, past farms, playgrounds, and beautiful hotels. Sunny vistas are interspersed with forested sections. The 3 miles passed quickly, taking about 90 minutes including the train tunnel detour.

At least we made a dent in those pizza calories since we are back on the weekly pizza plan during out trip!

Click any photo for more detail and a slide show.

This sign on a rather modern-looking hotel, compares the local Sassolungo to the Burj in Dubai.
One passes several lovely hotels and guests residences along the path.
Farmers are still raking up grasses to store for winter feed once the cows are brought down from the high pastures.
Most of the path is level as it was a railway line from WWI.
One of the pretty sights along the path.
Coming into lovely Ortisei after our 3 mile, hour-and-twenty-minute walk.
Ortisei’s church is iconic, and this is where the railway passed through town thanks to a tunnel.
The view back to the Sella Group and Sassolungo from Ortisei, every garden bedecked with flowers.

 

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