Dolomites, South Tyrol

As every year, this year too we spent a few days in South Tyrol. With one novelty: since this spring we have a camper and this was our first mountain experience. The initial destination was Dobbiaco in Alta Pusteria. Having left home on Friday evening, we took the Brenner motorway and around 9 p.m. we stopped at a service station for dinner and continued until 11 p.m. To sleep we chose the most convenient solution: together with other campers we parked in a handy parking area on the motorway. The next morning at 8 a.m. we were already in front of the Dobbiaco lake campsite, where to our surprise they told us that until noon they didn't know whether there was space. What to do? The freedom a camper gives you is exactly this: we set off for the Anterselva valley, where we knew there was a campsite and where we indeed stopped.

The campsite is on grass, with a food shop, newspapers, and excellent facilities (hot showers, laundry, always-clean toilets and even a solarium). By chance and very happily, it was the village's 2-day country festival organized by the fire brigade. There was a big marquee with the stage for the band in Tyrolean costume and a food stand with rivers of beer. There were also games, costume parades and dancing. In this beautiful valley you can take various walks and hikes in the high mountains. The valley ends with a lovely lake called Anterselva, full of trout. Around it there's a trail that we walked in about 3 hours together with other tourists. In winter there are many cross-country ski trails and every year there's a biathlon race. Then we set off for Austria and came back down through Tarvisio into Italy...and we returned home happy and content.