P and I checked into our hotel in Cortina d’Ampezzo, about 75 miles of twisted roadway north of the Venice airport, and she said halfheartedly “this is nice!”
We looked out the window at the traffic zipping by, appreciating the views, but she didn’t seem in love. It was definitely very nice, with clear Tyrolean decor of natural wood walls. And importantly, it was clean. But it was also a bit small.
Nevertheless we didn’t need the Taj Mahal, we just needed someplace clean and reasonably comfortable to pass the evening, and this would do.
After almost 24 hours of travel encompassing 4 flights, I was a bit pungent, so while she sat in the back yard and checked the local lunch offerings, I showered and scraped away half a world of grime. I met her sitting on a shaded hillside, reading about some pizzerie that might be open.
With that we were off, strolling toward town, talking along the way, catching up, absorbing the local atmosphere, and planning for the next few days.
In town, the first pizzeria wasn’t open (it was honestly late for lunch even by Italian standards) but we meandered up and down the main street, soon finding ourselves some well made slices.
As the afternoon progressed we continued to wander around, trying not to sleep until we would be truly ready, eventually stopping for drinks on the patio of the Grand Hotel Savoia.
Lounging on the patio we sipped our cocktails (spagliatos) and gazed upon the verdant countryside. In the sky above us, the mountains were marked by numerous ski slopes. We kept talking, and it wasn’t long until P said it first, “this place is beautiful. We should move.”
But she didn’t mean the city, she meant the hotel. And I conceded, it was much nicer, and honestly not much more expensive.
So we booked new reservations for tomorrow and went for a quick hour-long hike into the surrounding countryside.
I haven’t hiked in a while, and part of this wasn’t fun – the incline was more than I liked, and it left me thinking about some of the easier hikes we might chosse to do.
Later, after dinner at Forst brew house, we walked the mile-long walk back to the hotel and agreed on a few things. Most importantly, the walk was too long, and the change was truly needed.
With that she assigned me the job of thinking of a good explanation for our early departure. We needed something to tell the old hotel when we checked out in the morning.
“Tell them something has come up,” she said.
The only thing I could think had come up was our level of required maintenance.
butterblogger 