Tuesday January 24, 2006

Today was a beautiful day and so we decided to start hiking wherever our feet would take us. This is a picture taken from the front of our hotel. It was the Hotel Impero located just one block from the Corsa Italia. This is a family run hotel and the people were extremely nice.

Below are pictures of Randy and myself standing in front of our hotel.

This is the Olympic ice carving in the Corsa Italia. It took the sculptors several days to complete it and they looked very cold in the process.

Below are some beautiful views of the mountains seen at various spots around Cortina.

A small garden, which we found. I bet it is really beautiful in the summer.

This was an old bridge that went over the river many, many years ago. I wonder if the early Romans ever crossed over this bridge in their travels through Cortina.

This cat was perched on the window sill. It was very cold out but the cat seemed OK. That was one COOL CAT!!!

More scenes from around Cortina.

Stopped for a break at one of our favorite coffee shops and I got a chocolate sundae and Randy got a bannana split. Needless to say he couldn’t finish it all, but came very close.

This is where people congregate in the early afternoon to take in the sun. This was taken on the Corsa Italia across from the bell tower. All the shops close down from 12:00 to 3:30 except for the coffee shops and a few restaurants. There is no 24/7 in Italy. I wish the US would do it this way as well.

When in Rome do as the Romans do. Well when in Cortina do as the Cortians do. We also found a nice chair across from the bell tower and sat in the sun for about an hour. It was really relaxing. What a way to live !!!!!

A good shot of all the older ladies dressed in their full length furs probably standing around talking about all the shops they had been in and where they would be shopping once the shops reopened.

All of the eeves were made of copper pipes. They would probably stand up better in this cold climate. However everyone was fairly well off (except for us) as shown by the previous picture of the ladies, so cost for copper was probably no problem. Must be nice !!!

Some nice scenes around Cortina.

Even found a tennis court. While we were in Cortina the Australian Open was going on. We watched the highlights on TV in the evening. Bet this court hadn’t been used for a while.

After the tennis court we just happened to stumble on the bob sled track. That looks like a real blast. We were planning on going on it but it happened late at night and would have cost 80 Euros (about $100). Fortunately by walking around the town we ran into it and got to see what it was really like.

This was a really neat home on the outskirts of Cortina near the bob sled run.

Some shots taken on our way back to downtown Cortina.

After a long hike we finally made it back to our hotel room. These are views taken from our room. Not to shabby!!!!!

After a long day we relaxed by watching TV. What a bore!!! The only English channels were CNN and BBC, which are both news channels. All we heard all week was how Hamas won the Palestinian election. YUK!!! The rest of the time we watched soccer matches broadcast in Italian. Bigger YUK!!! Our room had two twin beds and one chair facing the TV. Randy got the chair and I got the bed.

Tomorrow we are planning on a side trip to Bolzano, Italy where we will see the Ice Man.

To see pics in full view click on slideshow after clicking here