Another anxious period waiting in the correct place (we hope) at the correct time (we think) for the CortinaExpress bus to take us from the Venice Airport up into the Alta Badia region to the village of La Villa.
And, right on time. Whew!
Then a 3 hour trip north. It looked a lot like approaching the front range in Colorado from the east. Except the land seemed much more hospitable. Lot of vineyards and villages.
One hour and we were into the mountains. Another hour and 9 tunnels later we reached Cortina D’Ampezzo.
We had to get off the bus for 30 minutes. Somewhat worrying as our bags were still aboard. But right on schedule we reboarded and headed another hour north. But we left the fairly narrow two lane highway we had been following and drove on a 1 1/2 lane, very wine-dy road. Dark now. The hairpin turns were sharp enough that we had to use the entire width of the road and occasionally had to wait until there were no oncoming cars. At the appointed hour we arrived at a bus stop on the main street in La Villa. I understood that the hotel was a short distance up the road from the bus stop. Kathy stayed with all the bags and I walked up the street a bit. And YES! Hotel ChristiAnia! Back for Kathy and the bags. Short walk uphill. Into a very nice room (the floor in the bath is heated). Down to the bar for our complementary welcome cocktail (prosecco with mashed strawberries), then on to the restaurant for a very good prix fixe meal. We meet our guide Filippo at 8:30 tomorrow, pick up rental skis, and then find a lift.
