Our Second Green Week Vacation with our UMBRAGROUP Colleagues
The first week of July the Tandem Spirits spent another great week in the mountains with our UMBRAGROUP colleagues. This year we were excited that our friends Scott and Gina were also able to join us for most of the week.
Our home base for this year’s “green week” was in Campitello di Fassa in the Dolomite Mountains. We stayed at Hotel Slaven. Campitllo di Fassa is a small town with a lot of hotels, small shops, restaurants and stunning views of the mountains. Throughout the week we had a mix of sun, overcast skies, and one day of rain, but the temperature was perfect. We were very comfortable all week, while it was already 90° in Foligno.
CAMPITELLO DI FASSA
A DAY IN THE MOUNTAINS
On our free days the four of us took the lift up the mountain. The first day the weather was fine and we were able to get a bit of hiking in. We took a funky lift that looked like a phone booth up to the Refugio Toni Demetz at the Forcello del Sassolungo. There was snow up there and after taking in the views we stopped in at the Refugio for a cup of hot chocolate before taking the cable car back down. We hiked a bit further and realized we were hungry. Fortunately we were’t far from Rifugio Salei.
LUNCH AT REFUGIO SALEI
The restaurant had a great menu and the food was so good that we retuned on Wednesday, even though it was raining. We enjoyed polenta with venison, dumplings in broth, a dumpling and barley soup, spazele with venison and some kick-ass desserts – apfelschmarren and kaseschmarren.
BOLZANO
We had group excursion on two days. The first one took us to the town of Bolzano where we had a guided tour of the town and the cathedral. Then we were free to explore and have lunch. In the afternoon we stopped at the Sanctuary of Pietraoalba and then spent some time at Lake Carezza, a beautiful, emerald green lake surrounded by the beautiful dolomite mountain ranges. It is fed by underground springs.
IL SANTUARIO DI PIETRALBA
LAGO DI CAREZZA
Our second group excursion took us to Presules Castle, where we had a guided tour. Next we went to Fiè Allo Saliar. We hiked to the lake above the town where we enjoyed a walk around the lake and some very good French fries. On the way back, we stopped at Ortisei and had gelato. The bus ride back to Campitello di Fasso took us through the mountains and we enjoyed the spectacular mountain views.
CASTELLO DI PRESULES
FIE' ALLO SCILIAR
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PASSING THROUGH THE SASSOLUNGO
On our final free day we rented e-bikes and rode along the bike trails 29 km to the town of Predazzo. We had lunch at Gams Pizzeria and rode back to Campitello di Fassa.
AN INCREDIBLE DAY OF BICYCLING!
LUNCH AT GAMS PIZZERIA
MUSIC MAKING AND LOTS OF GOOD FOOD!
We had our dinners each night at the hotel. Everything was delicious. In the evenings James and Scott played the guitar, our colleague Giuseppe played the Ukulele, and our colleague Luca sang. It was a lot of fun.
We’re already looking forward to next year’s “green week”.