Molveno

The hotel

 The time has come to tell you a little about our holidays. As you probably realised we went to Molveno, a village in the Dolomites. Our hotel was near the shore of the lake of the same name.

Or so we were told.

The village with the lake before it

It turned out the village was rather bigger than we had anticipated. Most of it was up a hill too steep to expect the Fox to even attempt to push me. The land between the hotel & the lake had been built on so the lake was only really visible from the hotel if you had an upper floor bedroom. From our bedroom on the first floor you only saw the roof of the public swimming pool & conference centre. However it was a fairly easy walk to actually make you way to the shore edge.

The lake

The lake, too, was also bigger than anticipated. It took most people about 4 hours to do a full circuit around the lake. It was incredibly green. The stream running into it was milky green – milky with natural deposits rather than pollution.

Lake Molveno

The stream to the lake

The stream to the lake

Behind the hotel the mountains reared. The Brenta group dominated one side, with its challenging slopes for mountaineering. On the other side was the lower Paganella height with its skiing slopes in winter. By the time we arrived most of the snow had gone except on the very tops. Even while we stayed, the rainy days we had at the hotel level, was snow higher up.

Brenta group

Paganella behind the village

It is a really beautiful, peaceful spot. Clearly most visitors were interested in the walking – it did look fabulous! – the mountain bike riding, the climbing, & in winter, the skiing. In summer there are various watery activities on the lake.

It made a good base for us, a place to let go & recharge our batteries. And we certainly needed to do that.

Saga rep leading the group into the village centre

On the first day there the Saga rep took everyone on a walk around the village, pointing out the essential services. The Fox went while I stayed behind. There was another lady there, Ruth who also had some walking difficulties, so we struck up an acquaintanceship. The Fox meanwhile had made the acquaintance of Col, Ruth’s husband. Over the following couple of weeks our acquaintanceships developed into friendship as whiled away wet days talking or playing dominoes. Ruth & I were soon established as the quiz queens – we won all 3 quizzes we entered during the holiday.

Other days we went our separate ways – we in the car to explore, they content with a gentle stroll along the lake edge, watching the people as well as the birds with a regular stop at the ice-cream parlour (Col’s an ice-cream addict) or going on one of the arranged coach trips to Trento or around the Dolomites.

All in all the days passed quietly, gently. We did do some trips, of which I will write in the coming days.