Epic Global Adventures

After spending a week hiking in the mountains, 12 of us spent 2 nights in Venice! And after spending a week hiking in the mountains, 12 of us spent 2 nights in Venice! I was giddily anticipating this, because I had read that the tourist load was at 30% of “normal”, and of course we ALL read about how clean everything was after 18 months without tourists. The only other time I’ve been to Venice was in 1990, during a multi-month vagabonding through Europe. I was taking trains f

The Dolo-Mighty16 and our amazing guide, Karl Mather. I’ll probably cry, while I write this post, because I miss everyone SO fricking much. We all arrived with our respective spouses and/or friends, and from the first day, we knew the specialness of this group. By the end of our second day together, we were best friends. By the end of the week, we were forever-friends. All 16 of us, plus Karl! I knew I’d have fun with this new job, but I had no idea my heart would get so deep

Earlier, I wanted my posts to show you how the magnificence of the Dolomites transcends comprehension. I wanted to show you WHY the 16 of us signed up for this trip. Now, I’ll introduce you to our incredible 4* Hotel Adler in Villabassa, and the magnificent food we enjoyed all week … If our 8-hour hiking days were like scraping our knees, this four-star Tyrolean gem was like our mama sweeping us into her soothing and protective arms, kissing our tears away. Seriously—ANYONE c

Earlier this week, I found Heaven. Yesterday, I met God. Today, the Grim Reaper winked at me. We traversed one of the many Via Ferratas today (“iron path”)—2 of us chose NOT to do this from the start and walked an alternative route to our meeting place; 3 more of us (including me), left the “trail” when an exit presented itself 3/4 of the way through; the rest of the group bravely plodded on! For the rest of the day, I tried to figure out why my panic came up during THIS trav

I tried explaining today’s experience to a friend, and all I could come up with was this … I was in heaven on our previous hike, but today, I met god. Tonight at dinner, every single one of us talked about our fatigue for the very first time all week. This isn’t the kind of fatigue from just physical exertion—this is the kind that comes from emotional overload. We spent about 7 hours today in a perpetual state of awe. PERPETUAL. Around every corner, there was more awe. At one

My thought as we were descending today was, “If I don’t see another beautiful thing, if it just rains for the rest of the week, I’m ok.” What we experienced today SATURATED me with awe; words can’t describe what we saw, and photos look fake. Photo 2: The ruins of the bakery where Apfelstrudel was first created. View looking into Austria. 3: View of the “Three Chimneys” from our lunch spot. 4-9: Our lunch spot today, being on the summit, had 360° views of mountain peaks that s

Day 3 … Each day, the hikes ramp up a bit in intensity and scope. Today, we were on the trail for 8 hours, round-trip, reaching an elevation around 6500’. The beginning was very steep, wet (very foggy this morning), and gravel-ly—and many of us became concerned about making it through the rest of the hike. (Photos 1, 2) But after a bit, the steepness leveled off, the skies cleared, and for the duration of the day, it was 90% lovely, and 10% head-down-don’t-talk-to-me-I-can’t-

Day 2—This was our first day of hiking/walking, and our destination was Lago di Braies. 1. We walked through countryside 2. We walked through villages 3. Our first pit stop had swings:) 4. We walked through trees (I guess I didn’t take photos of the steep parts of our hike, because I was just focusing on trying to breathe! 😆) 5. The Dolo-Mighty 16 at Lago di Braies! 6-7. Beer and Aperol Spritzes are a regular thing now. 8. This friend group of 25-30 years, from ME and CT, re

I’ll let the photos do the talking! Day 1–en route to and arrival in Italy … 1. Masked up in Logan airport, ready to board our first international flight in TWO years! 2. Breakfast during our layover in Munich. 3. Flying over the Dolomites! 4. Driving from Venice to our mountain hotel in Villabassa—about a 3-hr drive. 5. Our first dinner together as a group. I couldn’t have lucked out more—fun, social and inclusive individuals make for a ✨spectacular✨ group experience! Home B