Was up at 6:00AM Monday morning to get on the transfer bus to go back to Venice airport for my flight out to Edinburgh. Liz sent me off with a fantastic packed lunch (rolls, fruit, juice boxes, chocolate!) so I wouldn't have to buy ridiculously expensive food at the airport…she takes such good care of me! :) I said goodbye to Em & Liz with big, BIG hugs, & we vowed to meet up in Perth sometime in the next few years to take a road trip up North & s...

Sunday morning I woke up to another beautiful day in the Dolomites…but with a heavy heart, knowing it's my last day here :( I have really, REALLY loved this place…the people, the mountains, the scenery, the quiet, the activities - everything! I spent the morning getting myself packed up & ready to go while Liz did some cleaning around the chalet & then we headed off around lunchtime with Emily to go up to the top of Pralonjia Plateau. We drove ov...

Saturday Liz was on domestics again so I took the morning to have a wander around the local village, called Pedraces Badia. There's a huge cycling race happening tomorrow so the town was teeming with cyclists signing up & doing their last training before the big day. Apparently there's about 9000 people participating and it goes on all day, which means most of the roads will be closed & we'll have to stay close to home, just going wherever is within wal...

REALLY feeling my legs today…yikes! Liz! What are you doing to me?? :P Fortunately Friday morning Liz was on domestic duty & had cleaning & food prep to do around the chalet until around 1:00PM, so I had "the morning off" :P However, she very kindly organized for me to go along with another group that were heading up the mountain to a place called Santa Croce (pronounced Santa "Crochet") to do some watercolour painting. You needed absolutely no experi...

Thursday was an "out day" for Liz i.e., she had to take a group out on an organized walk. Fortunately she gets quite a lot of flexibility in choosing what walks she offers & therefore had an extra special plan to take me (& the other guests) up to the Lagazuoi mountain where there are many tunnels constructed in WW1 that you can climb through & explore. Only two other guests had signed up for that walk, a couple of Aussies actually, Monica & Dav...