"ITALY AND THE DOLOMITES!" Italy by balhannah

My husband and I visited the following town's when doing a Mediterranean
Cruise,

We saw Genoa
and
Messina both ports of call where we had a full day to explore each.

We both thoroughly enjoyed
GENOA.

The City is very old with plenty to see. You will find cobblestone's, narrow alley ways, good views, Palace's and magnificent Churches.
You need to allow 2 days to see all that is here.

MESSINA is in Sicily, and we really didn't find a lot to see.

We went to TAORIMA, which is also on Sicily.
Quite a pretty spot, put you need to go there in the quiet time.

Dolomites

June 2011, and we arrive in Italy after spending some time in Switzerland.

DAY 1.......

At Martina in Switzerland, then we were briefly in Austria and Nauders, before passing through Reschenpass into Italy and LAGO DI RESIA, a nice Lake and a holiday area.

From here on, the scenery is beautiful, and we decide to stop at MERANO for our first night in Italy.

Merano is a lovely city with plenty to see, and lots of beaut Art Noveau building's. It is a spa town, and there is a magnificent Spa there, and beautiful Palace's which are now Hotel's.
The surrounding countryside has vineyards and fruit trees, and is very scenic.

If you want, you could do a round trip from Merano to San Leonardo di Passiria, [Route SS44,] a stunning drive, and then on Sterzing [Route SS44] in Summer, in Winter the road is closed.

This takes you on another stunning drive, over the Jaufenpass.
This Route is marked as a "scenic route," and it lives up to that!

Then head down to Bolzano and back to Merano.

Travel the old road, NOT THE HIGHWAY.

You will probably need to stay somewhere one night, as there is plenty to see, like REIFENSTEIN CASTLE and many others.

DAY 2............

We head off early today after a good breakfast, and feeling sorry to be leaving our great accommodation and Merano.

We follow the SS44 to Sterzing, and then head down on the old road [SS12] to Bressanone and onto Ponte Gardena where we turn left and head on another marked scenic road [SS242] to
ORTISEI

Lots of interesting religious wood carving's here!

After a look at the shop's, it was time to hit the road again, and travel through the Val Gardena Valley and the Dolomite's to CANAZEI where we will spend the night.

Canazei has lots and lots of buildings with beautiful frescoes!

Italy

DAY 3.....

We are sorry to leave our lovely Hotel in Canazei.

Back on the same road, then turning off onto another road that will lead us through more of the Dolomites, and more wonderful scenery.

We pass through the town Arabba where there are more frescoes on the Houses, and then we move onto
CORTINA d'AMPEZZO and to
TARVISIO for our final night in Italy.

The next day, after travelling only about 10kms, we pass through the border and into SLOVENIA

I hope you will join me in Slovenia for a few days, before heading to Croatia.

• Pros:The Dolomites are a must see in Italy!
• In a nutshell:What we saw of Italy was beautiful!