K's Birthday Trip- Day 9- Seceda Ridge and Santa Magdalena, Italy

This day we visited Seceda Ridge and did some hiking. Then we drove to Santa Magdalena and took family photos.

The view from my hotel room this morning!

And the view looking the other direction from my room!

After breakfast we packed into a couple of cars and made our way to Seceda Ridge. 

It was a little foggy on the first part of our drive. 

Here you can start to see the mountains through the fog!

And they're a little more visible!

And now very visible!

Look at this pretty mountain!

And we made it to the town where the gondolas took us up to Seceda Ridge! The first gondola ride up the mountain, we had seats and only 6 people in each car.

Look at that view from the gondola!

On the first gondola ride!

And another view from the gondola. 

Then the second part of the trip up the mountain we had to switch to another gondola that was bigger and had standing room only with a lot of people crammed in there.

This was the gondola station where we switched to the bigger car!

On our way to the top of the mountain!

And we made it to the top!

Basically every way I turned it was soooooo beautiful!

Behind me was Seceda Ridge (I’ll get closer up photos of it too)!

All of us siblings minus Pete. (Pete had to do a little work and so stayed at the hotel with Mom and met up with us later). 

I wore my hair down this day so I wanted cute pictures of me. Even though it was kind of cold at the top, I wanted a picture without my jacket on. 😂

Seceda Ridge from afar!

Like I said every direction I turned it was so beautiful!

There was a loop trail to see better views of the ridge. Heather and I stuck together on this trail. 

This was part of the trail up to the views. 

There was snow up there!

Isn’t the ridge so cool?!

Being silly!

We saw a woman and man in wedding attire on the trail. I didn’t get a great picture but you can see the lady in the wedding dress in the maroon jacket. What a gorgeous place to take wedding photos!

Also where all of these people were gathered was part of the trail where it cost a little bit to go farther. 

Heather and I stuck to the free portion of the trail. But Lara, Glen, Nate, Kristina, Matt and Tim went on the paid portion of the trail for a little ways. 

 

I loved our time at Seceda Ridge! The trail was awesome and the views were gorgeous!

On the gondola ride down the mountain!

A pretty setting for a cemetery! (Picture taken from the gondola ride down the mountain)

The town where we caught the gondola ride up to Seceda Ridge!

Walking back to the cars to go to our next destination.

We drove to Santa Magdalena. Nate had been there before and thought it would be a good place to take family photos! It was gorgeous!

Pete and Mom met us here.

There was a little bit of confusion at this point about where exactly to take the pictures. Also we needed food but all of the restaurants in this town were closed (because it was Sunday).

We ended up not being able to eat lunch but Lara did have some snacks she was willing to share to tie us over until dinner time. 

It was a beautiful day!

We were testing out different areas of this trail to see if they would work for our family photos. I do like this photo but we decided the lighting was a little weird here. 

Look at this view!

I love this photo Lara took of the cemetery at the church on the hill!

This town was one of those places where no matter what direction I looked it was gorgeous!

And we found our spot for the pictures! (Heather did get some pictures here with her nice camera, but she has been super busy with work and hasn’t been able to look at them yet. These photos were taken by Glen with a phone). 

Look at the gorgeous background!

Of course we had to get a jumping picture!

The church and cemetery at the top of the hill!

So pretty!

This picture was taken from the car. We passed this big mouse statue twice going in and out of town and I had to take a picture. I have no idea the significance of the statue.

We found an open pizza place to eat at in a town on the way back to our hotels. This statue and fountain were outside the restaurant. We ate dinner and then drove back to our respective hotels. 

Although there was a little bit of confusion on this day, overall it was a lovely day with gorgeous surreal scenery and awesome company! 

K's Birthday Trip- Day 7 and Day 8- Travel Day and La Villa, Italy

 Day 7

Lara, Kristina, Heather, Mom and I flew from Lisbon, Portugal to Milan, Italy this day. While all of our brothers and one brother-in-law were also making their way to Italy for a mini family reunion.

We found some food at the airport when we arrived in Italy. The sandwich needed a little flavor, but otherwise was good. 

As soon as we arrived in Italy, we picked up a rental car and Heather, Kristina, Mom and I drove from Milan to La Villa, Italy. We didn't get to our hotel until after midnight. It was a long day. 

I was very grateful for Heather being willing to drive us to our hotel this night (although it was a five hour drive from the airport and once we got to the mountains the roads were narrow and windy and it was dark outside) so that we could be at and enjoy our destination the whole day the next day. 

Lara stayed in Milan waiting for her husband, Glen, to fly in the next morning. Our brothers also stayed in Milan for the night and they all drove to the Dolomites the next day.

Day 8

This day we did some hiking and exploring the town we were staying in. 

Kristina and I shared a room and Mom and Heather shared a room. This was the view from my room. So pretty!

The view looking the other direction from my room.

This was the view from the back of our hotel. The view was stunning in person!

After breakfast, Kristina, Mom and I went on a little walk near our hotel. Basically everywhere we looked was so picturesque. We found this trail to walk on but it didn't end up being a very long trail.

It's so pretty though!

Look at that view!

I liked the town we stayed in! It was so pretty and there were nice trails within walking distance of our hotel.

It was common to see buildings with a bunch of flowers covering the balconies or window ledges.

I liked this snail planter! 

We went back to the hotel for awhile and then Kristina and I went in search of another trail. 

We asked the person at the front desk of our hotel about nearby trails and she told us about one that followed a river.

And so to that trail we went!

We found the trail next to the river!

On the trail!

Look at that view!

I thought this picture was funny. A picture of me taking a selfie! 🤣 

This is the selfie I took that Kristina took a picture of. 

Everywhere we looked it was just so pretty!

I don't know exactly how far we went but we walked at least a few miles on the trail!

The trail continued for a long time, but eventually we had to head back to the hotel.

Mom ended up being sick this afternoon and for a couple of days afterward. We didn't want to leave her alone. So after Kristina and I came back from our hike, I stayed with Mom and Heather and Kristina went out on a hike. 

Heather and I ate dinner at the hotel this night and it was delicious! It was a multiple course meal. I loved the glasses they had for water. They had faces on them. :)

(Since Mom wasn't feeling well, Kristina stayed with Mom while Heather and I ate dinner. Kristina didn't feel like eating.) 

Veal with tuna sauce 'La Majun'

Milanese-style ossobuco ravioli

Venere rice, colored cherry tomatoes, basil and mozzarella foam 

One of the chefs making our crepes suzette. It was really interesting watching her make them. 

I had no idea what crepe suzettes were before this night.

Everything was delicious!

Overall this was an awesome day with stunning scenery and delicious food! I am so glad we had the full day in the beautiful little town.