Come rain, come shine

Your u3a travellers found sunshine in the mountain and rain on the lake, and everything in between. Sandra, as usual, organised it wonderfully, aided by guide Wendy, who adjusted the plan to allow for weather and traffic, and kept us engaged with information about the Dolomites region.

We saw Merano, with flowers by a rushing river and had wonderful views by travelling up on a chair lift.  Getting off was interesting.

On the second day we had excellent weather for our trip into the Dolomite mountains. We were blown away by the scenery set off by blue skies. Lunch surrounded by snow for many, was a delicious goulash soup at Passa Pordoi. The stunning location encouraged many photos and, for some, snowballing.

We descended around hairpin bends to Lake Garda, expertly driven by Massimo. We lost our hearts to charming Limone and then took a bracing paddle steamer ride up to Riva del Garda. We visited a stunning winery nestled beside breathtaking rock formations.

Each night we went back to the Paganella Hotel to be greeted by Fausto and his lovely team, where Fausto prepared a fun quiz evening and also put on music and dancing in the evening. The conga through the hotel kitchens was memorable for all the right reasons!

We all tried the grolla – a mixture of coffee, sugar and grappa drunk out of a spouted wooden bowl. The accompanying napkin was essential to catch the drips. Traditionally this is a ‘friendship cup’, and we were certainly celebrating the friendship between us all.

As we said goodbye to the mountains, tired but thrilled with all we had seen, we dropped down into Trento and viewed the amazing frescoed houses – and had a chance for a final gelato.

The Italian phrase dolce far niente describes ‘the sweetness of doing nothing’. This trip was nothing like that, but allowed us to taste the wonders of this region of la bella Italia.

Joanna Mace