Right this is amazing Hotel - Dolomites - Italy

THURSDAY JUL 17 / 2014 / by admin
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Three mates and the Amazing hotel in the Dolomites

Three mates, Dave, Stuart and Lachlan from Melbourne arrive at an obscure town called "Paolo di Saldo" near the foothills of the Dolomites which is literally out in the middle of nowhere, so far in fact that you can't even find any info on Google.

After months of careful planning for their big Italian cycling holiday, (Milan to Dolomites then Venice) they rocked up to their booked hotel and this Russian guy who could barely speak English showed the group to their room. Stuart's initial reaction was "It looked like this retirement village/hospital where there were 3 beds in this tiny little room".

Dave goes on to summarise it precisely "Right, this is amazing"  So the Russian dude detecting some sarcasm asks "is everything is fine?" And the group responds, "yeah, yeah, everything is fine" As the Russian walks away, Dave says incredulously "this place is F%$$#G S&%$T!!!".

So they decide to go to a pub, get a drink and "think about this", well the publican was about to show them a room, but as they weren't sure whether they should go up and inspect the room given their earlier experience they decided to leave instead.

Knowing that once they left, any sales opportunities had ended, the publican insisted they stay "Look, I will give you a beer and then you can decide", in response Dave utters "No! No! -  we're going" with a quick reply straight back from the pub dude "come with me and have a beer and then you decide"

So they have a beer or 2, he places chips on the table and when it comes time to pay the super pub salesman replies  "Look you don't have to stay here, if you come back, its ok",  so with a  bit of reverse psychology  the group keeps repeating "we'II stay, we'II stay" and again form the super pub salesman "look, you don't have to stay here" and guess what - they end up staying.

Dolomites - Italian Cycling

Ultimately, when you get the most amazing riding in the Domolites, where you stay pales into insignificance.

Dolomites and sheep while cycling

Even the prospect of riding the wave of sheep does little to damper the atmospheric views at Forno di Zoldo in the Dolomites.

So with so many passes, I asked the guys which was their favourites climbs? It was a hard choice but the standout were the back of the Gavia, Motorola with the 8ft of snow and hitting 90km/h+ on the descent plus Stelvio.

And next year they may be off to Edmonton in Canada to visit a friend who's a handy mountain biker or maybe it may be Take II in the Dolomites.