The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of... Cow Bells

How our bus ever maneuvered over those mountains, I'll never know but the scenery was spectacular driving from Verona to our hotel called Pension Seelaus in the Dolomites.

It seriously was right out of the movie Heidi. 

And guess what?  Pension Seelaus provided our meals so no pizza for two days!  Now, our diet really started to expand. Pension Seelaus is a family run ski lodge, resort - type place with a real Austrian feel to it.  The rooms were all wood and rustic and were the nicest rooms we stayed in, complete with down comforters. Ahhhhh. We loved it.  And the meals were incredible.  The dining room served the same meal to all the guests with the menu displayed as you walked in.

We started off with an incredible salad bar

complete with roasted vegetables

and I loved all the interesting salad options like coleslaw, tuna salad, rice with vegetables, bean salad, potato salad, pasta salad...

Along with the salad bar came the breads. Oh my, the breads.

Olive bread, polenta bread, yogurt bread, etc.  All freshly baked, slice as you go.

And don't forget the focaccia bread with olives and tomatoes.

The condiments included anchovies, just in case...

My salad bar plate ended up looking like this.

After the salad bar, we were served soup, entree and dessert.  Yes, it was a feast considering I was actually quite satisfied after the salad bar.  I guess you could tell I was craving something other than pizza by this time, something maybe with a little fiber in it.  

And yes, we had this for two evenings in this lovely, cozy dinning room.

The first night they served trout with rosemary and thyme and the second night we had pork with Williams potatoes and tartar of vegetables.

The desserts were lovely.  Night one was a Yogurt Cake on Stewed Fruit

and night two was a Frozen Parfait of Mountain Honey Rolled in Biscuit.

Thank goodness we were in the Dolomites so we could burn this off with all the hill climbing and hiking in the area. And that's exactly what we did on our full day here.  Bruce and I ended up taking a bus down to a little alpine village called Castelrotto at a 6,000 foot altitude.

The main square was called Piazza Kraus named after the family who ruled the town from 1550-1800.

The bell tower was freestanding after it's attached church burned in 1753.

We took a little hike around the town's hill past seven little chapels, each depicting a scene from Christ's Passion .

After that little hike we headed to the village of Siusu/Seis to catch a ride on the gondola (or cable car that it's called here) to be lifted back up to Compatsch, the little tourist village where we all started.   Compatsch is the entrance to the meadow called Alpe di Siusi, Europe's largest high-alpine meadow where Pension Seelaus is located.  

We walked back to Pension Seelaus after the cable car dropped us off and enjoyed all the scenery of dotted farms and animals grazing.  

The main thing we'll remember about this stay was the distinct sound of the cows' bells constantly ringing.  We heard it the first night and couldn't figure out what that sound was.  It was pitch dark outside, yet there was the deep sound of bells ringing and soon we realized it was bells from around the cows' necks.  That was just amazing to us and we just love that sound.  

Simple pleasures are enough to find fulfillment in this natural wonderment.