Back to Polcenigo

Italia, a country that will always hold a special place in our hearts, was top of our list of places to visit again while we in England so that we could share some of our fondest memories with Callum and Claire.  

After Tyler's exchange conference in Garmisch, we drove through the Dolomites into Italy and back to our old village of Polcenigo.  Along the way, we enjoyed the mountain scenery and had one of typical picnics on a hillside in Austria. 

We stayed in the heart of the village near the river in an old house converted into apartments. We were just steps away from the Gelateria and Vecchio's pizza parlor that we always loved.  The first night we ate at our old favorite place, Ca de Bosco and gorged on pasta and pizza on the outdoor patio.  The kids ordered pizza with French fries and reached a new pinnacle of culinary delights. 

We had a total of five days in Polcenigo to enjoy and relive the good times.  Our first day we drove around and saw the area and had a few drinks in Gorgazzo while we hung out near the river.  It was a hot August day and it felt nice in Gorgazzo with the cold river water emerging from the mountain. 

We then decided to have lunch up at the Parco San Floriano that perched on one of the foothills overlooking Polcenigo.  It was humid and still and ridiculously hot, but we still enjoyed our farmer's meal of sausage, frico and polenta. 

We found out that our good friends from Korea, Dan and Jenny Summers, were also visiting Aviano at the same time as us. We invited them to come with us up to Lago di Barcis and beat the heat on the lake.  We bought a pool float at the Bx and had already packed all of our beach gear in the minivan, so we were set for a fun day.  

We arrived at the lake mid-morning and after searching for a few minutes, found a mildly treacherous place to ford the swift river to reach the gravelly north end of the lake and set up base camp.  The water was its usual freezing temperature from the snow melt up in the Dolomites, but it felt great in the summer sun.  

After a while, we decided to hike upstream a few hundred yards and try to ride the raft down the river.  It turned out to be incredibly fun and we spent the rest of the afternoon taking turns riding the mini-rapids. 

One hilarious moment occurred when the entire Summers family tried to ride the float at the same time.  They somehow managed to catch a stray current and drifted far to the left side of the river and hit a few tree branches extending out over the water.  The raft capsized and everyone was dunked while the kids started getting swept away flailing.  Dan saved the day and rescued the kids in the shallow water, but it was funny to watch. 

A little later on, Claire noticed a slow and shallow stream that split off from the main river and snuck behind our beach tent.  We termed it the lazy river and the kids enjoyed floating down that several times as well lounging on Mr. Froggy.  

That night we met up at Alla Fontaniva, one of our favorite restaurants from years ago.  We got to briefly catch up with Shannon Doyle who was on her second tour at Aviano (her husband Jesse "Shogun" was TDY).  Of course we ordered the sacchetini (little pasta pouches filled with pear and pecorino cheese). 

\The next day we ventured off to Prosecco road, somewhere we never felt we quite experienced fully during our years there.  It's a shame we didn't spend more time there!  It was a sunny and scorchingly hot day, but the scenery was unbelievable.  

Prosecco road lies at the foot of the Dolomites sheltered within a few rows of foothills.  The prime grape growing region that allows vintners to claim the coveted DOCG status on their wines was just a postage stamp of an area, but it was covered in vines up and down every steep slope with dozens of wineries. 

We stopped for a moment to take pictures and Tyler was approached by a couple selling olive oil out of the back of their van.  We ended up buying two bottles. We then proceeded to our destination, a picnic spot perched upon one of the hills surrounded by vines.  It didn't take us too long to find it and we set up shop all by ourselves at some picnic tables with the most fabulous view.  There were reports from our Aviano friends of a 'prosecco vending machine' nearby so Tyler ventured up to find a shaded area between rows of grape vines with four refrigerated vending machines that sold bottles of prosecco and other farm snacks like cheese and salami. He bought a bottle with a hand written label and brought it back down to the picnic table. 

 It had a metal cap like a beer bottle as opposed to a cork, so he used a kitchen knife to try and pry it off.  After loosening a couple of the crimps, it unexpectedly blasted straight up with a fountain of prosecco bursting forth.  Everyone was shocked and Tyler was covered in prosecco, but we had a great laugh and joked out the bottle cap was somewhere up in space since we never saw it come down. 

The kids did a little bit of summer homework after we ate our picnic while Tyler and Laura enjoyed the view.  

We then continued on our tour and stopped of at a specific winery an acquaintance of Laura's had requested we bring some bottles home from.  The girl working was a little surprised we dropped in, but she set up a nice tasting room complete with crunchy little Italian breadsticks and we tasted a wide selection of their DOCG prosecco.  It was really fun and the kids loved chowing down on the breadsticks.  We ended up buying 12 bottles for us and 6 for Laura's friend (good thing we had the minivan!). 

That night we met up with the Summers again and ate at an old favorite, Dream.  We mostly wanted to eat there because of their famous Sgropino dessert (vanilla gelato and limoncello mixed together).  Afterwards, we took the kids for gelato down the street. 

The next day was our last, so we decided to beat the heat again and go back to Lago di Barcis.  This time we cruised further up river looking for a good spot to see something a little different.  At a bridge overpass over the river, we saw a decent amount of people sprawling on the pebbley shore that we decided to check it out.  It just so happened that there was a small tributary stream flowing through another canyon emptying into the main river.  Tyler explored about a half mile back up the stream while Claire was sleeping in the car trying to find the perfect isolated spot to camp out for the day.  

We ended up settling for a little cave pretty close to the mouth of the stream.  Locals had dammed up the stream with boulders and gravel and made a 2-4 foot swimming pool constantly fed by the mountain stream.  It was amazing. 

We floated around, built rock dams, jumped off rocks and generally just chilled out for hours.  The location combined all the benefits of nature with a perfectly crystal clear swimming pool, and we basically had it to ourselves most of the day. 

Towards the end of the day as we started to get ready to head home, Tyler and the kids explored around the fast moving river.  Luckily, it wasn't more than 2 feet deep, so Tyler could ferry the kids across to the little pebbly islands in the middle of the river.  Tyler and Cal decided that they wanted to ride the rapids on Mr. Froggy all the way to the lake, about a 5 mile windy journey.  Laura and Claire sent them off and then drove alongside the river up ahead to find a good vantage to watch them float by eventually. 

The river was ice cold, enough to make your feet go numb and the sun was starting to hide behind the mountain tops so Callum started to get a little bit chilled on the raft.  Tyler wrapped his arm around him to try and warm him up and then they resorted to peeing in the raft for warmth.  

The journey was very interesting as the river wound back and forth in the channels it cut in the gravel bed.  It was totally deserted with not more than 1 person and a couple of buildings to be seen the entire time. We came upon a large waterfall of sorts about a third of the way down the river.  It was a huge man-made concrete structure with sloping s-shaped drop of about 10-12 feet for the water to flow down nearly the width of the river. We couldn't go around it since there were 10-12 foot straight drops on either side and the mountain slopes were not scalable on the sides either. We ended up taking the plunge down and escaped the turbulence at the end.  

During the last half the river approached a rock wall jutting out into the stream.  Tyler tried kicking and paddling to avoid it, but the current took them straight into the wall and then started to flip the raft.  Tyler slid off the raft to keep it stable and then Callum tried to jump off too.  He held on with one hand and pushed him back up on the raft  They pushed their way back into the current and then over to the opposite shore to catch their breath and take inventory of their bumps and bruises from running into the rocks. It just so happened that Laura and Claire were waiting just a few hundred feet ahead on the road about 20 feet above the river. 

 Tyler and Cal were going to give up there, but Laura convinced them to put on their bike helmets that we brought with us and a life jacket on Callum and finish all the way to the lake since it was just a mile further.  In the end they finished uneventfully and had a great bonding adventure together. 

That night we had pizza 'a porta via' from Vecchio's and packed up the apartment, ready to head out the next day for Austria and start our journey back to England.  

The next morning we made one photo stop at the Livenza river where we had taken maternity photos just before Callum was born.  It was very special for Laura to bring him back there and record it.  We loved seeing Italy again and were so glad we decided to make the trip all the way with the kids to make memories together.