So we were on Day 7 of our holiday and it was time to move to somewhere new, the Dolomites. We grabbed a train north from Bologna station heading for Bolzano, where we would change to get a train further north to Ponte Gardena. As it was we worked out later on, there is a perfectly good bus service from Bolzano that will take you to Selva, but we didn’t realise that. The trains in Italy are excellent, quick, on time and cheap. It was around 29euros for a 1st class ticket to Bolzano, with a bottle of water and some biscuits thrown in. The train whizzed north from Verona and the landscape changed, mountains towered above the valley we were in and grape vines covered the terraces and fields on either side. This is Pinot Grigio country with rows and rows of the grapes growing. The train pulled into Bolzano and we crossed to the opposite platform for a train further north, the mountains towered further and we went through tunnel after tunnel to Ponte Gardena. As we arrived in the tiny village and turned onto the small square in front of the station our bus pulled away from its bus stop. We looked at the timetable and realised that another would arrive in 30 minutes, or so we thought. Others had gathered, also heading for the Val Gardena valley and we all wandered around confused about which bus we needed. Eventually another bus driver (heading to Bolzano) corrected us and we stood at the correct bus stop for our bus. The drivers here certainly earn their money as the twisty road steeply took us up, round, and up and round to hillside. Eventually we popped out on Ortisei with jagged peaks everywhere. Next was Santa Cristina and finally Selva di Val Gardena, we tried to take it all in, but the views are everywhichway here! We unloaded at our accommodation and headed into the town for a wander and to pick up some supplies. What we noticed straight away was the change in language, despite being in Italy this area speaks a lot of German, they also speak Italian and their own valley language of Ladin, but German is predominant. Loaded up (the beer aisle was vast) we headed back to enjoy and evening looking at the views from the balcony and getting ready for the next day, the weather was going to be good and I’d had a walk planned for 25 years to do.