Castelrotto, Italy

It’s kind of funny to think about, but when we traveled from Italy to France, we felt like we had a really long travel day.  But now we know even longer.  It almost pains me to say this, but we had an 11 hour travel day on Monday.  11 hours.  In some strange way it didn’t feel like it was that long (probably because we both love train travel), but it was still 11 hours.

But even at 11 hours, it was worth every minute.  We finally made it to Castelrotto, a small town in the Dolomites, and we feel like we are living in a dream.  I am either in a real life Storybook Land, in a museum replica of an old world town (you know what I am talking about if you have been to the Milwaukee Public Museum); or in fact, I think that we might actually be on the set of The Sound of Music.

Yes, this place really exists.  Yes, it is far more beautiful and magical than I ever could have imagined.  Yes, it is untouched by tourism.  And yes, it has also been raining.

Unfortunately the weather didn’t get the memo about our arrival; but in true form, we have chosen to make the most of our time and experiences.  So a little rain?  No biggie.  We decided that the best place to haul up during a thunderstorm in Castelrotto was at the spa.

We headed over to the Hotel Schgaguler for a morning of relaxation at their spa.  Plush robes, warm towels, endless saunas and treatments awaited us.  The Schgaguler graciously opened their spa privately for us to enjoy together.

We spent the morning enjoying more types of saunas than either one of us even knew existed (the Europeans really know how to relax), followed by an amazing treatment, of which I am still scratching my head about.  I was covered head to toe in a mask, then wrapped up in a heated blanket that then turned into a waterbed where I was floating.  Does that even make sense?  Probably not.  But all you really need to know was that it was relaxing, made my skin feel like a baby’s bottom, and was nothing short of a spa miracle.  And as if things couldn’t get any better, post water bed treatment, I was treated to a massage.  I think that at that point I literally just turned into a pile of jello.  Hello heaven.

we are still not 100% sure what this was, but we did have fun playing around with it

By the time we finished up at the Schgaguler, we were both secretly hoping that the rain might have passed, but no such luck.  Oh well, it just happened to be the perfect time to find a spot of lunch.  On our way back through town, we spotted a cute little cafe, Pasta & More, and it ended up being just the right spot for a bit of lunch and a warm place to escape the rain.

We feasted as the locals do – a mix of Italian meets German food…or maybe it’s German meets Italian?  Either way, we both discovered that we love this mix of cultures in the kitchen.

We ordered Tiroler knödel in broth and spätzle in a ham and cream sauce – both of which were amazing, but those spätzle.  Oh those spätzle were what dreams are made of, or at least my husbands.  I am pretty sure that he has already mentioned going back to get them again about 30 times.  But in all honesty, I completely agree.

Maybe it was not the day that we were anticipating, but relaxing and finding ways to keep out of the rain turned into a great little intro to Castelrotto.  Now if only one of us could quickly learn some German…