A couple of weeks ago in Italy my husband and I experienced the travel equivalent of winning the SuperLotto.
After an hour of driving mountain roads that looked like the Christmas “ribbon candy” of the ‘50s, we rounded a hairpin turn and looked down upon the most beautiful lake town we have ever seen. All the usual superlatives simply do not do Molveno justice. Stunning, magical, breathtaking, awesome –-- Molveno, in northernmost Italy’s Trentino region, is all that and more. The narrow, eight-mile-around lake is brilliant blue, sparkles in the sunlight, and is so clean I could count every single stone in the water, even at the edge where families were swimming and playing in paddle boats.
Dense forest drops straight down to water’s edge, leaving no
room for a road except in the tiny town on the northern tip. There,
immaculately painted homes and hotels dot the steep hillside, and a large, lush
town park is home to a kiddie fun zone, an Olympic swimming pool, tennis courts
and assorted cafes. Looming over the town are the Brenta Dolomites, a cluster
of towering carbonate spires that top out at about 10,500 feet. (They are
called Dolomites because they are of the same rock type as the principal
Dolomites range on the other side of the Adige River.)
Discovering Molveno (photo by NBCNews) was the most serendipitous of adventures. We were en route from the “real” Dolomites on the Austria-Italy border, heading south to Venice to catch a plane home. I had scoured maps and the Internet to find an interesting town somewhere between the two points, where we could spend a couple of nights and get to the airport in time for a late-morning flight.
I chose the town because of the lake and the multiple hiking trails shown on maps of the surrounding mountains. But nothing on the Internet prepared us for magnificence of Molveno.
At the Hotel Alle Dolomiti (which I found on the Internet), we had a large, attractive room with a balcony overlooking the town park and the lake. We paid about $170 a night for the room with breakfast and four-course dinner (plus free parking and Wi-Fi).
We were expecting a good but not great dinner when we arrived in the elegant dining room the first night, and were totally blown away by the exceptional pasta dishes. So fabulous was my homemade orrechiette with “creamy broccoli” sauce, perked up with red pepper flakes, that I ordered pasta dishes as primi AND secondi the next night. The Spaghetti “Vegetarian Carbonara” with egg yolk and strips of sautéed zucchini was terrific. Ditto the gossamer pasta roll filled with well-seasoned minced vegetables. Delicate ravioli (pictured here) and fine tagliolini with pesto, green beans and potatoes are also specialties of the house.
The hotel owner, Renato Sartori, is the chef. During busy summer months, he is joined by chef Bruno Stofella who seems to be a pretty big deal in Italy and has travelled to the U.S . to share his skills as well. The Alle Dolomiti sponsors Gastronomy Weeks that include hands-on pasta making lessons with Sartori and Stofella.
We worked off the carbo extravaganzas each day with fabulous walks --- one day around the lake on a gently rolling dirt path that darted in and out of the woods and offered dramatic views of the spiky Dolomites, the lake, and the town. The next day: a steep, woodsy climb, along a river, to the neighboring ski town of Andalo. (Photo from Tr3ntino.it.) From there we hiked onto the Pradel plateau high above Molveno, and back down into the town.
Out for a postprandial stroll late one night, we wandered about a half-mile along the unlighted lakeside footpath. In the darkness the twinkling lights of Molveno stood out in the distance, and the brilliant stars were above --- our lucky stars that we thanked for leading us to this new and enchanting part of the world.
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