Eat Like Ushi

After the pleasant walk around Tre Cime, we were hungry and there was a bit of time to kill before driving back to Venice airport. Definitely not enough time to try something else like Lago di Braies, but enough to get a meal. For whatever reason I stopped at one of the first restaurants once leaving Tre Cime. It was a combination of hunger, a nice setting opposite a small lake, and also the restaurant sign outside stating "polenta funghi" as though it was a sign of Italian food to come.

Like in Cortina it ended up being a German restaurant. I suppose being so close to the Austrian border, I should be less surprised.

There was no cover charge for the bread basket, another welcome practice that is not Italian.

- Tagliatelle al funghi porcini €10 - very soft mushrooms with overall a good flavour albeit a bit salty;
- Grigliata del cacciatore/mixed grill (beef, venison, bacon, potatoes, vegetables) €20 - beef rump cooked to medium (they didn't ask me), tender venison chop, bacon which was a piece of very fatty pork. Simple flavours of just grilled meats, typical German style.

It was nice sitting outside waiting to see if the rain would come, and it didn't luckily. There was constant smoke from the people around us however which was less than perfect.

After the extraordinarily long walk to Lago di Sorapis (the usual way is 2h and easy, the roundabout way the 2 older Italians and their dog suggested to us was 4h and hard), we were famished. A lot of the restaurants in and around Cortina were closed or not serving any food (other than maybe more pizza) at 4pm.

Eventually this place seemed to have some decent stuff, even if it was a German beerhall.

- Lasagne alla bolognese €11 - excellent, meaty and a thick bechamel layer;
- Tyrolean speck with cheese, pickled gherkin, horseradish - nice speck with 2 cheeses that were plain, and 2 that had more flavour. 1 seemed like a mild cheddar, but couldn't say what the others were (and wasn't told).
- Mixed salad €6

There was no cover charge and this place had the best bread collection of all the restaurants we ate at, including a nice caraway one.

The view from mini-pod 1 was phenomenal especially for the sunrise and sunset times. At €70/night, the 9m2 was expensive real estate but still cheaper than every other option available in Cortina. I would gladly stay here again for all those reasons.

It does mean the options for food are limited to driving (and parking) in Cortina or eating at the ICO pizzeria. It is just like Italy to have an affordable and good quality pizzeria as a standard in a semi-remote camping site.

The did forget to cook my pizza the first night I was there waiting for takeaway (and took about 1h), whereas the second night they were conscientious and did it in 10min.

The one and only gelato place in Cortina is a pretty good one. I think enough said about that.

A final gelato before driving to the airport. There really wasn't any point to stopping at Belluno other than for a break from Cortina and to repack our bags. But the gelato happened to be across the road to where we parked, and so lucky for me!