Epic Spring Drives from Vittorio Veneto
Jim and I have been taking some epic drives this past week. Some were recommended, others we just randomly chose because they looked like they might go somewhere interesting—and they did. Winding roads that took us to the tops of mountains and back down to the valleys below. Each drive somehow better than the last. How is that even possible? Each drive was its own kind of magic. And I think the one key ingredient in the spell was the color—this impossible spring green that blanketed every valley, every hillside, every winding turn. It felt like the whole landscape had been turned up a notch.
Some Highlights:
San Boldo Pass – WOAH.
This one caught us completely off guard. We stumbled onto this from the top of the pass—just rolling along through a beautiful, green mountain village. We had NO IDEA what was ahead. Suddenly, we were at a red light. Okay, a tunnel maybe? Sure. But then we drove into the mountain and the road just kept twisting—five tunnels in a row, each one a hairpin turn carved into solid rock. It felt like we were spiraling down the inside of a mountain parking garage. Absolutely crazy. And so cool.
Bonus nerdy fact: the tunnels were hand-carved in just 100 days during WWI (1918) by the Austrians. They needed a supply route and they needed it fast. It’s still called the “Road of 100 Days” because of that—an insane feat of engineering.
The views on this entire drive? Unreal. Waterfalls, cliffs, and tiny villages perched in impossible places. The roads were impossibly narrow and winding. I kept exclaiming, “The Amalfi Coast has nothing on this!”
Strada del Prosecco e Vini dei Colli Conegliano Valdobbiadene, a UNESCO World Heritage route
The next day, we meandered along the scenic route through Prosecco country. We knew we had to take this UNESCO World Heritage drive, it practically starts in Vittorio Veneto winding through rolling hills and vineyards that go on forever. There’s a little church here, a cypress-lined lane there—it’s all like something out of a movie.
The weather? Glorious. Warm and sunny (of course, the girls had just gone home). We found a cozy trattoria tucked away in the hills and had one of those lunches you never want to end. Afterward, another climb—more hairpin turns, more gasping at the views. I need more words than stunning and jaw-dropping. Breathtaking? Ridiculous? All of the above.
Dolomiti Bellunesi – Mountains Like Marble
This drive was straight out of a dream. We headed north into the Parco Nazionale delle Dolomiti Bellunesi and suddenly the world shifted. These mountains don’t rise—they explode out of the earth, pale and jagged and enormous. The valleys below are laced with little villages that seem to flow like a river along the valley floor, weaving beneath the stone waves of the peaks.
The weather couldn’t decide what to do: sunshine, then clouds, then mist, then blue sky again. Waterfalls were crashing down cliffs, and there were cows, wildflowers, and views that made us pull over constantly. Every bend in the road felt like a new kind of beautiful.
The Detour to Udine – Thank You, Tour of the Alps!
We climbed up through thick forest and misty switchbacks into open alpine wonderland. The peaks were massive, the valleys insanely green. There were no crowds, just us and the road (and maybe a few goats). It was the kind of unexpected magic that only happens when plans go sideways.
This one wasn’t even supposed to happen. We got rerouted because of the Tour of the Alps bike race and ended up going in a completely different direction, on a wild high-mountain road over the Veneto Strade. And wow—thank you, cyclists, for the detour of a lifetime.
Eventually, we rolled down into the gentle countryside and made our way down and past Udine. We remember driving through years ago, but how can we not remember how stunning the location was? We hopped onto the Autostrada back to VV, we could see a torrential rainstorm ahead – hoping we missed it, but no such luck.
Each drive was its own kind of magic. Curves and clouds. Rain and sun. Stone and vineyard. This part of Italy resonates with us.
We have 9 glorious days left here, and then we will be home, where I’m sure most of this will have seemed like a dream.
paleremo presto