May 2, 2018
We landed in Frankfurt on time at 9:55 am. Just in time for breakfast. We saw a brand new type of Jägermeister in the Duty Free shop. Called "Manifest", they were sampling at a demo station...so of course we gave a taste. It was less sweet than regular Jägermeister and more typical of the taste of an Italian amaro. Unfortunately, they aren't exporting it to the U.S. anytime soon.
Darrell's appetite led us the the Caviar House & Prunier in the main airport terminal. We had a two hour layover, so there was plenty of time to eat. Breakfast was definitely upscale. I had Foie Gras, smoked salmon with salmon roe, and steak tartare with caviar. Breakfast heaven!
Our next flight was scheduled to depart at 12:10 pm, but the plane was late getting to the gate, so we took off a good 45 minutes late. Our Air Dolomiti flight was a short 1 hr 10 minutes into the airport at Verona. All of our baggage arrived , so we loaded carts and headed to the customs stop to have the x-rayed. We loaded the carts back up and headed for the exit. A good 25 feet from the exit, we were stopped by a customs agent who wanted to know what was in the three boxes we had on our carts. We each took a case of wine along for Darrell to use as gifts, and to share at some of the meals we would have during the trip. Apparently, it must have been a very slow day for the customs department of the Verona airport. Darrell was hassled by three different customs agents for a good 45 minutes over the three boxes. They had to inspect each box. Finally a fourth agent showed up. Darrell reiterated that the wines were gifts and that the three of us were traveling together. I ended up having to break out my laptop and create a company invoice for the wines on company letterhead. Luckily, the task only took me about 3 minutes to accomplish. I copied the invoice onto a flash drive so the fourth customs agent could print it off for their records. Funny thing was that after jumping through all of the hoops, he said he didn't need to print any copies and just let us pass! As they say "This is Italy." We made our way to the rental car offices and picked up our Volvo V90 all wheel drive touring wagon, loaded up, and headed for the Autostrade for our 1- 1/2 hour drive north to Kaltern See (Lago di Caldero). We arrived at the Haus am Hang Hotel about 5 pm, which was our hotel for the next four nights. www.hausamhang.it/en/
We checked into our rooms, freshened up a little and met in the bar for some liquid libation before dinner. Darrell was very taken by a gin at the bar distilled from olives, thyme, and rosemary. We had a taste right after we finished our white lady cocktail. We also had a taste of the local beer from Forst Brewery, and a taste of the house made apple cider. We had fresh fava bean soup, a delicious cabbage salad with speck (local cured ham), tortelli with fava bean and speck, the regional specialty knödel dumplings, and a dessert sampler of torte and strudel.
A long 20 hours of travel had passed, we were watered down and fed, so it was now time for bed.