What is worth waking up at 4:25am for? A sunrise in the Dolomites of northern Italy. Yes. For sure. We drove in the dark of the early morning to Paganella and joined the crowd of people gathering for our event: an Alpini choir concert at the break of dawn.
Something special happens every morning when the sunlight first caresses the face of the white cliff sides like a mother holding her child. Right at that fleeting moment, the Dolomiti turn soft, golden shades of pink and orange. This alpen glow is especially poignant on the white rocks.
The choir sang an Alpini song that I recognized, Signore delle Cime. It is one of the most beautiful, touching songs I’ve heard this summer.
Cristiano, Maggie, and Emily are a family I met at church who live in ValleLaghi (Valley of Lakes). They invited me to this early morning event. Later we also visited a couple of Lakes in the area.
Cristiano (the father) is very enthusiastic about his hobbies. One of them is buying classic old cars, fixing them up, and selling them. His most recent project was a black and white Panda (fitting for the brand name). I’ve decided that Pandas are my dream car. I love the matte red Pandas and this pretty blue one I photographed. They look like adventure-ready vehicles, practically begging to be loaded with sleeping bags and trail mix and driven across the country.
Maggie is was wonderful friend and I enjoyed spending time with her. After a satisfying dinner of lemon chicken, brown rice, and mixed vegetables; we went up into the mountains for star gazing. Cristiano had the perfect spot in a wide field with benches. We cut our losses when dark, thundering clouds gathered and compensated by going for a gelato. We licked our gelato, sheltered from the rain. It wasn’t a bad trade, but I had been looking forward to star gazing.
That night Maggie and I stayed up late watching Master Chef. I love how passionate Italians are about food. Maggie and I enjoyed commenting out loud the whole time on our opinions about the cooking show. It was a happy memory, safe and warm inside watching Master Chef after a long day in the mountains.
After church the next morning I walked through Trento to the train station and came across this live street music.
I am trying to hold myself together, realizing that this is my last week living with the Facciolis. I want to enjoy Trentino as much as I can while I am still here. It has come to feel like home.
La Vita Italian 
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