Wednesday, June 21: We left Venice this morning, taking a taxi to Alamo to rent a Volkswagen T-ROC. It wasn’t long before we were in the Dolomites. We stopped for lunch of panini 🥪 at Bar Torre Due in Longarone, a town that was rebuilt after it was totally destroyed by an “inland tsunami.” At about 10:30 p.m. on October 9, 1963 a huge piece of a mountain broke off in a huge landslide upriver of the Vajont Dam, one of the deepest and narrowest in the world. In 4 minutes, the landslide displaced the water, causing a huge tsunami to overflow the dam, killing 2,000 people, many whose clothes were ripped off by a force two times stronger than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.
There was no sign of such mayhem today, so we enjoyed our lunch break, after which we drove through a number of small towns where the jagged peaks of the Dolomites towered all around us.
Lago di Misurina
We took our first walk at Lago di Misurina. It was a flat, easy walk, about 2 1/2-3 km, but a nice break from our drive to Dobbiaco. We even had glimpses of Tre Cime di Lavaredo (Three Peaks of Lavaredo).
Lake Misurina was where the speed skating events were held during the 1956 Winter Olympics of Cortina d’Ampezzo – the last time Olympic speed skating events were held on natural ice.
Dobbiaco/Toblach
Late Wednesday afternoon, we checked into B&B Hotel Heidi just outside the little town of Dobbiaco/Toblach (Towns in this area have both Italian/German names since they are so close to Austria). B&B Hotel Heidi, where we stayed three nights, was the only hotel we stayed in during our time in Italy, except when we got to Lucca. Mostly we booked Airbnbs, which we much prefer. This place ended being a lively launching point for active people who were doing multi-day hikes, bike rides, motorcycle rides, or day hikes in the countryside. We ran into crowds of energetic people at breakfast each morning; it was fun to hear of their plans and absorb their enthusiasm.
This area is close to the Austrian border and feels more Austrian than Italian. Most people (95%) speak German. Dobbiaco is not far from the Tre Cime di Lavaredo hike, Lago di Misurina and hikes around Lago di Braies. There were lots more hikes we could have done from here, but we also planned to stay 4 nights in Renon/Ritten near Bolzano/Bozen. There we would do a number of high alpine meadow hikes.
After checking in, we went into town to look for dinner. We sat outdoors at Ariston Bar Pizzeria & Restaurant. We toasted each other with Forst Beers for our safe arrival in the Dolomites. I had the most delicious Tris di Canederli: speck, spinaci, rape rosse con burro sfuso e grana (dumplings with speck, spinach, beetroot with melted butter and Parmesan cheese). Mike had Maccheroni Ariston con speck, ragù di carnes, pomodoro, prosciutto, champignon e panna (Macaroni with speck, meat ragout, tomato, ham, mushrooms and cream). Speck is a type of cured, lightly smoked ham typically made in South Tyrol. It was all delicious, and very filling!
After dinner, we wandered around the charming town, where we admired a bubbling fountain, a statue of a cloaked Gustav Mahler, Austrian-style buildings shored up with huge stacks of firewood, and the pale green Baroque Parish Church of St. Giovanni Battista, built between 1764-1774 on the foundations of a Roman and later Gothic church. It was completed in 1804 with a 76m-tall bell tower.
Driving back through the countryside, we took a convoluted route in search of a town we could see in the distance which had a pretty church and steeple. We could see it, but we could never find our way to it. We kept driving around in circles until we finally gave up, returned to the hotel and settled in for the night.
Steps: 10,526; Miles 4.46. High 84°, Low 56°.
Tre Cime di Lavaredo
Thursday, June 22: Thursday we hiked one of the most popular trails in the Dolomites, the Tre Cime di Lavaredo Circuit Trail. It was a 35 minute drive from Dobbiaco. The views were stunning and well worth the effort. The hike is 10-11 km (6.8 miles) and it’s supposed to take 4 hours. It is rated Easy/Moderate with a 300-400 meter elevation gain. The circuit goes all around the Three Peaks of Lavaredo. Surrounding the circuit are the peaks of the UNESCO World Heritage Listed Dolomites. There is a 30€/car entry to the toll road leading to Rifugio Auronzo, where the hike begins.
The path goes past the Cappella degli Alpini, a quaint alpine church.
The first pictures are from Rifugio Auronzo to Rifugio Lavaredo.
The next set of pictures is from Rifugio Lavaredo to Forcella Lavaredo Viewpoint.
This group of pictures is from Forcella Lavaredo Viewpoint to Rifugio Locatelli, where we stopped to eat our sandwiches overlooking a couple of small alpine lakes.
This set of pictures is from Rifugio Locatelli down into the steep and deep valley before ascending out of the valley well before we reached Malga Langalm.
This section is where I’ll add a caveat to the listed information. I would call it moderate/difficult mainly because of the surface of the trails. All surfaces are dirt and slippery gravel; for someone like me who has taken too many falls on surfaces like these, I found the descents not only challenging but disconcerting. I can handle the ascents because I can always get firm footing going uphill. Because of the many tiny steps I took going downhill and the slowness of my descents, the rating for me was more in the difficult range. So the hike took us just under 7 hours, vs the 4 hours estimated. Of course we made many stops for breaks and photos. I had 2,000 steps more than Mike at the end of the day!
The trail is also totally exposed, no shade at all and as temps were in the mid 80s, it was hot except for the breezes we caught now and then.
The worst part was the descent into a deep valley after Rifigio Locatelli and the steep climb on a very rocky surface back out of the valley.
This group shows the rest of the way to Malga Langalm, the last rifugio before returning to the beginning of the hike. It was very slow going and a little scary with steep drop-offs but still stunning altogether.
Finally the last section of the hike from Malga Langalm back to Rifugio Auronzo was described as easy, but it did require some effort. I felt a bit uneasy walking on the long trail carved into a huge and steep gravelly mountainside.
We enjoyed the views all around the Three Peaks and the Forcella del Col de Medo viewpoint down into the Puster Valley and to Misurina Lake.
The hike was amazing. It is no wonder it’s so popular. It was a great adventure for us as I don’t consider myself much of a mountain climber.
Dobbiaco/Toblach
After hiking Tre Cime di Lavaredo, we showered and relaxed then shared a hamburger in our cute “hometown” of Dobbiaco/Toblach at a place called Eirisch Grill. I don’t know why we couldn’t eat a whole burger after our long hike, but all we could handle was a half each along with wine and beer. The Chris’ Burger had a beef patty, caramelized onions, cheddar, bacon, fried onions, rucola, hot Mayo and BBQ sauce. We also shared French fries even though Mike wanted German-style potato salad, which I’m not keen on.
After our dinner we strolled around the town and then took a drive in the surrounding area, very Austrian in character.
Steps: 24,678; 10.46 miles. High 85°, Low 57°.
Lago di Braies (Pragser Wildsee)
Friday, June 23: We arrived at Lago di Braies (Pragser Wildsee) early on Friday morning, enabling us to beat the crowds. It was threatening rain and was rather overcast but the rain overnight had cooled the area off so it was very pleasant. We parked in P3, closest to the lake, for a small fee. We took the walk around the lake, 2.6 miles, admiring the crystal clear aquamarine lake with its dramatic mountainous backdrop. The trail was easy. We walked clockwise to get the steep part done first; on the right side of the lake, the path is pretty flat. You can rent a rowboat 🚣♀️ but we didn’t do so.
Lago di Braies is located within the Fanes-Senes-Baies Nature Park. It’s supposedly one of the most Instagrammable and crowded spots in the Dolomites, but I guess between the clouds and cool weather and our early arrival, we didn’t encounter that many people.
We found beaches with cairns, cows 🐄 with cowbells, and beautiful views all around. Sitting on the shore of the lake was the Marienkapelle chapel, also known as Capella di Maria, a small Catholic chapel built in an alpine architectural style in 1904.
Brunico/Bruneck
After our hike around Lago di Braies on Friday, we showered and spent the afternoon exploring the towns of the Puster Valley. We started in Brunico/Bruneck, the largest town in the Puster Valley in the Italian province of South Tyrol. It was about 20 minutes west of where we were staying In Dobbiaco/Toblach, at the confluence of the Ahr with the Reinz, which itself flows into the Eisack River. As of 2011, 83% of the population speak German, 15% Italian, and 2% speak Ladin (a Romance language mainly spoken in the Dolomite Mountains in northern Italy in the provinces of South Tyrol, Trentino and Belluno, by the Ladin people. It has some similarities to Romansh, spoken in Switzerland, as well as Friulian, spoken in northeast Italy).
The town is known for manufacturing and service industries. The ski resort on Kronplatz Mountain is nearby.
We wandered randomly through the town, dipped into shops, looked at local newspapers, and admired the Ursuline Church, built at the start of the 15th century in the Gothic style.
Innichen/San Candido
After Brunico, we drove east toward the Austrian border to Innichen/San Candido. It is located in the Puster Valley on the Drava River, on Italy’s border with Austria. It hosts Italy’s International Snow Sculpture Festival each year. The town sits on the Drava River in the Puster Valley on Italy’s border with Austria. Innichen became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1919. It is still the site of a Franciscan monastery founded in 1691.
In 2011, 85% of the people spoke German, 15% Italian, and 0.3% Ladin.
Innichen/ San Candido is renowned for its ski resorts, and it includes the natural park of Tre Cime. It is quite a charming town. We enjoyed strolling the cobbled streets and admiring the German-style buildings, the Jurassic relief carvings, and Innichen Abbey and its cemetery. The Romanesque-style Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery founded in the 8th century, and rebuilt in the 12th-13th centuries. We also saw the San Michele Parish Church, originally built in the 12th century in the Romanesque style; it was renovated after 1735 in the Baroque style.
I also found a sporting goods store where I bought a number of hiking shirts and a pair of hiking shorts. 🙂
Speckstube Eggerhof
We had found the charming Speckstube Eggerhof, an agriturismo with purple umbrellas, as we were leaving Lago di Braies this morning and we thought it was so adorable we made a reservation to come back for dinner in the evening. On our way to dinner we stopped to take a picture of one of the high alpine meadow hikes we’d heard about: Prato Piazza/ Plätzwiese.
At the restaurant, we enjoyed a hearty German meal directly from the farm. I ate a most delicious broccoli soup and three kinds of dumplings (cheese, spinach & chanterelles) with cabbage salad, melted butter and Parmesan cheese. For sure it was way too much food and I couldn’t finish the dumplings. Mike had bacon dumplings with venison goulash. I had a white burgundy and Mike a beer and a Schnapps. We shared a scrumptious rhubarb cake dusted with powdered sugar.
We chatted for a bit with one woman from Milan who translated the dessert because we were having trouble understanding what it was. Another adorable middle-aged couple, a cool-looking woman with flaming red hair and her husband/boyfriend (born in 1974) were eating beside us. They told us they were from Moderna near Bologna and were in the Dolomites for a week. They told us about an alpine hike they’d taken near the restaurant, and it turned out to be the the one we’d photographed before we got there (Prato Piazza/Plätzwiese). They had been to conferences in Seattle and Cleveland, of all places. The guy was a professor in electrical engineering and had earned his Ph.D. at Berkeley, CA and the woman had studied archeology at MIT in Cambridge but didn’t currently work in that field. It was a lovely way to end our time in the Dobbiaco area. We regretted later not taking pictures of them.
Steps: 15,716; Miles 6.66. High 75°, Low 50°.
Cortina d’Ampezzo
Saturday, June 24: On Saturday morning, we left Dobbiaco and headed to Cortina d’Ampezzo, considered by many to be “The Pearl of the Dolomites.” It is a town and commune in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the province of Belluno. Sitting on the Boite River in an alpine valley, it is a summer and winter resort known for its skiing trails, scenery, accommodation, shops and après ski scene, and for its Italian aristocratic crowd.
We arrived in Cortina d’ Ampezzo in the middle of a long-distance mountain running race called the Lavaredo 120km (74.5 miles). The race had started at 11:00 pm the night before, Friday night, and the winner was about the cross the finish line. This race had an elevation gain of 5,800 meters (19,028 feet). The time limit for the race was 30 hours.
We stopped for a coffee & croissant and got caught up in the hubbub over the race. We heard the winner would be crossing the finish line, so Mike stood on the sidelines to watch while I wandered around the town. In a sporting goods store, I found a cute hiking shirt with a picture of a Japanese lady on the front. I’d use this shirt a lot on the Via Francigena.
Finally, Mike saw Jonas Russi (35-39 year-old age group) from Switzerland cross the finish line; he had finished the race in 12 hours and 13 minutes. The second place runner was 18 minutes behind him, and the third another 23 minutes behind. The top woman finished in 15 hours and 57 minutes.
Cinque Torri
We left town soon after and began our drive toward Bolzano via the scenic Great Dolomites Road (SS48 to SS241), a 2 3/4 hour drive during which we hoped to stop for a couple of short hikes. We drove 25 minutes west on SR48 and parked at Baita Bai de Dones. We took a chairlift up to Rifugio Scoiattoli. There we did a circuit hike of about 1.7 miles at Cinque Torri, one of the most recognizable rock formations in the Dolomites. Not only is it a popular hiking and rock-climbing destination, it is also an open air war museum, with trenches and bunkers remaining from WWI.
During WWI, this was the site of conflict between the Italians and the Austro-Hungarians. Bunkers and trenches were built amidst the Cinque Torre towers. The formations remained after the war.
Cinque Torri is called such because at first glance it seems there are five main pillars. Actually up close there are many more smaller pillars and towers in this rock formation. The largest tower is Torre Grande, with the others being Torre Seconda, Torre Latina, Quarta Terre, and Quinta Inglese. Torre Grande and Torre Seconda have numerous rock-climbing routes.
We saw many people rock climbing, including little children! It was a gorgeous day for a walk, crisp and clear and breezy – perfect hiking weather.
Here is a video of our time in the eastern Dolomites. On Settings (bottom right), hit “Quality: HD” for best experience.
Steps: 12,253; Miles 5.19. High 76°, Low 49°.
As we were leaving Cinque Torri, we found on our GPS that the Great Dolomites Road was closed at the Falzarego Pass, so we had to reroute and couldn’t take our scenic route to Bolzano. We were disappointed because it is supposed to be a beautiful route and we had planned to hike around Lago di Carezza. We ended up backtracking all the way to Cortina d’Ampezzo and then to Dobbiaco and Brunico and then eventually toward Bolzano on the A12 autostrada. We were heading to the western Dolomites, where we would stay on the Renon Plateau.
~ wander.essence ~ 
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