One of the "must do" hikes in the Dolomites is the hike at the Tre Cime ("Three Peaks") de Lavaredo. It's a challenging hike, but a beautiful one. It starts at the Rifugio Auronzo. A "rifugio" is a mountain guesthouse, usually accessible via a hiking trail. Each hut has a restaurant that serves meals and also some rooms available for overnight lodging. We don't really seem to have this concept in the US, but it is a definite advantage to hiking in this part of Europe. There are many rifugios along the hikes, and it makes it easy to stop if you need a coffee break or bathroom break, or are on a long hike and don't want to pack a lunch. I mentioned in my previous post that we visited a malga -- as far as I can tell the difference between a rifugio and a malga is that a rifugio offers lodging, whereas a malga is more of a family-run farmstead that also serves food. The Rifugio Auronzo overlooks the magnificent start of the Tre Cime hike, with views to the pinnacles of the Cadini di Misurina mountain chain in the distance.
We hiked about a mile from Rifugio Auronzo to Rifugio Lavaredo, where we stopped for espressos and pastries. (I'm loving this aspect of hiking here!). Fortified with caffeine and calories, we ascended the steepest part of the trail. Even in shoulder season there were a lot of other hikers on the path, but the trail at this section is very wide and not too rocky.
We came to a fork in the trail, where we could continue on to the famous Rifugio Locatelli. This rifugio is very popular because it has spectacular views of the north side of the Tre Cime. But continuing to Locatelli would have added a couple miles to our already 4.5 mile hike, so we chose the other fork and cut across the larger loop. It was still very cool to see Rifugio Locatelli from a distance, hopefully we'll get back here someday to see it up close.
Our choice to cut across the valley actually gave us a much closer view of the Tre Cime than we would have had otherwise. And because the Locatelli route is the more popular option, we had most of this trail all to ourselves.
We rejoined the main trail at Malga Langalm, where we stopped for lunch. We ordered a 2-portion charcuterie platter and were astonished when the server brought out enough food to easily feed six people. We weren't that hungry! Luckily a friendly family from Spain joined us at our table and took us up on the offer to share the copious amounts of bread, sausage, speck, and cheese. For less than 30 euros we all had lunch with a magnificent view.
After we completed the loop back to the Auronzo hut, we decided to hike an additional 2 miles out and back to the jaw-dropping Cadini di Misurina viewpoint. These pointy spires are exactly the kind of mountains I think of when I think of the Dolomites. A memorable ending to one of our best hikes!
The next day we drove to the small hamlet of Moos to take a walk in the Val Fiscalina. The trail is more of a country road that cuts through beautiful green meadows where farmers were raking up cut hay to be dried. Although we were a bit late for the summer wildflower season, the purple crocuses were starting to show their fall colors. There were tons of other people on the trail with us -- it's a popular but very pleasant path.
As with our other hikes, there was a rifugio involved at the halfway mark. At times it does kind of seem like we are just hiking from restaurant to restaurant! But all of these restaurants are nestled in among some truly incredible scenery.
And we got our first taste of a local specialty - kaiserschmarrn. It's an eggy pancake dish that is sliced up, coated in powdered sugar and served with jam or lingonberries. (I can already tell I won't be losing any weight on this trip, despite all the hiking.) Ironically we almost always found it in the savory part of the menu, not on the dessert page. It was created for the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph I -- his chef whipped up this easy-to-make concoction that soon became the Emperor's favorite dessert. The name of the dish translates to "Emperor's Mess", which aptly describes it.
Back in San Candido later that evening, we attended a free concert put on by the traditional regional band. As you might guess from the costumes and instruments, the program was heavily polka-centric. What I loved most was that there were two costumed girls walking through the audience soliciting donations for the orchestra and handing out free shots of grappa. Phoenix Symphony, take note!
On Thursday, despite a forecast for rain we headed to another nearby valley called Val Campo di Dentro. I couldn't find out why but the hike and nearby hut are adorably called Tre Scarperi in Italian and Drei Schuster in German ("Three Shoemakers"). The gray skies meant that we had most of this trail to ourselves.
We had just started to ascend up the side of the valley when the skies got darker and we decided to turn around. I'm glad we did because just after we hiked down the steepest part, it finally started to rain. We donned our rain jackets and hiked back to the welcoming shelter of the Tre Scarperi hut.
It started pouring once we got inside, so we asked to be seated and decided to have lunch and make the best of it. This hut had an intriguing item on the menu called "Salad of the Forest" which I decided to try. I'm glad I did -- it sounds like a crazy mix but there were mushrooms, pickled peppers, wild herbs, some kind of honey dressing, and colorful pansies. It was a beautiful work of art and very delicious!
After we checked out of our rental apartment in San Candido, we knew we had to kill some time before arriving at the next town, San Cassiano. Apparently September 7th this year was the day for big bicycle events -- mountain passes near San Cassiano would be closed to cars all day due to the Sellaronda Bike Day, and there was also a big race in San Candido called the Eroica. No problem, the Eroica did not involve road closures so we were able to get an early start out of town. We decided we would stop along the route so that we could hike in the Cinque Torri area. We took the chairlift up and quickly realized that despite the sunny forecast, the entire mountain was shrouded in a heavy cloud. Luckily, there was Rifugio Scoiattoli where we waited and hoped for the clouds to clear while having a coffee and a snack. Note the wall of cloud behind me -- there is actually a huge mountain back there somewhere.
It was after 11 am by the time the clouds cleared enough to see the Cinque Torri formation clearly. Cinque Torri means "Five Towers". They are striking to look at, with the layers of gray dolomite stacked on each other like pancakes. Dolomite is a carbonate sedimentary rock that is similar to, but different from, limestone. One of the differences is that it doesn't erode as easily as limestone.
Because of their stability, the towers are very popular with rock climbers. As we hiked we were able to see several groups bravely working their way up the rock faces.
The hike around the Cinque Torri is a short one, only a bit more than a mile, but it is packed with history. This region saw intense fighting between the Italians and Austro-Hungarians during WWI. In fact, the area around Cinque Torri is part of an open-air museum where you can see countless trenches and bunkers from that time period.
After finishing the short loop around Cinque Torri, we took on the nearby challenging uphill climb to the Nuvolau rifugio. This hut is small but very popular because it is located on a tall fin of rock that juts out with commanding views on either side. Photos don't really do it justice -- the views are breathtaking!
Getting up to Nuvolau was an uphill slog, but coming down was equally tricky. We used hiking poles and watched our footing, although it was all too easy to get distracted by the spectacular panorama in front of us as we made our way back down towards the chairlift.
Of course as we passed the Scoiattoli rifugio we had crystal clear views of the Cinque Torri. Lesson learned -- sometimes it's better to not get an early start!
This was one of my favorite locations on the whole trip. The mountains on both sides of the Falzarego Pass are absolutely stunning!
No comments:
Post a Comment