Yet another amazing trip for us!! We spent 6 days in the spectacular province of South Tyrol while hiking in the Dolomite Mountain Range in North Eastern Italy and we all loved every moment!! It was sensational!!
The spectacular peaks of the Dolomites have been named a UNESCO world heritage site. They attract a tremendous number of visitors both in summer and winter. In winter it is a huge skiing location. In summer visitors enjoy hiking, climbing, base jumping, hang gliding, para gliding and cycling. In July there is an annual single day road bike race over seven of the passes in the Dolomites - (not sure if Nick knows about this one yet but no doubt once he reads this it will be added to his bucket list). In the First World War protected paths were created called via ferrate and many people (including us) visit the Dolomites to experience these paths. They are made up of metal ropes, iron ladders and rungs that make it possible to climb a wall of rock. The first vie ferrate were built during World War I until the end of 1917 and recently the via ferrate has been carefully restored and many new routes added for visitors to enjoy...or to suffer through ;-)
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| Cortina d'Ampezzo |
After just 4 hours in the car we arrived in the gorgeous ski town of Cortina d'Ampezzo, the heart of the Dolomites in an alpine valley. Cortina hosted the 1956 Winter Olymipcs and has been the location for many movies. We stayed at a fabulous hotel in town with our own kitchen so the first stop on our trips to Italy is always the grocery store ... we LOVE going to the Italian grocery stores and stocking up on all the delicious Italian food for our hikes....mmmmm...the cheese, salami, bread, pasta, wine....HEAVEN!! Once the fridge was fully stocked, we enjoy an early night before our first big hiking day. Our first hike is to visit the famous Tre Cime di Lavaredo (three peaks). As we approached the car parking lot to begin our hike we are surrounded by snow - lots of snow...it looks like a fairytale ... so very pretty, blue sky, sunshine and a lot of snow ... and then we start hiking - in our runners. We were totally prepared for dry weather hiking. Snow hiking? Not so much. We pushed on - once our feet were numb it wasn't too bad ;-) What a spectacular part of the world. We did a 5 hour hike around the three peaks and it was fabulous. Hiking with the kids always includes lots of rest stops but we never break for too long because as soon as we stop we start getting cold so short, quick stops were all we needed. We are so lucky that the kids enjoy hiking as much as we do - they both did a wonderful job. Home for warm baths and warmer dinner and an early night so we can do it all again the next day!!
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| Lana |
Next, we drove 2hours west to Lana, a small town located in between Merano and Bolzeno and is a popular for it's many hiking options. Lana also produces most of Europe's apples and I understand chestnuts are pretty popular in Lana also. Lana has a much more German influence than Cortina d'Ampezzo but with the hillsides covered in vines you could not mistake that you were still in Italy. The day we arrived we did a 4hour walk around the town and discovered some wonderful waterfalls along with seeing our first ever salamander, in fact we must have seen about 10 salamanders on that walk - gorgeous black lizard like creatures with bright orange paint like spots. Gorgeous!
On our second day in Lana we did a walk along the ancient paths of the irrigation channels that were originally built to water fields and meadows surrounding the town. The path itself was built mainly for maintenance purposes and is now a gorgeous walking path that winds through vineyards, apple orchards and chestnut groves - such breathtaking views from this walk! We walked for several hours then caught a bus back to Lana - another wonderful day!
We did not want our holiday to end. So on our last day in Lana we decided to pack up the car, hike all day then drive home in the evening. We decided to spend the day hiking one the many trails around the San Vigilio mountain pass. We cheated a bit today and caught a cable car and then a chair lift before we started hiking. It didn't really feel like cheating though because we still did a lot of climbing in the snow. We were headed for the Hochwart mountain top at 2,608m above sea level ... we didn't quite make it but we were pretty close!! We hiked through the clouds and the weather was starting to look pretty dodgy so after yet another most welcome cup of hot chocolate and some lunch, we headed back down the mountain. A quick change of clothes and shoes in the parking lot and we were on our way back to Munich. Such an exhausting, yet fabulous 6 days in spectacular hikers paradise of South Tyrol!! Ti amo Italia!!!
The spectacular peaks of the Dolomites have been named a UNESCO world heritage site. They attract a tremendous number of visitors both in summer and winter. In winter it is a huge skiing location. In summer visitors enjoy hiking, climbing, base jumping, hang gliding, para gliding and cycling. In July there is an annual single day road bike race over seven of the passes in the Dolomites - (not sure if Nick knows about this one yet but no doubt once he reads this it will be added to his bucket list). In the First World War protected paths were created called via ferrate and many people (including us) visit the Dolomites to experience these paths. They are made up of metal ropes, iron ladders and rungs that make it possible to climb a wall of rock. The first vie ferrate were built during World War I until the end of 1917 and recently the via ferrate has been carefully restored and many new routes added for visitors to enjoy...or to suffer through ;-)
We decided snow/hiking boots were the first purchase of the day. After we were all fixed up with fabulous waterproof hiking boots - we set off for our next hike. Mostly dry hiking today but almost 8hours - the new shoes were well worn in by the end of this day. Today involved some of the via ferrate. Henry had been adamant that he didn't want to put on his rock climbing harness and clip into the wire cables but once we were there he was so brave and decided to give it a go. Nick roped us all together which provided a challenge for us to even walk together without tripping one of us. Once we made it to the base of the rock face Nick gave us a little lesson on climbing; Polly and Nick make it all look so easy as they elegantly scramble up the rock ... Henry and I on the other hand huff and puff and grunt and groan but we made it eventually and we were having a blast!! We were really out in the elements. The rock face was freezing cold and we couldn't wear gloves because we couldn't grip the rock with gloves on so our fingers were numb ... oh yeah ... and it was snowing and cold but we soldiered on!! Polly was in heaven and was keen to keep climbing all day but it became apparent that there was still A LOT of via ferrate ahead of us and poor little Henry was struggling and we were worried about running out of daylight for us to return to the car so we decided enough was enough and that we should turn around. It took twice as long to navigate ourselves safely down the rock face but once at the bottom we huddled in a cave to warm up and enjoyed a delicious warm hot chocolate which was becoming part of our daily lunch while hiking. We still had another 2-3 hours of hiking to do to get back to the car so off we set ... what a great day ... almost 8hours of hiking and we were all wiped out!! This was the only night we ate out during our holiday. We literally fell into a restaurant, ate whatever we could and stumbled into hot baths and then into bed. Phew ... what an awesome day!!
On our second day in Lana we did a walk along the ancient paths of the irrigation channels that were originally built to water fields and meadows surrounding the town. The path itself was built mainly for maintenance purposes and is now a gorgeous walking path that winds through vineyards, apple orchards and chestnut groves - such breathtaking views from this walk! We walked for several hours then caught a bus back to Lana - another wonderful day!
We did not want our holiday to end. So on our last day in Lana we decided to pack up the car, hike all day then drive home in the evening. We decided to spend the day hiking one the many trails around the San Vigilio mountain pass. We cheated a bit today and caught a cable car and then a chair lift before we started hiking. It didn't really feel like cheating though because we still did a lot of climbing in the snow. We were headed for the Hochwart mountain top at 2,608m above sea level ... we didn't quite make it but we were pretty close!! We hiked through the clouds and the weather was starting to look pretty dodgy so after yet another most welcome cup of hot chocolate and some lunch, we headed back down the mountain. A quick change of clothes and shoes in the parking lot and we were on our way back to Munich. Such an exhausting, yet fabulous 6 days in spectacular hikers paradise of South Tyrol!! Ti amo Italia!!!
