Two of my sisters and I just came back from a fabulous vacation to hike the Dolomites, the Italian Alps. We hiked Tre Cime, the 3 Chimneys, and Cinque Torri, the 5 Towers. We stayed in Cortina d'Ampezzo, which is supposed to be the luxury town, and watched a bike race. We wandered around talking and talking. It was one of the best vacations!
This was the site of a '93 Stallone movie, Cliffhanger. Now I have to find it and watch it, since we saw some of the places it was filmed up there.
Thursday was our first real hike. Tre Cime is about like Bergen's Vidden Over in difficulty, but at 2400 meters altitude. It's 2 hours from the start at Refugio Auronzo to Refugio Locatello.
Denise had turned around before Debbie and I did, and had taken the bus back down to Misurino, a beautiful lake with a chateau. Unfortunately, no busses left there for Cortina, so when Debbie and I got to Misurino, Denise was still sitting on the side of the lake. You know that extended lunch thing they do in Italy? That includes bus drivers! Denise had gotten to know the bus drivers by asking each one that stopped when the bus to Cortina was. The same bus drivers. Again and again.
Denise had never ridden a chair lift before. If you have, you know how scary the first time is! But when we got to the top, the attendant slowed us down and made sure we didn't fall on our faces. We walked out from the chair lift building, and dropped our jaws. What a view!!!
A quick thunderstorm came through, so we took the chair lift back down. Before we got all the way, we had to lower the clear plastic shield over our chair. It was dumping rain by the time we were sitting in the cafe with Proseccos and a capuccino! After an hour or so, we wandered out to the bus stop, where we sat and talked for another couple of hours while Italian lunch time dragged on.
We visited the paleontology and ethnography museums, which had little to no English. Denise had looked up the Dolomites, though, so we understood that they were formed from the raising and lowering of a shallow sea during Pangea. They are limestone layered with mud limestone, full of a fossil record of life changing.
Then we had to go on home. :-( The Marco Polo Airport is in serious need of a new terminal or two. It was chaotic, packed, and boring. We all made it safely, though. All's well that ends well!
The first day, we took the cable car to Faloria. Here are Denise and Debbie with me eating lunch at the Refugio at the summit.
This was the site of a '93 Stallone movie, Cliffhanger. Now I have to find it and watch it, since we saw some of the places it was filmed up there.
If you want to challenge your fear of heights, this is the place to do it! You could recreate Cliffhanger... or not.
Cortina is just made to hang out, shop, eat, and be happy. So we did.
We discovered a new drink: a spritz is made of Prosecco and Aperol.
Thursday was our first real hike. Tre Cime is about like Bergen's Vidden Over in difficulty, but at 2400 meters altitude. It's 2 hours from the start at Refugio Auronzo to Refugio Locatello.
Everywhere you looked, there were people pretending to be Spiderman!
Alpine blooms lined the hiking trails.
Here are the Three Chimneys, or Tre Cime!
Debbie at the end of our Tre Cime hike at 2450 meters altitude.
Ya think a few peope wanted to see Tre Cime?
There was a military exercise going on, as well. The young soldiers were enjoying themselves.
Denise had turned around before Debbie and I did, and had taken the bus back down to Misurino, a beautiful lake with a chateau. Unfortunately, no busses left there for Cortina, so when Debbie and I got to Misurino, Denise was still sitting on the side of the lake. You know that extended lunch thing they do in Italy? That includes bus drivers! Denise had gotten to know the bus drivers by asking each one that stopped when the bus to Cortina was. The same bus drivers. Again and again.
These Japanese women rode up with us, ran into Debbie and me at Refugio Locatello, and waited for the bus down from Misurino with us.
This was our hike to Cinque Torri, when we got off the bus two kilometers earlier than we should have. We had a beautiful forest and stream hike to get to the chair lift, where we thought we were going on the bus.
Denise had never ridden a chair lift before. If you have, you know how scary the first time is! But when we got to the top, the attendant slowed us down and made sure we didn't fall on our faces. We walked out from the chair lift building, and dropped our jaws. What a view!!!
Cinque Torri! If you look closely, there are people on top of that skinny peak. They rappeled down the right side of it.
During World War I, the Italians used the barrier of the Dolomites to keep out the Austrians. Cinque Torri has an interesting outdoor WWI museum.
A quick thunderstorm came through, so we took the chair lift back down. Before we got all the way, we had to lower the clear plastic shield over our chair. It was dumping rain by the time we were sitting in the cafe with Proseccos and a capuccino! After an hour or so, we wandered out to the bus stop, where we sat and talked for another couple of hours while Italian lunch time dragged on.
We found lots of places for "Good Times"!
Saturday, there was a trail-bike race. Right behind our B&B, the end of the trail came downhill through a field and around the house to the road. It was fun to watch, even though the racers had spread out into ones and twos by that time. The racer in 3rd place still had enough energy after 2-1/2 hours of trail racing to give us a little hop when we cheered for him! Flirt! Everybody else was braking hard.
Then we had to go on home. :-( The Marco Polo Airport is in serious need of a new terminal or two. It was chaotic, packed, and boring. We all made it safely, though. All's well that ends well!
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