The Dolomites

The Alps are the cradle of alpinism and mountaineering. As such they are a universal reference point and a symbol running through modern culture as much as through customs, activities and products that are recognised and accepted the world over – take your pick from mountain rescue services, trail waymarking, hiking gear, alpine milk, Swiss cheese and chocolate, and on it goes. The Alps are beautiful and varied, and in this article we will give a brief account of their rocky south-eastern corner – the Dolomites.

This is a site dedicated to promoting interesting places in Croatia, and that is what it will remain for the foreseeable future. So how does this article fit in?

A lot of people asked us for photographs and information about our trip through the Dolomites, and as we said, this is a global symbol of alpinism, of mountaineering, of natural singularity, of being out in clean air and enjoying it – in other words, of everything we normally promote through our site. So we decided to make an exception and give a brief account of what many consider the most spectacular group of mountain peaks in the world.

About the Dolomites

The Dolomites are a mountain group in the eastern Alps. They stretch across several regions of northern Italy – Belluno (Veneto), South Tyrol and Trentino. Most of the places listed in this article are in South Tyrol. They are a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site and contain 21 peaks over 3,000 m above sea level.

Bilingualism

Many visitors who do not know what to expect are surprised by the bilingualism. Most of the names are in both Italian and German. We were even in areas where Italian is spoken badly and reluctantly.
How come?

This region was part of Austria for centuries, but after the First World War it was annexed to Italy. A good deal of the population was displaced or partly assimilated. On a couple of occasions there were moves to return this area to Austria, but for one reason or another those initiatives came to nothing. During the First World War heavy fighting was waged here across extremely harsh terrain, and the museum devoted to it stands on the highest peak of the Dolomites – Marmolada (3,344 m).

Passo Giau

Passo Giau (2236 m) is a well-known mountain pass carrying the road between Val Gardena and Arabba to the west and Cortina to the east. There is also a bypass road running below Cinque Torri which avoids the hairpins and the big climb, and the descent that follows, but a visit to Passo Giau is a must, because it is one of the icons of the Dolomites.

At the pass itself there is a large car park, a mountain hut and the start of the walking trail towards the summit. The landscape is like something out of a fairy tale, and slightly different from most other destinations in the Dolomites. Dry grass, bare rock and views of the peaks interweave in surreal combinations that leave nobody unmoved!

Location: 46.48256686046485, 12.054398484230909

Although the photographs of Passo Giau look extremely processed, like so many paintings, they were taken on a phone with the auto HDR option, with no filters at all, and put on the site without any further editing!

Seceda

We had high expectations of Seceda, but our feelings are a little mixed. That does not mean Seceda should be doubted or, heaven forbid, left out of a visit to the Dolomites. Quite the opposite! Seceda is one of the most beautiful mountains, not only in the Dolomites but anywhere. It has a distinctive shape, and what makes it special is that ridge of its: a sheer cliff on the north side ending in an abyss, and on the other a grass slope of intense green dropping into the picturesque Val Gardena valley, dotted with alpine houses and framed in the distance by the rocky peaks of Sassolungo.

The only thing remotely like Seceda is Hornstrandir in the far north-west of Iceland. But while Hornstrandir is hard to reach and wild, Seceda is extremely accessible and cultivated, and that is exactly what takes a fair bit of the magic out of it.

The ascent starts from the picturesque town of Ortisei (St. Ulrich in Gröden). Leave the car in one of the garages at the cable cars for Seiser Alm (Alpe di Siusi) (46.57313112859847, 11.6708900390284). You cross the little river by a bridge, and in about 10 minutes you walk through the town to the escalators that lead up to the Ortisei – Furnes – Seceda cable car (46.576539893940094, 11.674566088446689).

The cable car takes you to the top, where crowds of people are enjoying taking photographs and drinking coffee on sun loungers scattered across the meadow in front of the mountain hut. Anyone who does not like cable cars can hire a helicopter to drop them off behind the hut. Some people find that lovely; as a devoted lover of nature and wilderness, I do not.

“Instagram girls” are everywhere you look, and drones overhead complete the atmosphere.

From there you can choose between several paths, and the most interesting is the one that follows the top of the ridge towards the rocky peaks. The northern and the southern sides are equally interesting.

The north is harsh, looking out over the distant clearings of the neighbouring mountains, with clouds boiling up out of the chasm like smoke. The weather here changes from one minute to the next. Rain and sun take turns quickly, so proper hiking clothing is recommended. And yet plenty of people set off up here in high heels and evening dresses (!?!). We are not exaggerating! When you see that, your heart weeps for Velebit.

The Church of St. John

There is not much to say here. The photograph says a thousand words!

When you go to see St. Magdalena, or are passing through on the way to the Adolf Munkel Trail (Zanser Alm), you park here: 46.63696699470821, 11.720832043083707, walk some 70 m east to the viewing platform and enjoy a view like no other! The best time of day is a sunny afternoon. The peaks of Seceda in the background, a beautiful meadow of intense green framed by firs, a traditional wooden fence and the little church as the leading player – a scene worth travelling from the other side of the planet for. Anyone who wants to reach the church itself can do so for an entrance fee.

St. Magdalena

Is there anywhere in the world a more perfectly composed inland scene than this?

If you thought St. John was all this little valley had to offer, you were badly mistaken. The view of the church of St. Magdalena, not even a kilometre before St. John, is the trademark of the Dolomites, of the Alps and of perfect scenery in general!

This scene graces any number of wallpapers, and many people think it is made up. It is not, but it might as well be!

It is typically Austrian in every respect. It has nothing to do with Italy beyond being located in it. The building style, the graveyard full of German surnames, the perfect organisation of life and of tourism… A telling example of how to protect yourself from mass tourism without having to resort to American contrivances such as lotteries, where only the winners – and only immediately before their visiting slot, so that you cannot plan a trip – get to see some of the most hyped natural attractions. Here everything is very simple, unobtrusive and effective. Nature protected, cultural heritage protected, the daily routine of the local population undisturbed. You would think a thousand years of evolution separated this region from the “wild” Balkans.

If we had to go splitting hairs, we might find it in the observation that everything is a little too perfect.

Leave the car in the car park here: 46.641306, 11.715167
Walk some 1.5 km to the viewpoint here: 46.647778, 11.716750
After that, go and see the church and the graveyard around it… At the church we felt that this place has a soul. In the Dolomites, a tourist mecca where everything is commercialised and packed with visitors, this is one of the places where we felt that something extra, which is even finer than a perfectly arranged set for a perfect view and a perfect photograph.

Seiser Alm (Alpe di Siusi)

Seiser Alm is the highest alpine pasture in Europe. It lies between 1,680 m and 2,350 m above sea level and covers an area of 52 km2. During the day all motor traffic is banned except for local residents and public transport, which makes this valley a paradise for walkers and cyclists.

Seiser Alm can be reached from the Val Gardena side, but the main entrance is from the west, from the village of Seis (46.5405079, 11.5647496), from where a cable car runs up to Compatsch (46.5422269, 11.6169408). That is the largest settlement, and it is where the restaurants, the sports equipment shops and the rest of the necessary infrastructure are. Since the area is huge, we decided to hire electric bikes and use them to reach every corner of this beautiful “pasture”. A venture like that will take you a whole day, because there are trails, hills, woods and lakes in every direction. There are also several cable cars running up to the surrounding hills and viewpoints. It is wise to book the bikes a few days in advance.

Seiser Alm is easiest to explore on electric bikes, which should be booked a couple of days ahead.

The landscape really does look like a painting. The horses and cows out at pasture look as if they had stepped off a poster, and to the west the beautiful meadows are dramatically overshadowed by Sassolungo with its rocky peaks.

Sassolungo (Langkofel)

Sassolungo, yet another of the icons of the Dolomites (a sentence we keep repeating). It is the highest mountain of the local group, a well-known pass and a favourite stopping point for motorcyclists and travellers of every kind. You can go up on foot by a walking trail, but also by a unique cable car on the eastern side, remarkable for its extremely small cabins that take two people standing up! The gondola carries you in among the rocky peaks to the mountain hut, and getting in and out of the cabin is done on the move, without stopping! Admittedly the cable car staff help you with that, but it is certainly one of the most memorable cable cars in the world, both for how exposed you feel in such a tiny cabin heading in among enormous cliffs, and for that jumping in and out while it is still moving.

Sassolungo is the same mountain you look at from Seceda on the other side of Val Gardena, and the mountain that most dominantly adorns Seiser Alm, the highest alpine pasture in Europe.

Car park: 46.509361, 11.757528

Cadini Di Misurina

This chain of needle-sharp peaks is one of the most spectacular and most fascinating things we have ever seen, not only in the Dolomites but anywhere at all!

They sit directly opposite the far more hyped Tre Cime, and thank goodness they do. Rivers of people pour towards Tre Cime, while only the occasional enthusiast heads for Cadini. And so, while everyone else got off the bus and set off for Tre Cime, we cunningly went the other way, knowing exactly which spot we wanted to “conquer”. That spot is not even half an hour of easy walking away, and when you get there you realise that nature has completely lost its mind here! For the true purists and lovers of the astonishing, it has set up a genuine, honest-to-goodness stage for watching the Cadini!!!

A narrow path leads to the “stage” which at first glance looks tame and unremarkable, because it looks like a little track with grass on either side, but once you start along it, chasms open up on both sides, and if you have the slightest problem with exposure or heights, do not even attempt it. Even the view from a distance is fascinating enough and worth every trial on the way to this place (more on those trials in the section about Tre Cime). Once you have got past this narrow path you step onto the “stage”, a small rocky platform with a drop on every side, and the Cadini present themselves to you in the most explicit way, in all their magnificence!

And as if that were not enough, nature goes a step further, dimming the lights and aiming a narrow “spotlight” beam precisely at the “stage”. We were lost for words…

The trail to this spot: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/map/tre-cime-di-lavaredo-dreizinnen-hut-f670ef5?u=m

Drei Zinnen (Tre Cime Di Lavaredo)

Tre Cime Di Lavaredo are perhaps the most recognisable trademark of the Dolomites and a perennial inspiration to photographers from all over the world. It is not unusual for photographers to wait here for days for the ideal moment for a shot, living in campervans or in tents tucked away somewhere among the rocks.

They stand right on the 3,000 m mark and are one of the most visited attractions in the Dolomites.

They can be reached on foot from several directions, and the closest approach by car is from the south, from where you can drive right up below the cliffs themselves, where there is a large car park. This car park fills up very quickly, and when it does the road climbing up to it is closed at the bottom, where there is a second car park which also fills up fast – and if there is no room there, you are in trouble. That is why the advice for Tre Cime is to come as early as you can.

If you leave the car at that “lower” car park, there are organised buses from it that take visitors up to the “upper” car park below the cliffs, where the trail around Tre Cime begins.

At the start of the trail, right beside the car park, stands the Rifugio Auronzo mountain hut. Tre Cime are directly opposite Cadini Di Misurina, and from the hut, and along the whole first part of the trail heading east, there are beautiful views of their needle-sharp peaks. As for the view of Tre Cime themselves, it is at its worst from exactly this side. The finest views of them are from the east and the north, so if you want to experience this place properly you need to get at least as far as the Forcella Lavaredo pass to the east, above the Lavaredo mountain hut. That is about 2.5 km of mostly level, very wide track, crowded with walkers. “Walkers” is a far more fitting word than “hikers”, because this has nothing to do with hiking apart from the altitude you happen to be at.

The climb up to the Forcella Lavaredo pass is the first steep bit. There is a gentler version and a slightly sharper one, but both are straightforward and not particularly strenuous. Once you are up on the pass, the view opens out onto the northern side of the Cime and onto the whole plateau behind them. Across that plateau, paths lead further north towards the Dreizinnen Hut, from where there are spectacular views of the Cime.

On the far side of the rise the hut stands on there are two small mountain lakes. From there paths drop further north into one of the most picturesque valleys of all – Val Fiscalina, which we passed through on our last day on the way to Pragser Wildsee.

Car park (upper): 46.611528, 12.295278

Lago di Sorapis

When we were planning the trip to the Dolomites, Lago di Sorapis somehow ended up on the list of back-up destinations. Since we already had one of the most beautiful lakes in the world on the list, Pragser Wildsee, Lago di Sorapis struck us as an unnecessary “extra”. Thank goodness it made it onto the main list after all, because this is one of the most fantastic attractions we have seen anywhere to date!!!

First of all it has to be said that the path leading to the lake is not for everyone. In a couple of places you are very close to a sheer drop, so anyone with a problem with heights should think twice before setting off on an adventure like this. Those spots did not look frightening to us, because our own mountains have accustomed us to similar and far more extreme situations. In any case, cables and steps have been installed everywhere they are needed, so you feel safe the whole way. Admittedly the “traffic” is fairly heavy, as at most attractions in the Dolomites, but passing people coming the other way is not a problem either, since you can always work it out between you.

Cars are left in the lay-bys along the road, and from there the walking trail starts, some 5.6 km long with 360 m of ascent. At a normal pace with stops for photographs, it will take you about 2 h to reach the lake.

A good part of the trail runs through forest, after which it becomes rockier and winds along a cliff with a drop that was lost in mist. The trail is not hard. There is a little more climbing in the second half, but anyone of average fitness should have no trouble at all.

Before you reach the lake, the striking spire of Punta Sorapiss (3,205 m) comes into view. Together with the lake it makes one of the most incredible sights in the world. If you looked at it on the internet and thought the photographs had been “photoshopped” – they have not. The lake has an unearthly milky blue colour, which is even stronger in cloudy weather. Clouds usually rob water of its finest tones, but here it is exactly the other way round. Even when you go right up to the water and dip your hands into it, the intensity of the colour is the same as in the photographs

The only other place we have seen water that colour is the Blue Lagoon in Iceland.

Rivers of people pour down towards the lake without a break, so it is hard to take a photograph without somebody wandering into the frame, but it is not impossible.

Just before the lake, on the left-hand side, there is a hidden mountain hut. It is well stocked with food and drink.

Car park: 46.55618940099968, 12.204608256208699
Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/map/map-august-24-2022-f5aa4bd–2?u=m

Cinque Torri (Fünf Türme)

The Five Towers – another of the icons of the Dolomites. I recently read an article where people had travelled to the Dolomites solely for Cinque Torri. They left us relatively unmoved. It is not that they are not striking, and we would certainly recommend a visit, but once you have seen the other wonders the Dolomites have to offer, you do not feel any particular thrill.

This is another typical Dolomites tourist location. You leave the car and a cable car takes you up to a hut that is in fact a restaurant, standing directly opposite the rocks. A circular path leads to the rocks, on which you can spend about half an hour, and that is largely that. If some particular weather conditions set in, the experience can be more intense and the photographs more interesting. We saw a good number of climbers heading off with their gear to climb the rocks. Their experience of the place is certainly a far more intense one.

A narrow road also leads up there, but we did not look into its condition or the driving restrictions on it. Since the vast majority of people leave their cars at the bottom, restrictions certainly exist.

Marmolada

A visit to the Dolomites is not complete without going up Marmolada (3,344 m), the highest peak, which offers a spectacular 360-degree view over the whole of northern Italy.

Marmolada is home to the well-known glacier, that permanent ice which in the last few years has come under serious threat from climate change. We recently witnessed the tragedy when part of the glacier broke away. During our visit we could see that it is under constant monitoring and that it is shielded from the sun with white tarpaulins.

Marmolada is also home to a very interesting museum devoted to the First World War. Desperate fighting between Italy and Austria-Hungary was waged across this whole area. It is astonishing what people came up with in order to survive a war at these altitudes, where the weather is brutal at the best of times. An entire complex of hospital and shelters was carved into the glacier, and to this day many peaks in the Dolomites are still “adorned” with tunnels, bunkers and shelters in the rock.

To visit Marmolada you need clear skies and an early arrival, because crowds are a regular occurrence. It is best to come first thing in the morning when the cable car opens, so as to catch one of the first slots for the ascent. Since the climb is a high one over a short distance, the cable car does not do it all in one go – you pass through intermediate stations.

At the very summit there is a platform with a view in every direction. All those peaks that looked high to us look low from Marmolada. The air up here is very thin and the temperature low, so that is worth bearing in mind before you go up.

From Marmolada there is a direct view of Viel dal Pan (the Bread Trail). From up there you see it far below, winding across the grassy slopes.

The Bread Trail is one of those legendary trails with magnificent views, a perfect combination of everything that makes the Dolomites special. Goats, both tame and wild, round out an experience you are bound to remember for the rest of your life. Our schedule was so packed with places of every kind that we kept Viel dal Pan in reserve for the end of the trip. After Marmolada, having looked down on it from a bird’s-eye view, we could not face it. Another time.

Pragser Wildsee (Lago Di Braies)

Pragser Wildsee lies far to the north, very close to the Austrian border. It is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world!

We were out of luck with our visit this time, though. When we were planning the trip there was no sign that there might be any restrictions at all on visiting the lake. But on the day of our visit we ran into a queue of vehicles several kilometres long. We were even willing to wait several hours, but at one point a traffic marshal asked us for our tickets. When we said we did not have tickets, he simply directed us into a side lane. After a short conversation with another marshal, we were told that tickets can only be bought online. It turned out that because of the crowds, new rules had been brought in that we knew nothing about. After reading the new instructions on the website, we concluded that we would leave the visit for another time after all. We turned round and headed home.

Conclusion

We enjoyed this journey and saw a great many beautiful and extraordinary things. But if our overall impression of the Dolomites had to be summed up in a single phrase, it would probably be – a beautiful picture book without a soul.

The Dolomites are probably the most spectacular group of mountain formations in the world, set off by some of the most beautiful lakes in the world. What impressed us most were Lago di Sorapis, Cadini Di Misurina, St. Magdalena, parts of Seiser Alm, and Seceda (if you picture it without the day trippers in high heels and suits).

Many people hold the over-grooming of the Alps against them. Unlike northern Pakistan, Patagonia or many places in the wildernesses of North America, the Alps – and the Dolomites with them – come across like some sort of landscaped park.

We missed the smells!

There is none of that beauty that lights up your soul when you step out onto Velebit or the karst of Biokovo and the heather, the sage and the other mountain herbs give off their scent. Nor will you come across the elemental mountain people in the Dolomites, the ones who keep sheep and live without electricity. There are still some of those in the mountains of the Balkans. Meeting them and getting talking to them is a particular kind of experience that Europeans go looking for in the remote corners of Asia, Africa and South America. I personally knew some of those people, marked by wisdom, simplicity and enormous life experience. They are a dying breed. They will be replaced by registered family farms, regulation and the other fruits of globalisation. Sad…

The mountain huts in the Dolomites are mostly restaurants serving industrial food, where you can choose between ten kinds of cake and as many kinds of coffee. You will not get a tea made from herbs picked in the area there, nor will the host sit down and talk to you. You cannot even get to the pot and peer in to see what is simmering. Cable cars, lifts, mass tourism, coffee drunk on sun loungers arranged across the summits and slopes… It is an atmosphere some people love, but it is not really for us. I do not want to work out how the car park machine operates when I am going hiking. Maybe our idea of what mountains and mountaineering are is skewed? Maybe, but we like it and we believe it is the right one.

Beyond the things already mentioned, you also somehow sense a lack of identity – is it Italian or Austrian – so that all that natural beauty feels even more like a perfect stage set. You can feel that identity in the remote corners of Austria when you meet old men with big moustaches, dressed in their traditional braces trousers and hats with a feather tucked into them. There is none of that here.

As for the rock formations and shapes themselves, they are indeed spectacular and huge, but the feeling when you step in among Tulove grede or onto Bojin kuk is, for me, far more magical. I do not know why, but that is how it is. Perhaps if a cable car ran up to them and they were packed with foreign tourists, it would not be.
Height is not an unassailable trump card for the Dolomites either. 3,000 m really is high, but if the valley below is already at 1,500 m above sea level, the sense of height gets a little lost. When you find yourself on Sv. Jure on Biokovo and look out over the endless multitude of lower peaks, with our blue sea below them, you feel as though you are on the roof of the world!

The Dolomites are a wonder of nature and something everyone should see, but if for whatever reason you are not able to visit them and are “condemned” to our own mountains or those of the “region”, you should not despair. Our mountains will not deprive you of first-rate experiences. Rock towers, cliffs, viewpoints, forests, meadows, caves, rivers and lakes… You will find everything you could wish for and more! And all of it within a couple of hours’ drive of where you live. We often forget how lucky we are!