Sept 13 - home sweet home

Sept 12 - homeward bound

Fortezza to Verona by train.

A couple hours walking around Verona; we are not really city people - too much sensory input! A city packed with history and art and hoards of tourists like us.

Verona to Milano by train with noisy neighbors. Train is packed with people standing in the aisles.

Then, in Milano, 10 minute walk to a different station, sort out which ticket machine for which train line on which platform.
A 30 minute train and a 10 minute walk to an absolutely perfect Airbnb.

Silent, comfortable, big outdoor space, quiet neighborhood, attentive host, washing machine, comfortable bed, and pizza at a health club just 2 blocks away. Very calm place after 10 hours in transit.

We're happy and healthy and very eager to see our bears.

Sept 11 - on the train

We spent the day walking west down the valley, mostly on a bike path. Pleasant, gentle mountain scenery. This little strip of valley is the German speaking part of Italy; pre-WW1 it was Austria, and still has an identity crisis of sorts.

At the end of the day we hopped on a train for a short ride to Fortezza, the interchange station for our train tomorrow to Verona and then on to Milan.

Fortezza is a tiny village in a steep-walled gash of a canyon, and getting off the train it did not look like promising topography for finding a place to put our tent. But just across the river the map showed a trail, so we took a look. Hurray! A little park with some remnant Roman Road, where the wheel tracks are deeply rutted into the bedrock. Benches and a patch of level mowed grass! We've never camped a dozen meters from a Roman Road before :) We are just above a loud roaring river which drowns out any vehicle noise from the highway across the river. 46.787909, 11.612456

We're happy and healthy and getting on the train on Monday morning, headed for Milan.

Sept 10 - we saved the best for last

Got to the top of the mountain by 7:30 this morning and had it all to ourselves. The sky was clear and the 360 view was astounding. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Piana

Fascinating place. Two tabletops separated by a very shallow saddle. For 30 months, the northern part was occupied by the Austrians; the southern by the Italians. Each top is a few hundred acres that were riddled with old trenches. Read the wiki article for the military history. 

The trail descended from the northern end for 2400'. The trail had been built by the Austrian military to ferry all their supplies to the mountain top. A beautiful piece of trail construction that boggles the mind. 

And then descended all the way to the town where we got off the train to start the Alta Via 1 almost three weeks ago and ate at the same restaurant. Niederdorf-Villabassa: all the towns in this valley have two names, the German and the Italian. 

Walking into town we passed a fabulous picnic shelter, so after dinner we returned to camp in the shelter. 

Tourist season is nearly over. Many Italian schools started this week; some start next week. The refuges close in mid-September and all these towns go nearly dormant. 

We're happy and healthy and ready to have a leisurely walk down the valley on Sunday, then catch the train to Milan on Sunday.  

Sept 9 - in and out of the clouds

Camped here: 46.60674, 12.25375
Photo is view from campsite, 6600'. Eight air miles from Austria.

We are back up to 7000' for the first time since we left the Alta Via 1. Surrounded by spires and towers. Very dramatic range of mountains.

In and out of clouds all day. A few hours of light rain after lunch, with limited views of the peaks. Then it mostly cleared, but started raining again after we finished our picnic dinner and climbed into the tent.

Easy walking all day. We gained 4000', but over 7 miles on a very consistent grade, on a gravel road that was certainly built by the military during the WW1 era.

Glad we came out this way. It's a dramatic and beautiful ending to our weeks in the Dolomitis.

Tomorrow we will climb to 7400' to Refugio Monte Piana, and then to the summit of that mountain; there is a bunch of WW1 military buildings in that region. Then we work our way down the mountain on a network of trails to Tobblach - Dobbiaco, where we'll catch a train or bus to who knows where, staging to get to Milan over the next two days.

We're happy and healthy and yet again snug in our tent during the evening light rain. L

Sept 8 - picnic shelter camping

Two good town stops today. Padola this morning from 7:00 until about 8:30. Cafe latte and chocolate croissants at a very active bar, where locals stop for their coffee on the way to work. We stayed dry during some moderate rain, so the timing was perfect.

Then we hiked uphill for an hour or two through woods to a casera, where we took shelter in a very large old milking barn during the second round of rain., and ate a second breakfast. The barn had 88 stalls, and fortunately had been washed out since the last time it was used. There was a table and a bench near the doors at one end, so it was a pleasant stop in a mountain meadow.

Then downhill to the town of Auronzo di Cadore for pizza during the third round of rain. Excellent timing. Gelato, and a stop at the grocery store for dinner supplies.

Like all of these mountain towns, it is very long and narrow, stretching for about four miles along the river. We walked out of town on a gravel bike path, and we are making use of the bike path infrastructure: a picnic shelter! That meant we could eat dinner at a dry table even if it rained again. We decided to move the table to the side and put the tent under the shelter, so even if it rains tonight we'll hopefully pack up a dry tent. It hasn't really rained since we left the pizzeria, unlike most previous days where the rain came between about 5:00 and 7:00 pm.

Forecast included chance of rain and thunderstorms all day. Even though it rained for 2 or 3 hours, we never got wet!

Tomorrow is our final climb of the trip, up 4000 feet to a refuge where we'll probably have our final hot refuge meal. The mountains here are spectacular, and if the clouds lift we'll have a glorious view.

We're happy and healthy and glad to have stayed dry on a rainy day.

Sept 7 - hill towns



Easy walking. Good weather, no rain. Hot lunch. No gelato and no bakery. Very nice grocery lady, and a very nice lady in a bar sold us sandwiches. Our first dining experience with a desultory server :(

Tiny grocery store: 1 yoghurt, 6 medium tomatoes, 2 cans lemon soda, 450 grams of speck (the highest quality cured pig) — 7.80 euros. Food here is cheap. 

Four days left. We adjusted our route and will follow the Camino Delle Dolomiti for another 24 miles to Lago di Misurina, and then ~12 miles north to a train station. That should take 3 days, giving a day of slop. Also, there is a bus that runs that final 12 miles in case we have a serious unexpected delay. 

Best part of the day was walking through a series of hill-side villages, each with numerous old buildings. Quite handsome. It makes sense that they didn't build roads in the flood-prone valleys; instead the old road (Roman built?) contours a few hundred feet above floor of the valley/canyon, and there are settlements all along the road. 

Two minor roads on our Camino that were sign-posted closed, but we walked anyway. The first had a road crew that waved us through, no problem. The second is apparently only closed to vehicles as there are other walkers and a cyclist. We're camped next to the second one; very quiet since it's closed to vehicles!  46.59239, 12.49728

We're happy and healthy and hoping for 3 scoops of gelato tomorrow. Maybe even four! What would Steve and Alan eat if they were here? Cheese!!!!

Sept 6 - 5 more walking days

Found a lost item on the side of the trail that will be an appropriate birthday gift for a dear relative who celebrates #75 in January!

Beautiful little mountain town, Sappada, now on the German speaking side of the range, with consistent handsome architecture.

We are camped at 46.62142, 12.68708
Our last hour was descending about 1000 feet on a logging road. Slim pickings for campsites, and the clear cuts are not very attractive. Found an old casera (a lodge of some sort) 50-100 meters from the place where all the logs have been gathered in prep for transport. The guy moving logs from piles onto trucks worked right up until sunset, but now all is quiet.

The Casera is locked on the first floor, but the second floor is open and has about 16 beds with mattresses in four rooms. Maybe it was a bunk house for loggers, back before they drove home every night. The place is full of mouse poop and not inviting. But there is level grass site, and a bench under the eve so we could stay dry eating dinner in the early evening drizzle. Much better than setting up on a pullout on the side of the logging road.

Photo is sunset from our dinner bench.

We're happy and healthy and dry in our little tent, listening to the litter patter of light rain.

Sept 5 - in Control of Nature

The best part of today is too hard to adequately describe. If you haven't read John McPhee's "Control of Nature", you should. If you have read it, then imagine this as the fourth case study.

Four to five thousand vertical feet of limestone mountains, steep, often vertical, and shedding landslides. And a futile attempt to keep the rocks from washing out a pointless gravel road to nowhere, or from traveling downstream where the the rocks will inevitably go. Our route (a road) was washed out for a few hundred meters by an enormous pile of gravel that came down the mountain and wiped out a bridge. The stream was calf deep and easy to wade. But the crews were trying to get the gravel and boulders (some the size of buses) to behave according to their plans. There were two crews with heavy equipment doing God knows what. And a third crew mixing individual bags of concrete mix to fill the gaps between pitifully tiny blocks of stone that they hoped would direct the stream.

It was calf deep when we were there, but obviously is a roaring torrent when conditions are right, losing 600' in about a mile, a huge gash of raw rock and boulders. And they are doing their best to contain and direct it.

John McPhee would appreciate the effort.

Good weather, good walking, and a five star campsite with water, benches, level grass, and a view to beat the band.

Camping here. 46.55272, 12.61136

We're happy and healthy and hoping for another good day tomorrow.

Sept 4 - done with Cadore

The greater Cadore area is a big string of towns and second homes strung along a narrow river valley. Each village area is named something like Ospital di Cadore or Lorenzago di Cadore. I think it took two days to pass the whole spread, usually on dirt roads above the bulk of the action.

In Lorenzago we bought lunch sandwiches at a small shop run by three 75+ Pensioners, maybe siblings. Tried to eat the sandwiches in the church yard, but the Sunday noon church bells lasted 15 minutes and was rock-concert volume, reverberating off everything made of stone. Deafening. We weren't the only people with our fingers in our ears. One of the recent popes came here for summer holiday, so the town has lots of pope stuff!

Over/the-top cheerful and outgoing Gelateria lady in the next village made our day. Three scoops of good gelato served by the worlds friendliest scooper! Can't beat that.

Camped here 46.47588, 12.51795

Good weather, not hot, no rain.

We're happy and healthy and eating our way from one stop to the next.

Sept 3 - easy walking and Gabriella

14 miles, ~3000 feet of gain (according to CalTopo, but it didn't seem like that much. Lunch in town, and bought packaged salad and deli chicken salad for a picnic dinner. High quality trails, dirt roads, and paved roads. A wooden covered bridge over a deep gorge. Great weather until light rain starting at about 4:30 or 5:00.

A small church near a trailhead had a covered entryway where we sat out the rain. When the rain subsided I ventured behind the church to find a family eating a picnic on the covered front patio of a closed seasonal cafe (July and August). We joined them, tables, chairs, roof, and a delightful visit. They live near Venice and have a second home near here. Gabrielle turns 7 in 10 days, and she was a total delight. She drew us a picture, a gift. We showed her lots of pictures of our bears. She smiled a lot.

We set up our tent on the covered patio, so we'll be dry without the fly if it starts raining again.

Camped at 2800' elevation. 46.46058, 12.36139

We're happy and healthy, and enjoying the good life.

Sept 2 - great campsite

Our campsite is just 100 meters past the end of the paved road in Ospitale di Cadore, in a tiny meadow with a bench. We're at 1500' now, not much above last night. Adjacent peaks are 6500' to the east and 8000' to the west.
46.33313, 12.32664

The valley has narrowed down to a fairly steep-walled river cut canyon. Much of this route follows the historic way that contours above the canyon floor on a trail built by terracing the hillside. There are bits of Roman road, forts, towers, and churches of various ages. And the town of Longerone, where we ate lunch, had an unexpectedly large industrial area.

There is a fairly busy road going up canyon, in and out of tunnels, a railroad line in and out of its own tunnels and some long sections of bike path. Our campsite is on top of a long auto tunnel.

We're happy and healthy and happy to have a day with no rain!

Sept 1 - easy going

We started the Alta Via hike at the train station at Niederdorf-Villabassa. We walked south, through the high rugged mountains, to Belluno. 

We have 11 more hiking days, and we decided to make a loop of it by walking north on the Camino Delle Dolomiti back to Niederdorf. This route, however, follows the valleys!

So today's walking was easy going - bike paths, country paved roads, and some gravel paths. A few footpaths. Through abandoned ancient terraced hillsides and small hill villages. I (Amy) feel no shame in admitting that easy hiking is really satisfying!

There was 30 minutes of mid-afternoon downpour. We had the extreme good fortune to arrive at a wedding tent a couple minutes before it started, so we were dry and comfortable. (Alison!)

We were down to 1200' elevation, where it is warmer, but not fortunately not hot. 

Camped here: 46.17736, 12.31555

And here's our route north:  https://caltopo.com/m/QQ81B

We're happy and healthy and snug in our little tent while the evening rain sprinkles down. Update 5 minutes later: pouring rain!