Today was some serious up and downing and an exploration of the remnants of WW1. One of our team was a military guy and he’d been studying the area so was really pleased to get to explore.
So – again, Italy was fighting against the Austrians and Germany during this war. Even though a lot of the people in this area considered themselves Austrian. Hard, to say the least.
We walked all the routes laid out for the day and it was truly beautiful. For something different.
We took a shuttle to Bai des Dones for a chairlift to our trailhead. We met a local guide, Christina, who talked about WWI and the geological formations around us. Luca was very knowledgeable as well so could fill in those of us who were at the back, trying to read the signs and learn what was happening. I wasn’t very interested in the machinery of war, but more so in the lives of those in the midst.
We saw trenches, bunkers, and tunnels.
Where we were going to hike to see from the top seemed incredibly far, but it actually wasn’t the hardest hike of the week. Just long.
Martin presenting our day
I took a video of the surrounding mountains, incredible (word of the week) and on the next to last mountain in the video is our hiking destination after exploring WWI. Really?
These are the Cinque Torri, a group of 5 rocks where the weathering has left a distinctive grouping. Giant and people were rock climbing all over the place, but especially the one on the right.
But first – WWI. Again, remember that they were fighting, largely against their will, their neighbors. The second note made it clear:
In the trenches, these are obviously restructured on the original. But they looked out over steep mountain drop offs.
Getting paid and needing food
Cortina is the closest valley to this bunker and the trenches. The outdoor competitions of the Winter Olympics are going to be here in February 2026. A lot of infrastructure is being built, especially because of climate change and needing to be able to make enough snow.
This is what they were looking at from the bunkers. Impossible to defend or to really attack, though bombs were dropped. This territory was not fought over in WWII.
Headquarters – rough. And looking out from another bunker
Three dogs in this photo – in many of the photos, there are dogs. Comfort? Looks like it since two are being held here.
And now – I’ve skipped a whole lot of info re artillery. But this gives a snippet of the population’s attitudes and lives in the midst. And now we’re on our way to hike. Still a bit disconcerting for where we’re aiming – yes that little white speck on the top. But I’m psyched since I did a shorter hike yesterday.
Climbers
Hiking up to the top – there’s Cinque Torre – it looks so small!
Made it to that little white speck!
Someone at the very tip top of another mountain nearby.
We went down a bit to our last incredible rifugio. Then we started basically a full scramble, hardest hike of the week down to a little mountain lake. The knees had a lot to say on this one. But almost everyone did it!
This photo was the best I could do looking back up what we’d descended. It was a lot steeper than it looks. We were all very pleased to make our way down it!
This does the best (for me) at showing the gorgeous juxtaposition of the many colors of flowers and grasses against the bare mountains. I never stopped marveling and appreciating the colors.
The lake at the end of this beautiful trail that was our reward after the scramble.
Elizabeth recovering
Then back to our hotel via bus, except for maybe 5, including Rick, who did the last mile back on foot. I was psyched to do the – yep – steam rooms at The Wellness Hotel Fanes.
Rick booked it and made it in time and we did the round about sauna. It was seriously hot, but cool. Glad I got to do it with Rick. Everyone but one couple were circumspect and wore towels, so it wasn’t just the puritanical Americans…And the whole sauna really did do a very slow rotation. Good thing Rick had warned me because the first time he thought maybe the heat had gotten to him, not realizing that it rotated.
We had a final group dinner with the guides, very fun, favorite memories in a fingersnap and then we continued the ongoing conversations during dinner. Really, the best group I could imagine.
We left our wonderful hotel today to venture further into a new valley. We had three choices of routes, and everyone took the long route (I think, can’t remember). The San Casiano Route, 11.4 miles, 1700’ gain, 3,100’ loss. So beautiful. Every day we just marvel.
We started with a lift taking us to the Gardena Pass, one of four mountain passes that encircle the Sella Massif. We were then hiking the Puez-Odle park, an UNESCO World Heritage site. We passed through the village of Corvara and could see into the Badia Valley, “considered to be the heart of the Dolomites region and the indigenous Ladrin people.”
Mountain rhododendron, the flowers are incredible. So many colors, shapes, all tiny.
After a long hard climb, we caught sight of our rifugio for lunch. So happy to see this!
View coming back down after an incredible meal, in the Santan Cristina Gherdeina area. And Ötzi is sighted again!
Our hotel tonight was the Alpenroyal Grand Hotel. One night, but really fun because by now our whole group was getting into this sauna/steam thing. And this hotel had an outdoor pool that was warm and with targeted jets around some of the edges. Hard jets! So you felt like you got a massage. Which Rick and now a few others did, but I was happy with the pool and saunas. I’ve decided I like the steam rooms the most.
On my way to the restaurant, I’d noticed a coat of arms sign with 1370 written on it, and then I saw a full family tree from the same family all the way up to today with a line with people born in the 1950’s and 60’s. Amazing. I’d known that most of the hotels and rifugio’s were family run, but this was one long line of owners!
Dinner on our own, nothing planned so 8 of us ate together, Marla/Ken, Sara/Stuart, Carol/Matthew and Rick and me. So fun and great food again. Started to see a theme here.
Caveat to this section. Turns out between meals, hikes, transition, it was really hard to get time to write every day. So I’m now writing on the last day of the tour and trying to recollect a truly memorable week.
That being said, this will be the longest entry because of learning about the area and the people who settled here.
Today we met up with 3 others who were staying at our hotel and going on the Backroads trip. Turns out Bolzano only has 50 taxis and is quite a big city, actually second wealthiest in Italy. We were going to the Sheraton to meet and it was a solid 30 minutes away. If you’re going to Bolzano, definitely stay near the old town since it’s not that easy to get transportation early or late. There are buses, but time, and getting to where you want to go might be challenging.
So we met our first 3 new people taking a van together – all so nice and turned out that was true for the whole group.
We met for a check in at the Sheraton, to collect water bottles, luggage tags and snacks (turns out food would NOT be a problem on this trip), quick intro. What a nice collection of people between guests and guides. Just a treat for the whole week.
We had our first 4 mile hike on route to our first on route hotel, so we’d come dressed with day packs while the bus took our bags to the hotel after we were dropped at the Gondola.
We started our hike in Welschnofen and took a gondola ride up to the Catinaccio mountain group in the Dolomites. Per our guides, the “Dolomites” was taken from the name of a French geologist, Déodat de Dolomieu, who was the first to describe the type of carbonate rock abundant in these mountains. Evidently he was a chemist and was trying to figure out the mixture of elements in the rock because it was known that it wasn’t pure limestone. He finally add acid to the rock and unlike pure limestone, which would have bubbled up, it stayed stable and he realized that the make up of the stone was almost half calcium carobonate and half magnesium.
There is Dolomite rock elsewhere, but the unique geological history of this area came about because it was once a marine area fully covered with coral and other marine organisms that settled into dolomite rock. When the plates came together and created uplifting, these unusual mountains were formed. This was an important part of our talks by several guides, a lot of pride in this area of their unique mountain region within the alps. And deservedly so – it was spectacular.
Coming from the Rockies, it was startling to see such distinctly different formations. The vast mountain meadows with these dramatic peaks towering over us had all of us taking photo after photo in a vain attempt to capture the beauty. We were hiking, but this is a winter wonderland evidently. Even with climate change happening – and that was talked about a lot – snow was still the primary driver in this area. You can see a snow making machine behind the cow.
Today set the tone for the rest of the week. We hiked from the gondola drop off across the mountains to a lunch at a rifugio – an alpine hut that was one of a series across these mountains. The scenery was just a start – we couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. Seemingly inaccessible, even if a gondola went up, we had the most incredible lunches every single day. A huge variety from which to choose, plates of salad, bread, meats and cheeses promptly put out to greet us to get us warmed up for whatever we wanted from the menu. Really? Astonishing amounts of incredible food. Today’s specialty was the Apple Strudel. It set the tone for Rick – needing to assess apple strudel in every rifugio. This first one set the high bar. Here’s Luca and Martin holding it up for demo before cutting in.
I was so conditioned from Camino food routines, small breakfast, a few snacks, big mid-day meal and little to no supper, made me think – I’m not going to like this whole 3 meal routine and how can you hike after a lunch? Well, turns out, just fine. Oh my goodness, the food was so good, the company was wonderful, the views incredible – every day we just relaxed into these lunches and then carried on after.
We never stopped marveling at these primarily family-run rifugio’s ability to quickly put out these incredible meals, handling a fair number of people with ease. It was also starting to hike for miles seeing some, but not a ton of people and then arrive at the rifugio and all these other people were there too. There are trails all over these mountains and people come all different ways to explore. Sometimes there were dirt roads (rare to see cars), so bikes and trails with different levels of difficulty offered a variety of ways to get up to these places.
We were a group of Americans, one from Peru and one from Portugal, but the rest of us were mono lingual and just marveled at this area. Depending on where the line was in the Dolomites determined German/Italian/English, OR Italian/German OR Ladin/German/Italian. Kids are growing up with 3 languages, one week for each sequentially and then when they get older, subjects moved to a particular language. So cool.
The history of this area is that of Tyrol. The people consider themselves Tyrolean and Ladin was the earliest people and language spoken here. Again, the area determined the languages spoken. We got a synopsis lecture on the history of the area – but I didn’t have my iPad and a lot of the specifics went out the window. What I remember: Italy became a country in the late 1800’s. The northern part was Tyrolean and went back and forth between Austria and Italy. At the time of WWII, this area was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Italy, Austria and Germany made a pact to all defend if one was attacked. When the Crown Prince was assassinated, starting WWII, Austria attacked Russia along with Germany. Italy held out as a neutral territory, wanting Austria to give them Serbia and Croatia if they joined in the war. Austria said no. Then France and England jumped in and asked Italy to join them along with Russia. Again, Italy asked for territory – if they won the war, they wanted the Dolomites and Tyrolean territory. Done. So – very much against many of the Tyroleans who spoke German and considered themselves Austrian, they were now Italian territory since France/England won the war. It’s now settled, but memories are long and the languages reflect the different alliances.
Story of the Ladin in the Dolomites
And now – to the hiking. We had our first experience of the mountains. It was a bit rainy, but not enough to deter us (and so much better than the torrential rain predicted) and the group was such a congenial group, there was a lot of chatting and exclaiming together. The hike went very quickly both before and after lunch. Matthew made sure the Ötzi joined us on many days!
We’d always start with a brief overview with a drawing and description. Backroads had great mapping and tracking on their app and I didn’t look at it once. But I would have if I’d been alone or up in front as our super woman, Michelle, was fun. But I usually brought up the back. I’m steady, but not quick!
We arrived at our hotel and oh, so much fun, right up my alley. It was a historic building, a tower, built in the 1200’s. The Romantik Hotel Turm was originally a residential tower, first mentioned as a courthouse tower and jail in a document in 1244. Sold to a Monastery in 1398,. Used from 1820-1833 as a vacation resident by a Bolzano family. It was converted to an inn with attaché butcher shop i the late 19th century. [The rooms were so individual, a few of us traded looks just to see what had been done. They were really big and every one had spectacular views. It didn’t matter which direction you looked, it was beautiful.
Rick and I went out to explore after cleaning up from the hike. We were in the heart of this tiny town and the church right next door was incredible. Rick thought it might be the most beautiful we’ve seen in our travels. Evidently Italy has a fund and helps take care of these historic structures.
This one was immaculate and the organ incredible. On our last morning, the organist was practicing for 9am mass and I got to listen for a bit before we left for our next hike.
Outside monuments were interesting. This one was to WWI and was painted in 1921. This was on the wall of the church entry.
This monument had us stumped. We’re so conditioned to one way of thinking for WWII and this seemed to celebrate Germany. However, later on one of our hikes, I saw the same helmet painted on a dairy barn door and realized that it may have been more of an emblem of the Tyroleans who had died, no matter the side they were fighting on.
The cemetery was beautiful as well, so well tended and cared for, with many photos in the crosses that served as headstones. It made it feel very personal.
The town fountain was beautiful and there was a local exhibit of an artist’s photos around the town sharing the lives of women in the area.
Finally, strikingly, the benches all through the town had yellow oval medal plaques with quotes asking about life. I translated all of them because I was so curious.
Wolf Schneider’s “diary for the Essentials”
We don’t know who we are, where we come from, where we are going and what we can hold on to.
…In this sea of vagueness, of “It could be – but it could also be different,”man seeks security and in doing so renounces truth.
And today genetics and neurobiology explain…For Brockman, the conclusion therefore seems inevitable that the natural sciences hold the key to the answers to humanity’s important questions:
What am I? Where do we come from, where are we going? How does society work? Hubert us Breuer
Each of us has a story to tell about who we are, where we come from and where we are going. These stories shape our personality, create our certainties and our fears. Andreas Barella
Social work begins with the guest ion: Who is in need?…These are the biblical questions: Who am I, where do I come from, where am I going? This gives rise to very practical challenges. The Jesuit order sent me to Romania in 1991…and the CONCORDIA work was born in Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Father Georg Sporschill
If man comes from heaven, he returns there. To answer the question: “Who are we, where do we come from, where are we going?” …and there are still some who think that man has made a long journey and is not of this world…. Alessandro Conti Puorger
Wolfgang Nethöfel: Being Pious
Piety is a domesticated wild animal…if you let it off the leash of morality. And within this beast lies the knowledge of where we come from, who we are, and where we are going. Our guide dog walks on the reins of morality.
And there were many many more.
The end of our day was a group welcome cocktail/mocktail gathering and a great dinner at the hotel. Rick – laughing. We laughed a lot on this trip!
Elmau to Salzburg. Easy relaxed morning before catching a ride from the hotel to the train station. All the notices we got re this train trip was DON’T PRINT until you’re basically getting on the train because you can’t change things. Well, I printed the tickets at the hotel, but it was a ticket for a later train. Rick found the small print saying we need to have printed tickets to cross the border on our email. Sigh. Then translating and determining from signs which side to stand on for the train, we didn’t know if we were going to be able to ride, have to get a ticket on the train? Turned out fine, the downloaded pdf worked. But note to self – read ahead!
We took a train to Innsbruck, then changed to a train to Salzburg. So easy, everything on time, clean, clear notices. What a great way to travel.
Then, the sweetest thing. I had been emailing with the concierge at Sacher Hotel about a concert for 6 of us and dinner reservations and had also asked about a dinner reservation for just Rick and me for tonight since we’d be arriving on our 36th anniversary. We walked into our room and found they’d gone wild. Such a fun surprise, we loved it and promptly sat down and ate our Sacher Torte cubes – a small square of the famous Sacher Torte – the perfect size.
They also made this lock below to hang on the bridge where all the love locks are hung – right next to the hotel. Amazing.
We then did half of the Rick Steves tour before we ran out of time. It was so fun to redo it with Rick and have him see everything we saw last year when we were here.
We hung our lock on the bridge and then went back to the hotel for showers – it’s SO hot in Europe right now – and then to the best dinner we’ll have our entire time traveling, I’m sure. Incredible food. Neither of us are foodies, but this meal caught our interest. The restaurant was Pan y Vin. Well worth a visit.
And then the sunset and back to the room. A wonderful day!
Reb's Walks! 