Italian Dolomites

One of the reasons the Dolomites are so fascinating to me is the shear grey, often jagged, rock contrasting with the green foliage and evergreens below!

Every place we drove was a striking picture in and of itself, and most of these scenes included a beautiful church, sometimes located in the middle of a village, or popping up out of nowhere.The two pictures above were taken from a road-side shack that was selling drinks and danishes—just one of a million reasons I love this place!More examples of the Dolomites meet evergreens and quaint villages below!Beautiful parks with the Dolomites as the perfect backdrop!Even this struggling shack was picturesque against the majestic mountains behind.And don't even get me started on this little church beneath the jagged Dolomite peaks—breathtaking!This little beauty is St. John's church built in 1744.Up close it was a little bigger than previously thought, as Blake, Josie, and Brad went inside for a little peak.The church was close to a small town where a festival was taking place. Here, Brad is dancing to a live band playing very festive music.More beautiful churches in the middle, or on the outskirts, of every little town we drove through!One particular morning, while driving the countryside, we spotted this hot air balloon—so colorful against the green fields. We even drove closer and got out of our car for a better look, but unfortunately it had landed and was soon totally deflated. We drove to numerous lakes so I don't remember the names of them all, but here are more incredible pictures of crystal clear mountain lakes with the Dolomites complimenting each scene!

Rifugio Fermeda

After meeting Blake and Josie at the Best Western in Venice, and stayig there overnight, we rented a van, picked up food and supplies at a gas station, and parked overnight at the Col Raiser parking lot.

We took Col Raiser cable car up the mountain and then hiked about thirty minutes to the Fermeda rifugio.

The outside of the Fermeda rifugio, which looked more like a beautiful mountain cabin than a hut—rifugio actually means hut, or hutte in Italian. The inside was just as beautiful! Definitely the nicest of the three rifugios we stayed in during our trip! The six of us stayed in one room that had double bunk beds, a queen bed, and one bathroom, which was a pleasant surprise coming from our last rifugio!

And of course, the views surrounding the rifugio were stunning!

We ate in the sunroom dining area that had huge picture windows. Between the views from our table and the warm sun pouring in, it was just a little piece of heaven! Amazing views behind Blake and Josie!The outdoor patio was huge, and again, what views! People were hanging out there, wrapped in wool blankets (provided by the rifugio) sipping on hot drinks, but it was still too cold to just sit!

Leanne ordered a local favorite, goulash (above) and I ordered the goulash soup—both were delicious!

More incredible views standing on the patio!

A little restaurant and market below our rifugio.

Another view of our rifugio with an old church above it on the right.

Picture of that same little church at sunset!

There were endless trails and hikes all around our rifugio.

One of several snow machines—I would think they would get enough snow up that high!

Our group except me, who was taking the picture.

Brad and I—I'm trying not to drop my hiking sticks.Roger was always wondering off to find the perfect picture, and here Leanne is trying to show us the direction he went.

One of the trails went right through a cow pasture!

After hiking around and exploring the rest of the day, we headed back to our rifugio before dark.

Seceda

Seceda is the Dolomite that I've seen in pictures and have always wanted to visit! One of the reasons it is so unique is the grasses that grow right up to the jagged edge!

During the regular season the grasses are very green, even though they were yellowing somewhat, it was still a site to behold!

The full view of Seceda with the cabins and farms below!

Beautiful Leanne!

Your's truly

Blake and Josie

Brad and IYou can't tell but Brad is standing on a cliff—and the views!

Ater a grueling hike to the ridge and Seceda viewing point, we saw many nicely dressed people and some little kids, and couldn't believe that they did the same hike as us until we saw this (above)! A cable car on the other side of the ridge! I just couldn't help but think they were all cheaters! With views so amazing, they should have been earned—with a steep, intense hike!

Walking the grassy trail down on the backside of Seceda.

Beautiful view of the cabins and fields below!

Blake and Brad

Roger walking down with his small camera pack, but still getting lost and twisting his ankle.

Early the next morning Roger (with the twisted ankle) paid a lady who worked at our rifugio and had a jeep, to take him, Blake, and Brad up to the ridge for pictures of the sunrise. It was a freezing morning, but worth the trip because the pictures turned out gorgeous! The following pics were ones that Brad took with his phone!

Lagazuoi

One early morning we left our AirB&B in Cortena, to drive a winding, hair-pin-turn road to the Lagaquoi rifugio. The above picture is of the mountain top we would be ascending via cable car. We went early because it was a popular Dolomite viewing point, and the lines would get quite long for the cable car.

Views of the valley below as our cable car went up and up!

Another view from our cable car

View looking up at the rifugio

Large viewing platform at the Lagazuoi rifugio

A snowstorm had just come through the night before, so that combined with fierce winds, made the cold almost unbearable!

But I did tough the cold long enough to get some great pictues of the Dolomite peaks, and land channel below called Falzarego Pass.

Roger taking an even higher trail to check out more views on top!

Brad and I were only brave enough to walk to the other side of the terrace where a huge rock formation came right up to the rifugio (this picture doesn't do it justice).

That was enough bone-chilling cold for me! It was time to warm up inside with a steaming cup of hot chocolate!

Cinque Torri

After driving the winding roads back down to our AirB&B from Lagazuoi, we washed and hung our clothes to dry (on hanging racks inside), ate lunch, and re-packed our daypacks for two more sites to see.

The first was Cinque Torri, meaning 5 Towers, which would require a fairly long hike up a dirt road and rocky trail. We could have taken a short cut up the mountain, but it was very steep, and Roger was still nursing a twisted ankle.

Even the views on the road up were stunning!

Well, we didn't pass any churches along the way, but we did pass some kind of religeous shrine carved into the rock!

Beautiful views with numerous trails below.

A panoramic view of the 5 towers behind Brad.

Even better view of the actual 5 towers!

Hiking around the largest tower

It was nice and sunny, but again, super cold!

Brad taking a picture of more peaks opposite the 5 towers.

You can see more trails up that mounatain with its switch-backs.

Cinque Torri was a major site of fighting between the Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops in WWI.

Both armies built roads and trenches, artillery emplacements, telephone networks, and cable cars to reach the emplacements, in order to conduct warfar.

The Cinque Torri terrains were the perfect place for hiding artillery, especially the 210 mm cannons.

These hidden artillery emplacements and forts, carved into the side of the mountains, were scattered all over the area. There were so many we did not have time to see them all.

View of more trails and steps, making it easier for the soldiers to traverse each fort.

Leanne going down a steep narrow passageway. The entire area has been turned into an open-air WWI museum—it was fascinating!

Blake and Josie working their way up to meet us after going to various forts below.

Blake and Josie ascending out of the trenches.

In addition to 5 Torri rifugio, there were many other rifugios you could hike to.

More breathtaking views on our way down!

Brad and Leanne, such good buddies!

Backside view of Cinque Torri, where you can better see the five distinct towers!

Passo Giau

Before wrapping up the day, we made a quick stop to Passo Giau.

It is another interesting rock formation that builds on either side ending in a distinct center peak.

Passo Giau rifugio sitting right at the base of the mountain (I swear they build those thing in the most beautiful spots on the mountain!)

Another interesting thing about Passo Giau were the long steps leading to its base.

And yes, the cold wind was blowing hard at the base!

View of the beautiful Dolomites opposite Passo Giau!

Again, 360 degree views!

Brad and Blake—what handsome brothers!

Tre Cime

The next morning we, once again packed our overnight backpacks, and drove from our AirB&B in Cortina to Auronzo rifugio, where we would explore Tre Cime and its surrounding mountains.

Rifugio Auronzo was a large rifugio, teetering on its own little mountain, surrounded by the most amazing views—pretty much like all the rifugios we stayed in!

All of our rifugios, in the tops of the Alps and Dolomites, were located in the most picturesque places, but rifugio Auronzo had the most breathtaking views of all—right outside the dining room windows!

These pictues could have turned out much better if I was actually taking them outside, and not from a dirty window with background lights and reflections, but you get the point—each large window pane in the cafeteria served as a perfect frame to the Dolomites and all their glory!

Making ourselves comfortable at one of the tables, right next to large stove, so we could stay as warm as possible! In typical rifugio style, the dining room was the only area with heat! It was the perfect place to play cards and eat! The rifugio fed a lot of hikers, so we couldn't camp out at our table as long as we would have liked. For meal times, the food was served cafeteria style and there were always long lines! We enjoyed fried chicken and lasagna, with all the fixins, hot drinks, and lovely desserts! We tried not to pile our plates too high however, because hot food, in the mountain tops, doesn't come cheap!

Our lovely bunkroom! Our room was just as cold as all the others, but at least this one had a men's and women's bathroom on each floor!

Brad and Leanne were not only train buddies, but they were bunkmates as well because they both had to plug in their c-pap machines into Leanne's fancy electrical set-up! Which came in handy since there was only one outlet in the entire room, and it was right next to the door. All of their efforts were in vain, however, since ALL the electricity in the building shut down at 9:00 pm! In the picture above, Brad was chilled to the bone, and “trying to raise his core temperature”.

Needless to say, it was a rough night for all of us! Roger slept in the bunk below me and after tossing and turning all night he finally got up around four in the morning. Since Brad and Blake were also awake, they went with Roger to take pictures of the sunrise. Us girls stayed back trying to eke out a little more sleep. At about five in the morning Josie got a call (good thing some of us still had cell phone service) from Blake who told Leanne to bring Roger's camera, since he forgot it! Leanne, freaked out, jumped off the bed, grabbed it, and ran out the door. I only heard one side of the conversation so I thought Roger had finally fallen to his death, trying to capture the perfect shot! Josie told me what happened and I was so relieved that I thanked the good Lord right there and then for keeping us all safe! The rest of the story goes as follows…Leanne—being the amazing wife that she is—ran Roger's camera to Blake—who being the awesome friend that he is—hiked half way back to meet Leanne and then ran the camera back to Roger, who was able to get his precious sunrise pictures (sometimes it takes a village!)

Once again there were so many different hiking trails that we only chose the main trails, or the ones with the best views! This area was called Tre Cime di Lavaredo or Three Peaks of Lavaredo.

More bone-chilling cold, especailly in places where the rock did not block the wind!

Tre Cime is a Natural Park and a UNESCO Heritage Site since 2009.

And of course, a random church in the middle of the main trail!

Interesting pointed rock formations along the trail.

Pano shot with Blake!

View of the trail we took on our way down.

Trail we hiked to get to the ridge, which I am standing on to take this picture. But I could not stay here long since the winds were so fierce!

Roger, with his very large red camera pack, hiked up to some caves for more views.

Brad and Blake followed Roger and then passed him to get to the caves. Poor Roger had a 50 plus pound pack, and was nursing a twisted ankle (but it was his choice to hike up further…he must like torturing himself).

Leanne with her eyes glued on Roger—I don't blame her!

Behind Leanne are trails that you could actually take to the very top of the rock mountains!

The two little black dots in the middle of the picture are Brad and Blake sitting on a cliff which they got to by crawling through some small caves. Later that day I noticed that Brad had gravel embedded in his head! He said the caves were so small that his head kept scraping along the top as they maneuvered through.

Brad took this zoomed-in picture of us girls trying to get out of the wind by standing behind a huge rock!

It was not shelter enough however, so we walked back down to the other side of the ridge.

View from our new spot

Brad and Blake were on the side of that cliff so long, I thought they might be stuck, so Josie and I decided to head down in case we needed to get help. Leanne stayed on the ridge waiting for Roger.

It just so happened that Brad and Blake were actually waiting for Roger to climb through the caves and meet them on the cliff, but Roger, finally coming to his senses, did not go through the caves and waited for Brad and Blake, who never showed up, so he headed back down alone. Eventually—and thankfully—we were all reunited with all our limbs and digits intact!