Totally out of sequence of our actual drive, but with the intention to keep all things Italian together, I present here another very exciting area of Italy: The splendid Dolomite Mountains. In reality, we visited this area about one week after Trieste, as indicated in the routing on my map. In previous years we had repeatedly driven through this area and glanced a few of these spectacular mountains when driving from Italy via the Brenner/Brennero pass to Austria. It had always been our desire to spend some time here to really get to know these mountains. Due to our weather-related accelerated drive, we were only able to spend 2 days here and have firm intentions to return as soon as possible for a more extended stay.

The UNESCO World Heritage website describes the Dolomites as follows: The site of the Dolomites comprises a mountain range in the northern Italian Alps, numbering 18 peaks which rise to above 3,000 m and cover 141,903 ha. It features some of the most beautiful mountain landscapes anywhere, with vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys. A serial property of nine areas that present a diversity of spectacular landscapes of international significance for geomorphology marked by steeples, pinnacles and rock walls, the site also contains glacial landforms and karst systems. It is characterized by dynamic processes with frequent landslides, floods and avalanches. The property also features one of the best examples of the preservation of Mesozoic carbonate platform systems, with fossil records.

A glance at Wikipedia adds the following information: Area covering some 1400 km² / 550 sq miles with a substantial number of valleys, close to 40 mountain passes mainly for foot traffic, with some 16 passes able to be used by cars. The area encompasses some 26 ranges with 2 dozen major peaks. Here the link to the full article in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomites

A few notes to the images appended below:
~ On the day of arrival, we had a good part of the afternoon available and drove from Santa Cristina Valgardena, where our charming hotel was located, to two nearby mountain passes: the Gardena Pass and the Sella Pass, which offered beautiful views into the mountains that I present in the first 4 images.
~ The next day, we took a gondola from Ortisei and then hiked on the Alpe di Siusi/Seiser Alm, the largest high-alpine pasture in Europe, covering an area of 56 km², images 5-7 cover this area.
~ Then we drove out of the Val Gardena north to the next parallel valley: the Val di Funes with the small town of Santa Maddalena. From above this town one is able to get this glorious depiction of the Odle/Puez-Geisler Group of mountains, in my opinion the most stellar of all views in the Dolomites. To get this image right, one has to hike up a path out of Santa Maddalena to the small church Chiesa di Santa Maddalena and then another kilometer or so above that church to get the pictorial combination of the church in the center and the mountain range behind. Obviously, that is what we set out to do - in the afternoon heat reaching about 40C / 104F with no shade on the path. After about half the distance, Susan decides that she cannot go any further, so she finds a shady spot along the path while I amble on towards the church. I have to admit that this was one of the toughest walks I have ever had. We always have an umbrella in our backpack and luckily I grabbed this so I could create some shade, but Susan kept the backpack with our water supply, which I only realized much later. I was starting to worry that I could get a heat stroke when I finally reached the church, which luckily was much cooler inside: these solid stone walls do keep the heat at bay. I rested for a while, then looked at the landscape and realized that I would never make it on that remaining kilometer to the "proper" vantage point. So I took a number of images of the church and the surrounding landscape including these famous mountains, but I did not get the combination of church and mountains - what better incentive to come back - but not in the high summer - and try again! Image 8 shows the church, image 9 the climb I should still have done and image 10 a pleasant view of the mountain range, without the church.


Notes
TRIP INFO: Set # 1 provides a brief introduction to this series. Please use the link below if you would like to review this intro:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-797460-1.html

SUMMER TRIP INFO: Set # 7 provides more information on this second trip of the year to Europe
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-797711-1.html

EARLIER POSTS of this series: Access my topic list at UHH, the new posts are listed in reverse chronological order:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/user-topic-list?usernum=45105

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