This page has links to pages of words and photos from a 2017 hike in the Dolomites of northeastern Italy.  It also has links to other places we visited in Italy during this trip and our adventures getting there and back. 

Stephen Plume, Jim Gold, and I spent 15 days visiting this fascinating area in late August and early September of 2017. The folks at Alpine Exploratory made our hotel and rifugio reservations, provided helpful travel information and excellent route cards for each day’s walk, and were very responsive to our needs for information and advice.  This is a group of travelers that know the Dolomites firsthand.

Please click a title or photo to get to the respective page. At the bottom of each page you can click “NEXT” to move to the next page.

Traveling to Italy A short overnight flight from Boston to Dublin was followed by a daytime flight to Venice. We then took the second bus of the trip to the beautiful village of Cortina.		Cortina We arrived in Cortina in time for the last few hours of a festival. It was a wonderful way to start our visit to Italy and our hike along Alta Via Uno through the Dolomites.
Cortina and Tofana We took a gondola to the top of Tofana di Mezzo, at over 10,000 feet, during our first full day in Cortina. Above the last station, we did some of the more dangerous climbing of our whole trip.		Tre Cime and Dobbiaco We joined the crowds for a morning hike around Tre Cime. This was a great warm-up for our Alta Via 1 trek. We spent the night in Dobbiaco a charming town.
Lago di Braies to Sennes We started  Alta Via 1 along a beautiful lake and climbed steadily with over 3000 feet of elevation gain. We stayed at a beautiful rifugio having dinner with newly-made friends.		Sennes to Fanes Another beautiful day started with a long downhill.  Then a long uphill with some fantastic scenery on the way to our rifugio for the night. Made friends with more fellow hikers this day.
Fanes to Lagazuoi Light rain today, a long uphill, a very steep downhill, and a long uphill to our high-altitude rifugio. Then mid-afternoon the fog and rain cleared to produce dramatic vistas and light.		Lagazuoi to Nuvolau Down to Passo Falzarego by a circuitous route with stops along the way before our climb to our rifugio made for a very dramatic late afternoon. Two of the “three white hats” made it.
Nuvolau to Citta’ di Flume Early morning drama with light and snow. Much of this day we hiked in newly-fallen snow. There was a steep downhill and some long uphills, but overall it was not a terribly difficult day.		Citta’ di Flume to Vazzoler We would hike through both scree slopes and pastoral landscapes,  climb the right shoulder of Civetta (seen here), and loop around it dropping to a beautiful lake before we crossed more scree. It was a long day.
Vazzoler to San Sebastiano We had a number of long climbs through scree slopes, but this was not a particularly challenging day. For most of the day the dramatic Civetta was in view behind us.		San Sebastiano to Pian de Fontana Today was a challenging but wonderful hike through some fantastic scenery. Martin and started uphill together, but I walked mostly alone, had a great lunch, then a long uphill slog followed by a long sometimes steep downhill.
Pian de Fontana to La Pissa The final day of our trek was mostly downhill. We would lose 4700 feet of hard-gained altitude this day. We climbed to a beautiful forcella then headed down a dramatic valley dominated above by the huge Schiara.		Belluno  We spend one night in Belluno, a beautiful and peaceful city.  It was a very enjoyable and restful 18 hours.  Belluno was quite different than the crowded excitement of Venice that was to come.
Venice If you love solitude and wide open spaces, don’t go to Venice. Tourists are everywhere. And who would build a city on a set of islands just a few feet above sea level?		Traveling Home We left Venice in rain and braved the crowds at Marco Polo Airport. My flight to Dublin was quite late but I made it. Becasue US Imigation happen in Dublin I managed to catch my bus home from Boston with 15 minutes to spare.