The Dolomites

In the fall of 2022 Cindy and I finally made it back to the Dolomites (and the Italian province of Südtirol) after 2-1/2 very strange and difficult years.  We first visited this mountainous, outdoor-oriented wonderland in January of 2020, only a few short weeks before COVID turned the world upside down.  Little did we know as we were leaving that it would take us so long to make our much-warranted return trip for further exploration.

The Dolomites span seven northern Italian provinces with arguably the greatest concentration in Südtirol, where countless pinnacles, massifs, plateaus, cliffs, and valleys combine to create postcard views no matter which way you look.  While technically part of the Alps, you’ll rarely if ever hear the locals (or the local tourism offices) refer to these mountains as anything other than the Dolomites.  It’s a dramatic landscape filled with eighteen light gray limestone peaks topping out over 10,000 feet and countless others not far below that. There are also a number of alpine meadows that present a soft green contrast to the otherwise rocky and sometimes almost lunar landscape.  Factor in the fall spectacle of thousands of larch trees turning brilliant gold and it’s no wonder that the mountains were named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009.

Südtirol (also known as South Tyrol in English and Alto Adige in Italian) is the northernmost province in Italy and shares roughly half of its border with Austria.  In fact Südtirol was part of Austria until immediately after World War I when it was granted to Italy as part of Austria’s war reparations.   It has been a full century since Südtirol’s annexation but the overall character of the people, language, architecture, and food are still quite Germanic (and proudly so).  That’s not to say, however, that there isn’t a distinct Italian flair in the larger towns and cities like Bolzano and Merano.  The total population of Südtirol is just over 500,000 people, about 60% of whom claim German as their primary language.  This percentage gets notably higher as you move north and/or away from the larger cities and towns, so it’s sometimes hard to believe that you’re actually in Italy when you’re out enjoying the more remote areas of the province and hearing nothing but German or the regional Ladin.

As a side note, Südtirol enjoys a special status as an autonomous province of Italy.  This status, granted to five of the twenty Italian provinces, means that the provincial government has more freedom in terms of self-governance.  These provinces also retain a much larger share of their tax revenues for local use vs. funding the national treasury.  While this autonomy is intended to help preserve each region’s unique cultural fabric, the most visible result for travelers in Südtirol is the noteworthy investment in transit systems and tourism infrastructure.  The trains and buses tend to be quite new, logically scheduled, and (without mentioning a certain name from Italy’s not-too-distant past) they certainly do run on time.

For this trip we flew Delta from Richmond to Atlanta where we connected to our flight to Munich.  After clearing customs at Flughafen München we took the S-Bahn commuter railway to Munich’s Ostbahnhof where we boarded an ÖBB or Österreichische Bundesbahnen train for our transit south through Austria and the storied Brenner Pass.  When we arrived at Fortezza, the first major stop in Italy, we switched to regional transportation for the final leg to Alta Badia.  It was a long trip of around 28 hours but overall it went better than expected given the recent and well-publicized travel woes.

As with our past trips to Europe we did not rent a car because we much prefer going local and using only regional trains and buses.  This saves us the expense of renting a car, the exorbitant cost of gas, questions about licensing and insurance, and the hassle of parking.  It also eliminates the stress on both the driver and navigator caused by the narrow and winding mountain roads – taking the bus or train leaves both passengers free to enjoy the scenery.

Not having a car meant that we needed to plan our days around the published schedules and routes for buses and trains.  This was more than offset by gaining the option to take what we call ‘open jaw’ hikes where we were able to combine two or more hiking routes so long as the end points were each accessible by train or bus.  For example we could start in one valley, traverse a mountain saddle, and descend into a different valley to some other trailhead.  This tended to put us on trails with much lower foot traffic as none of the car-bound folks had this same flexibility. We did use one Uber-like car service in Cortina d’Ampezzo to get us to a particularly attractive trailhead that was also particularly hard to reach via public transit, but other than that we stuck to our transportation plan.

Cindy and I stayed in four different locations over the course of this month-long adventure : Alta Badia from September 21 to September 24, Innichen from September 24 to October 1, Ortisei from October 1 to October 8, and Brixen from October 8 to October 23.  We had originally thought that we would simply use Brixen as our base camp for the entire trip as it is a lovely town in a great location with all of the right amenities including excellent bus and train access.  That plan held for a while, but as we studied our ever-growing bucket list of outings it quickly became obvious that unless we wanted to spend an unacceptable amount of time on buses and/or trains each day we really needed to expand our ‘hub and spoke’ concept to include multiple base camps. You can read more about each location and our adventures in the area by clicking on the links in this paragraph or at the bottom of the page.

These four locations were carefully chosen for access to hiking terrain, great views of the Dolomites, and (needless to say) their charm.  From a more practical perspective they all had easy access to the regional bus and train networks, a fair-sized grocery store, and appropriate lodging.  The lodging requirement presented a bit of challenge.  We prefer to stay in furnished holiday apartments (known as Ferienwohnungen in German) but this region tends to be more geared to hotel-style properties so finding true bedrooms and full kitchens wasn’t always easy!

Cindy and I learned during our first visit to the Dolomites that Hütte Culture (not to be confused with haute couture!) is very much a part of your experience in this region.  Whether you’re skiing in the winter or hiking in the summer the odds are that you will stumble across a rifugio (Italian) or hütte (German) nestled in a mountain pass or perched high on a rocky summit. In fact there are ninety (90) of these mountain huts in the Südtirol that provide basic overnight accommodation for through-hikers plus countless more that are pleasant day-hiker destinations for drinks, home-cooked food, and restrooms.  You are guaranteed quaint architecture, excellent regional fare, and a unique atmosphere that is often just as memorable as the scenery along the way.

Speaking of lunches, the food in Sudtirol is stellar and quite hearty, making it perfect after (or even during) a long day’s hike.  The ingredients and recipes for the local fare tend to be classically farm-to-table because many areas of the province were quite isolated up until recent times – the local farmers learned to make the best of what they could grow over the summer and then store over the winter and this is clearly reflected in the menus that we saw during this trip.  The traditional local dishes include Tiroler Knödel (Tyrolean dumplings), Schlutzkrapfen (ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta), and Tirtlan (deep-fried savory turnovers).  The local dessert specialties include Apfelstrudel (apple strudel), Strauben (similar to funnel cakes), and Kaiserschmarrn (literally “the Emperor’s mess” : torn pancakes with berry compote).  Thankfully we hiked over 200 miles during this visit to the Dolomites, otherwise we would never have fit into our business class seats for the flight home.

One specialty food item from Alto Adige deserves special mention : Speck.  Speck is smoked and air-dried prosciutto that seems to be made on just about every farm in the region and, for good reason, seems to find its way into just about every meal.  The Speck-making process takes about three months starting with the salt-curing and seasoning of select legs of pork followed by alternating periods of low temperature smoking and curing in the fresh, cool alpine air.  While Speck enjoys a Protected Geographical Indication from the European Union (just like Champagne is a protected name for sparking wine) each farmer still has the latitude to use their own recipe for the seasonings, which are generally some blend of juniper, pine, cinnamon nutmeg and coriander.

Winemaking in Südtirol dates back to pre-Roman times.  The region has two distinct viticultural zones : the southern and western areas (especially the Val d’Adige) have a distinctly Mediterranean climate whereas the northern areas (such as the Val Isarco) are much more alpine.  In both cases the resulting grape and wine varieties reflect their local soils and climate.  The indigenous white wines are Sylvaner, Kerner, and Gewürztraminer while the red wines are Schiava (Vernatsch) and Lagrein.  Many other varieties are produced, but we tried to limit our sampling to the local specialties.

When we first looked at the planning calendar for this month-long trip our greatest fear was that we’d never be able to fill in all of the blanks.  Little did we know that before long we’d be worrying that even with 34 days in the plan we still wouldn’t get to see everything that we wanted to.  The reality is that we’ve barely scratched the surface in terms of what this area has to offer, and that’s just for the summertime.  The winter presents yet another world of exciting adventures so we hope to return soon and expand on our earlier exploration in the winter of 2020.