Day 5 – Hiking Prato Piazza

Feb 9, 2023

Today’s Adventure

Thursday’s adventure was a return visit to Prato Piazza, a high altitude plateau buried deep in the Dolomites. I say ‘return visit’ because Cindy and I first hiked here back in January of 2020 during our initial Italian odyssey. At that time we decided that Prato Piazza was on our Top 5 list of destinations for mountain scenery and this repeat visit did nothing to change that opinion.

We arrived at Prato Piazza right at 10:00 AM after riding a regional train, two buses, and finally a small private shuttle. The latter was a four wheel drive Mercedes Sprinter that was necessary to navigate the last few kilometers of steep, winding, and snow-packed road up to the plateau. Overall the trip wasn’t quite as complicated as it sounds because everything was timed to work together – we simply stepped off of one vehicle and onto the next.

At the park’s main entrance we detoured into the charming Rifugio Prato Piazza for some refreshment. We ordered two cappuccinos and shared a slice of buckwheat cake with raspberry jam filling – a traditional favorite in region – and relaxed in the stube while waiting for the caffeine to kick in.

With our emergency replenishment out of the way we stepped outside to put on our gear. Much to my surprise, the rifugio’s older Bernese Mountain Dog came over to nudge me for attention as I was putting on my ice cleats. Historically this dog has done nothing but bark (very loudly and somewhat aggressively) as we approached, so giving him some unexpected skritches on the head was a nice way to start the day.

This area has received lots of snow this winter. We had to stick to the informal trails packed by other hikers otherwise we risked sinking down into the snow up to our knees. We elected to wear our ice cleats for this hike as they allowed us to make better time on packed snow/ice than snowshoes, which are really best for breaking new trails. A number of other hikers (mostly in tour groups) insisted on wearing snowshoes even though they didn’t really need them. Because they were slower they tended to clog things up and we found ourselves having to pass quite a few people on our way to summit.

An interesting landmark on the way to the top of Monte Specie is the ruin of an old military structure from World War I. There’s not much left other than some exterior stone walls but it’s still a great place to take pictures given the setting. The deep snow around the site made access difficult so I wasn’t able to shoot some of the angles that I really wanted to capture.

After reaching the 7,500 foot summit of Monte Specie and enjoying the stellar 360 degree views we headed back down the mountain. Our objective was the Dürrensteinhütte, a great place to have lunch. It’s a popular cross-country skiing and sledding destination, so we weren’t surprised to see a number of skis and sleds leaning up against the front wall. This hütte offers a stellar view from the sun terrace and we were fortunate to grab a great table right on the railing. Cindy continued her comparison testing of Shepherd’s Macaroni, which is pasta with a tomato and cream sauce plus some kind of meat, in this case a liberal dose of speck. Stuart ordered a bowl of pasta with olive oil, garlic, and red chili pepper flakes.

After lunch there was a change of plans. Rather than hiking back across the Prato Piazza and reversing our multi-stage inbound transit we decided to head in the opposite direction. We used a mapping tool on Stuart’s iPhone to follow a groomed winter hiking trail that ended up near a bus stop in Schluderbach, a wide spot on the road that connects Dobbiaco to Cortina d’Ampezzo. The views along this alternative trail were stellar and the traffic from other hikers was almost non-existent,so overall it was a great decision. The timing worked out perfectly as we only had about 15 minutes to wait for the next bus back to Innichen.

The highlight of the ride home happened just a few miles down the road when we pulled into a bus stop that gave us, quite by accident, a great view of the iconic Tre Cime di Lavaredo. We’ve made a serious effort to get good views of this landmark during each of our visits to the Dolomites, so it’s a bit ironic that one of the best pictures that I’ve ever taken of it was with an iPhone through a dirty bus window!

All told we walked 8.3 miles today in just over four hours with about 1,100 feet of vertical.

For Innichen’s main page click here.

For Castelrotto’s main page click here.

For the entire trip’s main page click here.