Hiking up Alpe di Tires
In October 2019 my dad and sister visited Bristol. They spent a week exploring Bristol and Cornwall before Linnea and I joined them for quick weekend in Munich. That quick weekend became even shorter when we missed our connection in Amsterdam on Friday night. A night in Amsterdam paid for by an airline doesn’t sound bad until you realize it involves no time spent in Amsterdam proper. We got to a hotel near the airport around midnight and had an 8am makeup flight to catch the next day, so there was no time to enjoy our unexpected visit. We did the best we could to relish our 24 hours in Munich. We were treated to a lovely autumn day that we spent wandering city streets and parks, one of which featured a surprising number of nude old men sunbathing in a section of the park where nudity is legal. And despite missing Oktoberfest by a week, we had no trouble finding biergartens to fuel us with pretzels and steins.
On Sunday we bid farewell to Linnea at the Munich airport. Bridget, my dad, and I hopped in a rental car and drove 3 hours to Ortisei to start our tour of the Dolomites, an alpine region in northeastern Italy. Ortisei is small and charming, but we were there for the proximity to mountains and not for the town’s character. 2 nights in Ortisei meant we had 1 full day to hike, which we spent on a plateau hiking to Rifugio Alpe di Tires. After a gondola ride up to the trailhead we enjoyed wonderful views as we continued our way up the mountain on foot. Never does a beer taste better than after a big ascent, so we treated ourselves to a malty beverage at the rifugio before retracing our steps back toward town.
Rifugio Palmieri
From Ortisei we drove east to a trailhead along a windy two lane road. Our accommodation that night was Rifugio Palmieri, a lakeside hut in the mountains a couple hours away via hike. Rifugios in the mountains in Italy provide dorm-like accommodation and hearty meals. They’re affordable and a great place to stay relatively comfortably while surrounded by beautiful scenery. Out of the trunk of our rental car we packed our backpacks with everything we needed for an overnight stay and began our walk. When I started planning a trip to the Dolomites most big name travel guides recommended going no later than September. However, I found several blogs that mentioned October as a great month to visit because of cool, dry weather, fewer crowds, and stunning autumn colors. The scenery surrounding the rifugio is where these colors were particularly spectacular. We nearly had the place to ourselves that night and enjoyed a comfortable night’s sleep after a tasty dinner. In the morning we took the long way back to our car, completing the loop shown here before driving to Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Lunch while hiking around Tre Cime di Lavaredo
Cortina, host of the 1956 winter Olympics and Milan’s future co-host of the 2026 winter Olympics, is a charming ski town with plenty to do. We stayed at a cozy, centrally-located Airbnb. I prefer staying in Airbnbs for a number of reasons, but worth noting is the best part about an Airbnb in Italy: having a kitchen where you can cook fresh, locally-produced pasta. I can’t recommend doing this enough - even generic looking grocery stores in Italy have an incredible variety of fresh pasta. We spent our first full day in Cortina hiking the very popular Tre Cime di Lavaredo circuit. The crowds were not overwhelming, but this was by far the busiest trail of our entire trip. It’s busy for good reason - the hike is only moderately difficult and offers spectacular views. If you do this hike during high season, I’d recommend arriving as early as you can. The next day we hiked up to Lago di Sorapis. Even though the lake at the end of the hike was mostly dry, the autumn colors were fantastic and the trail was not at all crowded.
Earlier I called this trip a “tour” of the Dolomites, but really it was just a Dolomites taste test. We hiked a few trails in a couple of regions, but there is so much more to do and see. It felt too soon when we left Cortina. We stopped for lunch in Innsbruck, Austria on the way back to Munich to drop off our rental car and fly home - me to Bristol, Bridget and my dad to the US. When international travel is allowed and safe again I have every intention of going back to the Dolomites to explore more.