Italy: Ortisei, Day 1

The Dolomites was not an easy destination to plan for. Our plans must have changed a million times since January, and continued to evolve daily upon arrival: a) bad weather in Bolzano put us a day behind b) we decided to invest in a 3-day lift pass c) John developed a head cold. In the end we hiked less than we expected, but saw more of the area.

The first day, we had a 9am reservation for the Seceda gondola (~1250m up to ~2500m in 2 sections) for the iconic view of the tops of the Odle Peaks (Geisler Group). There were hundreds of people at the top. The views were every bit as impressive as expected. We walked the Seceda ridge trail, semi-experienced the photo points, then took the gondola down.

Being only midday, we beelined to the gondola on the other side of the valley up to Alpe di Siusi (~1250m up to ~2000m), to the largest alpine meadow in Europe. We started walking on trail 6A, intending to make a counterclockwise loop by way of Saltria, but quickly realized the walk would take us down through the meadow and didn't seem appealing, we make a small clockwise loop by Piz Ridl (2108 m) back to the cable car station and went down.

As there seemed to be sufficient time, although John was fading, we walked straight to the other side of the valley and took the Rasciesa funicular (~1350m up to ~2150m). We'd gone a little crazy. We had a short out and back walk to the Cappella Santa Croce del Resciesa, before catching the penultimate car of the day down. The whole day I felt we had been walking at the top of the world.

In Ortisei we stayed at Villa Luise in a room with a great view.




We bought a 3-day Gardena Lift Pass and at 9:00 am the next morning headed straight to the front of the line (1st below) for the 2-segment Seceda Lift.


Looking back to Ortisea from the viewing platform at the Gondola exit.


The view down to the meadow in the Zannes Valley where we stopped for lunch the day before.


We followed the Seceda Ridge Trail to the photo points, paying a 5-euro "photo toll" each.


The Classic View to the Odle Group from the Seceda Ridge Trail


Pics from various photo points.














View to the alpine pastures below the Seceda Ridge Trail.


We head back down to the floor of the Val Gardena. First below (lower center) is the approaching gondola, and to the far upper left is the Alpe to Suisu Alpine Plateau, our next destination. Second below is the in-the-gondola view.




The mid-afternoon cable car to the Alpe di Siusi Altopiano (High Plateau) was not crowded. The official capacity of this car is 16 persons, we were just 2.


We start our walk.




Then head up the ridge (1st below) to Piz Ridl (2108 m) with a great view down to Val Gardena on our left (2nd below) and across the Plateau to the Sella Group peaks (3rd below ) on our right.






And then we rode the cable car down to the valley and walked straight to the other side of the valley and took the Rasciesa funicular up to about 2150 meters / 7000 feet. It's a modern version of an old fashioned funicular!


First below is the view across the valley to the Alpe di Suisi Plateau. Second is the Cappella Santa Croce del Resciesa.




Bonus local color on the walk home to Villa Luise!