Val and I decided to divide our vacation trip to Italy in city and mountain so we spent the second part of our trip up in Val Gardena. Val Gardena is one of the main valleys in the South Tyrol region in northern Italy. It’s pretty close to the border with Austria so the architecture and even the language tends to resemble the Austrian side more than the Italian side. The area is well known for the multiple winter sport options going from the very easy to the very difficult. In the summer, the entire valley switches to hiking so all the trails and routes serve dual purposes. I must say though, that hiking in the area is more “touristy” than what we expected. Most guides encourage to take a tram or lift to the top of the mountain and then hike down passing thru numerous refugios where you can get some strudel and a beer… Yes, you can still due the harder hikes and climb if you want. There’s everything for everybody. In May things are bit unique which is something we knew but weren’t concerned about. May is the transition month where the entire valley goes from winter mode to summer mode. This means that most services are closed for the entire month. This includes some transportation, restaurants, lifts, etc. As expected, not too many people go this time of year for obvious reasons. That was a blessing for us. The caveat is that weather can change dramatically. Hey day we got there it was sunny and warm and beautiful. The following day it rained and it was cold. E even got a layer of snow not much higher than were we stayed. For our first hike we knew we would get good views from higher up and probably we would encounter snow. With that in mind, we picked several trails that connect Ortisei with Selva passing thru St Crisitina. We started straight out of the apartment where we stayed and walked all the way to the center of town in Ortisei enjoying the views and how living there must be like. We were pretty much drooling. Just east from the center of town we found signs pointing to the trail we wanted to get on and soon where climbing on a rocky path. The trails were clearly marked, wide and easy to follow (as most trails seem to be in the area). Across the valley clouds were moving in and out revealing the rocky faces of Sasso Lungo and Sasso Plato, the mountain range that would be in front of us for several days. From our side it was almost unreal how tall and close those peaks are. Eventually the trail levels out and passes the Sacun church, one of the many churches that give name to the trails or the areas. There we saw a group of kids that seemed came from a school and were spending the afternoon up in the mountain – what a life. From there we descended towards St Cristina and walk thru town. Most businesses were closed and we saw little activity. Again we found the trail to continue towards Selva and took it but soon enough found a sign indicating it was closed. Another couple came buy and decided to jump de fence and continue but we opted for the right thing to do and trace back to find and alternate way. We did see he couple again coming back and learned that the trail was being reconstructed and there was no way around on that side. We ended up connecting a bike route that eventually took us all the way to Selva which is a much smaller town but more touristy. There was a lot of construction and only one café opened. Everything else was closed for the month so we were relieved about our choice to stay in Ortisei. We walked around for a bit before and finally decided to walk in the café for a strudel and a cup of coffee. We had already walked a bit over 10 miles so it was very well deserved. Then we walked to the bus stop, hopped on and took a ride back to Ortisei to finish our first loop.
Interactive map
To see the full map, click
here
No comments:
Post a Comment