Exploring the Dolomites in Italy
We stayed first in a cozy town nestled deep in the mountains, winding up and down the roads between jagged peaks to get there. We drove flat highways out of Milan, but once you hit the mountains, the views are endless in every direction. Our arrival was late in the day, so our first and only order of business was finding a sunset spot. On the side of the road, we spied a small trail creeping up into the trees, and we pulled over and hiked hurriedly up to a breathtaking 360 view of the pink and orange skies. These small Italian towns tend to close up early, so once the sun had set (late, as it was early summer), we found the one and only pizza place that was still open and gorged ourselves on carbs and the most delicious Aperol Spritzes.
The drive back to our hotel was long, and we managed to get in a tiny bit of sleep before we were up for my birthday! We drove for an hour back through Sella Pass to take the coffin gondola up Sassolungo. We’d been eyeing this mountain, looming over the landscape, since we’d arrived, and couldn’t resist another gondola ride to see the view from the saddle. The pass is long and steep, and these particular gondolas are skinny and narrow - you can just barely fit two people in the space. There’s also a hiking path up the mountain, but it was too arduous for our tastes, knowing that we were also going to be hiking up to a rifugio later in the day - the big birthday event was staying a hut in Val Gardena. From Sassolungo, we headed in search of overnight parking near the rifugio, which was much harder to find than the internet implied. We had to walk straight uphill for almost two miles and were exhausted and overheated before the hike technically even started (note of advice: if you travel up to Rifugio Puez, take the gondola to cut out that madness).
While we had booked a hotel only 10 minutes from the rifugio trailhead, all the roads closed on the 21st for Dolomite Bike Day, a free event where they close chunks of roads for bikers of all levels to bomb down those mountain passes on two wheels. Unfortunately for us, it meant we had gone out of our way nearly 2 hours to get to the hike. With the roads reopened the next day, heading back to the hotel to pick up our bags was very quick. So, we decided to grab some lunch in Cortina d’Ampezzo on our way to the next Airbnb. Cortina is an adorable, quaint little town, and is hosting the winter Olympics in 2026 (we were excited about being in an Olympic village).
Once we’d checked in down the road, we rushed right back out in order to catch sunset at Lago di Sorapis. We’d both added it to our lists without also adding it to our itinerary, but so many people we met recommended we check it out, that we decided we might as well. It ended up being one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The trailhead was packed, but since the sun was on its way down, parking was rapidly clearing out. We snagged as pot along the side of the road and walked along one of the most outrageously pretty hikes I’ve ever been on. We weaved through peaks and hiked across a waterfall, in view of many of the other main attractions of the Dolomites as we went. We were hiking at golden hour, so the light was dramatic, causing us to take much longer than we should have, ogling the view .
The next day we headed to Cinque Torri for yet another gondola ride. It was a World War II stronghold in Italy, and also a relatively famous climbing spot. We explored the rocks among the climbers and had lunch with a view at the nearby rifugio. Too tired to climb to the next peak, we headed back down to check out the nearby Lago Limides. We’d planned to lie out in the sun and relax there for a bit, but a thunderstorm rolled in just as we arrived at the lake. Thunder rumbled in the distance and we ran back down to the car, being pelted by giant raindrops. A few people we had met mentioned how they’d never been in the Dolomites without the weather being questionable at least half the time. It seemed as though we’d lucked out in a few ways on our trip - this was the first time we’d been rained on.
The Dolomites had been on my list for longer than I can remember, but it was one of those trips I imagined taking with a friend, rather than solo. There were too many sunrise and sunset spots and photo opportunities that would be better shared. After a conversation with Dan, my best adventure buddy, we realized we had both been contemplating a trip to the Italian Alps. With a big birthday approaching, I was excited to get out to the mountains and escape for a week - and I somehow hadn’t been to Italy in ten years!
In June of 2025, we met up in Milan, grabbed a rental car, and headed to the windy, steep roads of the Dolomiti.
I have seen nightmare videos and photos of the crowds in the Dolomites - it’s a popular tourist destination and Instagram has made it even more so. We somehow managed to avoid the popular spots being overrun everywhere we went, and everything was in our favor as we started checking locations off our list.
For the rest of the trip, we had a list of about a million things to see that needed to be crammed into about four days. We headed first to Lago de Braies to beat the crowds (which we did not succeed at). Jetlagged and tired, we got there after sunrise, found parking (which was very lucky), but missed the picturesque line of boats that epitomizes this famous lake. We did the loop hike backwards - avoiding some of the crowds - before heading out for the next adventure. We drove through Sella Pass on the way to Seceda, a very famous “hike” made easy by the gondolas that take you straight to the top. Leave it to me and Dan to do things the hard way. We hopped on the very last running cable car of the day at Col Raiser, which took us to a beautiful hotel in the middle of the hillside. We were continuing higher, though. Since we were headed up for sunset, the second gondola had already closed, and we’d have to do the rest on foot. All in all, our hike up to the ridgeline and back down to the car was roughly 8 miles and 1,631 feet of gain. Well worth it, though. Golden hour over the ridgeline with the surrounding mountain peaks was spectacular. On our way up, we met a geologist vacationing with his family that gave us a detailed geological history of the mountains (I was nerding out, it was fabulous). We shared the sunset on the summit with only three other people, enjoying a peaceful - though cold and windy - evening, hiking back down in the dark past a raucous wedding party and some sleepy deer.
We met someone from Japan on the way up, and Daniel and he chatted away in Japanese while I wigged out about the marmots and took photos of all the sheep that roam the hills. The trail is beautiful and rocky, reminding both Dan and I of a climb we did in Grand Teton National Park. We trudged up the switchbacks and made our way to the rifugio in just a few hours. I still marvel at the middle-of-nowhere huts in other countries. We have nothing like these at home. This particular rifugio had two shared bunk rooms, a full bar, heat & electricity and supposedly hot showers (they were not hot. In fact, they were absolutely freezing cold). We had a warm meal and way too many spritzes out on the tables overlooking the valley before we closed out the evening exploring the network of trails surrounding the hut. Unfortunately we were socked in for sunset, and woken up by pounding rain and an insane thunderstorm overnight. Since we were warm and dry inside instead of in a tent, we were still awake early for a cotton candy sunrise and some quality time with the neighborhood sheep before we hiked back down to the town.
There’s a rifugio at this lake, and I would highly recommend booking it if you can. I wish we would have - I would happily have have stayed longer. Coming around the corner to see the lake in person was literally breathtaking. I stopped dead in my tracks and my jaw dropped open - it didn’t look real, even seeing it with my own eyes. We were both dumbfounded, trying to figure out a way to even photograph it to make it look real. The sun sparking off the peak and the glacial blue water was too much. It was one of the top three most beautiful places I’ve ever been. We hiked back in the dark, ranting about how insane this place was the whole way.
We had another long drive ahead of us and didn’t make it back to the Airbnb til well after midnight. The spot was in this tiny, off the road town (it can barely even be called a town - it was really just a handful of buildings against the forest), and we both wish we’d booked it for longer. When we checked out the next morning, we followed the nearby river to a secret, tucked away waterfall and Dan went for a swim while I put my feet in and enjoyed the view, far away from any crowds.
We grabbed some gelato near our next lodging and had an easy night - we had a very early wakeup call the next day. We had booked parking passes for the Tre Cime area, as we wanted to run up Punto Panoramico for sunrise. This hiking area has gotten so overrun that permits book up weeks in advance, and even with a permit, parking can be tricky. We drove nearly two hours in the dark to arrive before sunrise the next morning. We parked near the rifugio and took in the 360 degree view, the golden light, and the ridiculous cloud inversion to top it all off. There was a long line of people waiting at the famous Instagram spot, so we skipped it and wandered around the hilltop for a while instead.
The list of things we wanted to see was not totally checked off by the end of our trip, but that’s always a good excuse for a return trip sometime soon. We crammed so much (driving, hiking, and all the Aperol Spritzes) into just a few days, I’m honestly amazed either of us was still functioning by our last day in the mountains. We took a little day trip to Venice and then slept near Lake Como before our flights out the next day, and I haven’t stopped thinking about these glorious mountains since.
