Ferda and I planned this tour as far as the Dolomites. Then we started looking at tickets back to Antalya — from Venice, from Milan, from Innsbruck. Turns out Munich was a lot closer than we realized, and the tickets were the best deal with frequent non-stop flights to Antalya. I still had about three weeks left in my Schengen permission so we had time to enjoy the ride.
We started with a long downhill from Colfosco.
Colfosco
We descended into a busy highway corridor and took over an hour that evening to find a place to camp. This castle:
Ferda and I ended up spending about three and a half weeks in the Dolomites. The last five days were in Colfosco in Alta Badia on the other side of Passo Gardena from Ortisei. My parents took a taxi to get there. We took advantage and loaded them up with most of our luggage. Wow, what easy riding when your bicycle is so light!
Ferda and I coasted down from Passo Sella to Ortisei. We parked our bikes and didn’t touch them for about 10 days. The main goal was to spend time with my parents and my brother and his family for our first visit since covid started. Elise (or was it Kevin?) found a comfortable house to rent in Ortisei. We had a wonderful holiday in Val Gardena. Here I’ll just show some photos of our four via ferrata days (Piccolo Cir, Oskar Schuster, Tridentina al Pisciadù, Sass Rigais).
Having done a couple via ferrata in Slovenia and a couple more in the Dolomites on the way to Ortisei, Ferda and I were clearly the experts (!). For starters we decided to take Kevin, Elise, Jasper, and Zoë up Piccolo Cir. I had read in multiple places that accommodation in Ortisei comes with cards to use the public transportation in Val Gardena. Be warned of two things: renting a house may not include those cards (ours didn’t) and you cannot start your mountain excursion early if you wait for the first bus of the morning. For Piccolo Cir we took a taxi to Passo Gardena, more because we were eight people without bus cards than because we needed an early start.
It was a short walk to Rifugio Jimmy:
Another short walk, and we were at the start of the route. I showed Zoë and Jasper how to use the via ferrata equipment, and they were off and running.
Wow, the Dolomites are beautiful. Ok, I guess that shouldn’t be such a surprise. Visiting the Dolomites has been on my list for years, but still I was stunned.
Our first pass was Staulanza. From the Piave River down at 420m in Longarone we climbed up to 1760m at the pass. We took our time. It wasn’t hard. The most disturbing thing is that there’s a 5km section of road between Igne and Mezzocanale that is closed to cyclists. The alternative (via Pieve di Cadore) is over 50km longer with an extra 1300m of climbing. WTF? We rode the 5km illegally and didn’t get caught.
Above Forno di Zoldo we started getting views of the high mountains.
The Russians built the road over Vrşiç Pass during WWI after the Italians invaded the Austrian Empire. The aim was to supply the Isonzo Front. There’s still a well kept Russian chapel about half way up the north of the side of pass.
The 800m climb was my first riding with a full load since crashing 10 days earlier. I was happy my knee did as well as it did. I wasn’t so happy with the views. Vrşiç Pass is the highest (paved?) pass in Slovenia and gives access to the highest mountains in the country. I guess I expected the scenery to be more impressive.
