Trento to Castelrotto

We were up at 5:15 and on the road at 6 with the plan to get two hikes in. Thankful for Martine our B an B owner who prepared our breakfast for us the night before! Beautiful drive up the Adige valley.. We made it to Ortisei with time to spare. It took two gondolas to get to the top of the Seceda, a beautiful mountain. It was chilly this morning and a little cloudy, but we enjoyed the quiet. We hiked three miles up the valley, underneath towering peaks, The scenery was gorgeous every where we turned. We got back to the lift and the weather had warmed and the crowds were here. JD backtracked to get pictures of the Seceda without clouds but the trade off was all the people:) First hike done, 7 miles by noon, down the gondola to drive 30 minutes to hike number 2. We ate my leftovers from yesterday’s lunch for our lunch on the way. Sassolungo was unreal-more spectacular mountains, three distinct rock spires which are actually ancient coral reefs pushed up to 8000 feet! We had an adventure boarding a two person stand up gondola, nicknamed the coffin by Stefania’s aunt and uncle who recommended the hike to us! We had to run, jump and be pushed in by the workers! I saw people laughing-wish we could have recorded it but it was a full body workout! We traveled up to a gap in the mountains, passing a very challenging via Ferrata, but darn, we don’t have any of the equipment:) One of us was sad. Then we started the second 7 mile hike, circumnavigating 2/3 of the mountain group. The first section was a moonscape, extremely steep downhill. We re-energized at the Refugio, then three hours of hiking with a lot of up and down, looking across the valley at Alpe de Suise and across the valley at where we had been at Seceda. Ended walking through a rock forest-hard to describe but magical. Drove 30 minutes to the hotel we booked last night and love it. It’s charming and simple. Just finished a dinner of Tyrolean specialty and are ready for bed. The weather was perfect today…tomorrow may be another story!Read more