This year we visited the Dolomites to try some of the numerous via Ferrata routes and to see some of the spectacular scenery. The pictures can be seen via the link at the bottom.

We flew to Venice and emerging from the plane into the incredible afternoon heat was a shock to the system having left a rather cool England !

The roads from Venice northwards towards the fashionable resort of Cortina were initially quite excellent but then the autostrada becomes more minor, roads, still marked as major but varying in width and quality quite tremendously. We wound upwards along twisting, winding roads with numerous crazy italian drivers doing their best to immitate Michael Schumacher despite possibly driving little more than a Fiat Panda ! Crazy does not convey their behaviour !

We eventually reached Cortina and needed to find a signpost towards Corvara, our destination. Cortina has a one way system and no signs. Interesting ! By pure luck, I followed my internal compass and ended up on the right road but with much, much further to go than we had worked out from the maps. Becoming ever more agitated, we headed over another pass and the heavens opened. What a great start to a holiday !!

That said, we did eventually find our B&B, despite having no map, and no directions. My temper improved immensely once I had had a pizza and a beer to wash it down !

Corvara proved to be incredibly familiar to us in that it is far more German/Austrian than Italian. The B & B was so incredibly like my sister;s in Germany, we could hardly believe it. The restaurants have very German menus, wines, and German seemed to be the first language.

Having settled in, we decided on a small outing up a nearby via Ferrata, Piz de Cir, far left on the picture. Following the directions from the book very closely, Nic guided me up a small track and it wasn’t long before I realised that we were supposed to walk this bit, not drive up it !!!

It’s a nice route, and not too challenging. The views were certainly quite spectacular and incredibly enjoyable. That’s Nic finger spoiling a great photo !!!

We were quite relieved to be able to return to the car and find that the barrier wasn’t down !

The next day we set off for the fairly impressive peak that towers over the village of Corvara.

The climb is pretty decent, some 1200metres and a section of via Ferrata at the top but to be honest this was just a few cables to pull on.

Click on the black and white picture for the photos.