Hiking Selva Val Gardena ~ Italy Day 7

Today ended up being the best day (weather-wise) for a longer hike in the area, and we decided to simply walk to the little town, take the ski lift to the top, and wander.  We realized that pretty much anywhere one walks/drives/hikes there are amazing views. What this meant also, was that we did not have to set the alarm too early, as there was no reason to get to the trailhead too early as (1) parking was a moot point and (2) when we woke it was 50-degrees, so there was no rush to get out before it got too hot!

We had another great breakfast and ended up at the Ciampinoi Ski Lift at 10am (27€ per person) and chatted with the people in our car on the trip to the top. As always, there were amazing views from the moment we arrived......we could see where we hiked yesterday.

There were some paragliders taking off when we got there....

We did not have any specific route in mind, so we just started hiking along one of the many trails.....

Gotta share the trail......

We kept going for a couple, maybe three, miles in a westerly direction, then decided to head south towards one mountain - for no other reason than it was there. We hiked off-trail a bit, but while there were some established trails, it wasn't necessary to stay on them.

At one point we saw glaciers in the distance.....

Hi Brad!

Eventually we came across a glacier closer to us as well.

Hi Suzanne!

We had some lunch at a rifugio along the way and headed back to the ski lift to head back to town. 

So this is our last day in The Dolomites. Unfortunately we are here during some bad weather - it rained about half the time.  We weren't able to do as many of the longer hikes that we wanted, but we were still able to get out and do some walking - whether it was a crystal-clear blue lake or a ski lift to some amazing views. One thing that surprised us - we may geographically be in Italy, but so far, we've felt as if we are in Austria or Germany - people are speaking German, the houses towns look Germanic, people look more German/Austrian than Italian, signage is in German (and Italian).  As we said before, The Dolomites are very accessible which is both good and bad. They are amazingly awesome - we know we keep saying that, but they are indescribable- photos simply do not do them justice. 

Not surprisingly, we had dinner at our hotel again. We did not like the menu tonight - risotto with prawns and roast beef - so we had a bowl of pasta and the salad bar for 20€ each. Oh, at the salad bar was grilled eggplant with a bit of marinara and parmesean cheese - super yummy! 

This may be the end of The Dolomites, but it is not the end of the trip.........😉