
- Italy - Museum Ladin: Language, history and art of the Dolomite Ladins
- Italy - In the footsteps of Déodat de Dolomieu: The formation of the Dolomites
- Italy - The mysterious legends of the Dolomites: Water fairies, sorcerers and alpenglow
- Italy - Time together in the Dolomites: Hiking, natural beauty and our newly acquired love for the Dolomites
- Italy - Lake Braies: Between crowds of tourists and mystical legends
- Italy - Mystical stories and breathtaking nature at Lake Toblach
- Italy - Sass Pordoi: Breathtaking views and alpenglow at Passo Falzarego
- Off to South Tyrol - Vinschgau: Europe's most important growing region for flavoured apples
- Switzerland - Searching for a decision: Nice, Piedmont or South Tyrol?
- Italy - Romantic autumn trip to Brixen: Cloudy Dolomites & the magic of the old town
We read: "The Passo Falzarego area fascinates with its unique diversity of plants and vegetation. The soils, which consist of rough or marly sandstone layers, erode easily and allow surface water to run off, forming layers of peat in depressions and terraces. These geological features create diverse habitats such as extensive lady's mantle meadows, wetland biotopes and unspoilt rocky landscapes.
Particularly noteworthy are the sub-hygrophilous stands of lady's mantle, which thrives both in shallow hollows and on mountain slopes. The area is also characterised by forests, especially subalpine spruce forests and larch-pine forests, which offer valuable ecological insights with their mature structure."
This immediately invites us to go for a morning walk. It is incredibly quiet up here on the pass, we somehow feel so close and yet so small.
Slowly we are drawn onwards: the Three Peaks are calling. But before that, our path winds its way through autumnal larch forests, through small and large mountain villages and even through Cortina d'Ampezzo. We make a short stopover at Lago di Landro (or, more colloquially, Lake Dürrensee). Here, too, the colour of the mountain lake enchants us.
According to an old legend, mountain spirits and fairies live near the lake and dance on the water on clear nights. They are said to have protected hikers from danger as long as they respected nature. The lake is also said to be a kind of "mirror of truth": Those who gaze into its waters are said to gain clarity for a brief moment about their inner self and their true desires.
We don't see any fairies or mountain spirits, but we do have a brief moment of clarity: namely a hunger for breakfast. And as I've already travelled this route with Gerd in spring, I know the perfect place: In the car park of the Drei Zinnen Nature Park.
The Three Peaks are the most famous landmark of the Dolomites, their imposing north faces can only be seen from the Höhlenstein Valley, which makes this place so special. The striking rock formations were created around 200 million years ago by sedimentation in the primeval Tethys Sea and tell a fascinating geological story.
I try to find out why the Dolomites are called the Dolomites and come across this explanation: "The Dolomites owe their name to the French geologist and mineralogist Déodat de Dolomieu (1750-1801). He was the first to analyse the special chemical composition of the rock that makes up this mountain range. The rock, which was later called dolomite, differs from ordinary limestone due to its high magnesium carbonate content. Dolomieu discovered this unusual mineral during his travels and published a scientific description in 1791. Subsequently, the Alpine region consisting of this characteristic rock began to be referred to as the Dolomites. The white to light grey rock formations of these mountains, which glow in impressive shades of pink and orange at sunrise and sunset, are one of the best-known features of this unique mountain landscape.
So we hike a bit in the direction of the "Three Peaks", but realise that the hiking trail is not very exciting: after a short time we are already walking in the forest, the Three Peaks are hidden behind the treetops and the hiking trail turns out to be (at least!) a car-free gravel road, which is no fun at all to walk on.
I suggest the next point on our journey: After all, one highlight follows another and we take a leisurely walk back to our Felix. After all, the next natural beauty with hiking opportunities is just a few kilometres and a few bends along the way.




















Merci for "travelling with us
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