The Italian Alps - Vale di Sole

A couple of years ago we spent a great week in Chamonix, France up in the alps. The weather was so good and not so hot, plus there was lots of outdoorsy things to do. So this trip we decided to find the Italian version of the Alps. We headed towards the Dolomites which are two separate ranges of peaks located in Northern Italy towards the Swiss Border from Verona. We scored some good chalet styled accommodation in some campground and luckily were in a nice valley. Vale di Sol is an alpine valley that is famous for mountain biking and skiing. Therefore there we lots of good trails for walking and running, a free train that went up and down the valley and a dedicated asphalt cycle path linking everything together. It was rather devoid of tourists; maybe we were a bit early.

We spent the first day on an adventure to Lago Tovel which is perched in a amphitheatric type valley surrounded by the Brenta Dolomites. The drove in was a bit traumatic, skinny and steep but the walk to the lake was easy and revealed the most spectacular view. We had lunch by the lake and dragged a sleeping Finn around the remainder of the lake for another half and hour.


The next day dawned with mint blue skies, so we went up to one of the skifields and up a chairlift to the snow to check out the view. Not everything was open, but we decided between the Pasole Tonale lift and the Peio Skifield. Both at the top of the Vale di Sole. Pasole Tonale would have been a bit more spectacular as it accesses a glacier at the top which is used for summer sking along the border with Switzerland. In any case Peio was pretty good and went up to 3000m so, a cold Finn could have a quick play in the snow. Chairlifts to any peak in Europe seem expensive, this was a pretty simple ride up two lifts for $19 Euro or $40 each.

Later in the week we did a long drive out of the valley to the city of Bolanzo which is the last big city in the Trento Valley before you hit the Austrain Border. We were trying to find the Mountaineering Museum in the Firmian Castle dedicated to Reinhold Messner. He became famous in the 1980's for being the first person to summit Everest without oxgyen and then went back a few years later to do it again solo. He is perhaps the only person to summit all 14 peaks over 8000m without using oxygen. Anyway we finally found the castle and museum, we could see it from the motorway but couldn't find the signposts within the labyrinth of on ramps and off ramps in the spaghetti junction. It was a very good museum and slightly different, it was a labyrinth of staircases, ramps and paths within the castle that was supposed to make you feel part of his journey. In any case it was a good was to spend the day and had a great cafe for lunch. Finn was a hit with the bus loads of tourists as I think we were the only English speaking people around.


We spent the last day driving lazily up and over the hill from the campground to the big ski resort town of Madonna di Campiglio. It was a bit of ghost town but would certainly hum in winter. About four sets of chairlifts leave from the town up into the hills. We decided to check out another lake which was perched above the town. There was a huge school group walking around the lake, which made us glad we were on holiday.