Dolomiti - A Week in Northern Italy
We had been fantasizing about traveling to the Italian Dolomites for years, but it took a wedding in Spain to get us back to Europe after COVID and we certainly didn’t want to miss an opportunity to extend our European trip and go on our dream trip to the Dolomites. We started planning the trip about a year in advance, mapping out the rifugios (mountain huts) that we wanted to stay at and crafting our trip around photography goals. We could not have been more excited about this trip, but unfortunately - Austrian Airlines, had other plans for us. Our outbound flight was delayed due to lack of available workers and we barely made our connecting flight in Vienna. Unfortunately, our bag didn’t make the trip and we became very familiar with the italian term “baggaglia” - on the first day, it was our favorite word, but after a week of missing baggage - it soon became one of our least favorite Italian words. When our bag didn’t make it to Venice on time we decided to grab dinner nearby - thinking that surely our bag would be on the next flight arriving a few hours later. Based on our order, you would think that we don’t have familiarity with the metric system because we ordered 1L of wine thinking it would be nice to have just more than a glass each... As soon as we ordered, we realized our mistake given a conventional bottle of wine is 750 mL. The prices on wine in Italy had us entirely thrown off!
Sadly, our bag did not arrive that evening and we continued on our merry way up towards the Dolomites under the reassurance from Austrian Airlines that our bag would be delivered. With no news of our bag the next morning, we started looking up the reimbursable policies from Austrian Air - given our first rifugio reservation was that evening and we wanted to maintain our plans as much as possible.
We stopped in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the adventure town of the Italian Dolomites, and had a shopping spree. We each bought one pair of pants, hiking boots, two pairs of socks, a shirt, a rain jacket, and we purchased one additional backpack given the only backpack we had with us was a small travel backpack - not equipped for hiking. Paying full price at premium outdoor retailers adds up quickly and we soon realized we needed to use the travel backpack for hiking anyway - and forego any additional layers. We were hoping for good weather! Our via ferrata gear was also in our checked bag so we found a local retailer to rent gear. We pressed on with our trip - trying not to let anything get in the way of our well laid plans.
The first rifugio was beautiful. The terrain surrounding the hut was gorgeous and the rifugio itself was a cute building with a few bunk rooms, a communal dining area, and a great outdoor patio where we enjoyed a local Italian beer. We were thrilled to be there after the travel difficulties we’d experienced so far and enjoyed an amazing dinner of pasta, flan, wine, and more.
From there, we hiked out and drove to a different area of the Dolomites. The scenery was beautiful on the drive, but ominous weather was looming on the horizon. We experienced a lot of rain at the second rifugio, but the setting was beautiful and the cuisine featured highlights from Northern Italy with a lot of pork and meaty gnocchi dishes. We even were able to try out our via ferrata gear for a short route in the evening.
The rain picked up drastically when we were at the second rifugio. We tried to wait out the rain the next morning with no luck. Our normal backpacks have “rain flys” to protect the contents from the rain, but since those were lost somewhere in Vienna we had to make due with large garbage bags. It was a cold, wet hike with no warm layers - but we were glad to have used some of our “allocated reimbursement” towards rain jackets.
We continued onto another rifugio in a similar area and it was amazing to see the day hiking crowds in this vicinity. The third rifugio did not disappoint and we kept reveling in the beauty of our surroundings - it felt surreal.
In any moment that we could get cell service or wifi, we would continue to contact Austrian Airlines - seeking any information on the status of our bag. We became too attune to the music that plays when you are on-hold with Austrian Airlines. I think we had it memorized.
Due to some other circumstances, we had to audible our plans a bit and had the opportunity to experience some other areas of the Dolomites. We could not believe how expansive the “Ski Dolomiti” ski area was - we could drive for 40 miles and still see another ski lift. We put our rental via ferrata gear to work by doing a few via ferrata routes in other areas of the Dolomites.
We would wash our one set of clothes in the sink at our hotels and tried to continue making due on one set of hiking clothes each. It wasn’t quite the trip we were expecting, but we still loved it. Some of the unanticipated highlights were take out homemade pasta dishes sitting on park benches by beautiful lakes, our first via ferratas, and scouting out the best gelato in town.
The trip ended on a highlight with a note from Austrian Airlines that our bag had made it to Venice - the night before we departed. Prior to heading into Venice, we stopped by the airport and Grady searched for our bag among thousands of bags, stashed in multiple rooms, and piled in heaping mounds. He found it.
We celebrated with a simple pasta dinner overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice - and capped the night off with some gelato. It was a bit different than our Dolomites dream trip, but it leaves us with all the more inspiration to go back and maybe have a change of clothes with us this next time.
As an aside - we still have not been reimbursed by Austrian Airlines for the promised amount of $1600 - over a year later… their process is impossible and we have had no success in actually reaching a person to help us.
The video below chronicles this trip. Check it out!