It was a beautiful drive to Ortisei in the western side of the Dolomites particularly around Passo Gardena.
The great bulk of Sassolungo came into view too…
Santa Cristina looked like a beautiful little village before we arrived in busy Ortisei where forested slopes replaced the mountains in the narrow Val Gardena valley.
With thunderstorms predicted , we headed straight for the Seceda chairlift to make sure we saw this much photographed area. It was late – around 3.30pm – so one advantage was no queues and it was easy to get parked.Two cable car runs took us up onto the great plateau – the most expensive of the trip by far at 52 euros each return! Ouch.
It was a very short uphill pull on a wide path to Forcella Pana, the famous viewpoint over the Odle/Geisler group.
Great views with the very green, chalet-dotted pastures directly below.
A farmer is now charging 5 euros to walk further below the pinnacle as it crosses his land. That land had recently been harvested and looked like a neatly cut lawn! Very odd sight.
However, we didn’t want to go any further as it didn’t look as if better views would be had so it was a case of simply doing the loop back to the cable car station.
To be honest, Seceda wasn’t really doing it for us.
Maybe it was the gentle valley which made up a lot of the view below but it didn’t feel as wild or impressive a spot as where we had been these past few days.
However, I was keen to get some shots of the amazing massif of Sasso Lungo clear so we hung around for some time as hefty cloud cleared.A really fantastic mountain…
In all we spent about an hour in this area but it felt like a bit of rip off in terms of cost vs how long we wanted to stay there. Hiking down didn’t hold much appeal either, even if we’d had time. It all felt a little tame compared to the Rifugio locations we had visited these past few days.
Our hotel was Chalet Hartmann, a delightful little place on the edge of Ortisei. Our room was quite small but very comfortable and with a pretty balcony.Lovely quiet location too though a bus stop into town was just a short way along the road. A pedestrian path ran alongside the hotel below its garden and it was a 15 min or less downhill stroll into Ortisei(albeit a steady uphill on the way back!)
Picked up a few supplies for some dinner on the balcony – tomatoes, cold chicken, olives, cheese and bread. It had been a packed day and we were now quite tired! But what a brilliant day it had been!
TOMORROW:HANDSOME BOLZANO AND BRESSANONE
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