Mar-2024
Hiking the Great Dolomites of Italy
We checked off the most epic adventure to date…hiking the DOLOMITES! It’s truly a hiker’s paradise and even pictures can’t capture the true beauty of these Italian Alps.
Let’s start with how the Dolomites were formed: The Dolomites began “emerging” from the richly stratified seafloor during the Cretaceous – roughly 100 million years ago – due to a collision between the African and European continents. The folds and uplift caused by the convergent movements between the two plates created the Alps and the formation of the Dolomites.
I selected the Alpe di Siusi in the Dolomites, since I felt it was one of the more family-friendly areas in the area for hiking.
Alpe di Siusi is Europe’s largest mountain plateau and has over 270 miles of trails so pick a trail ahead of time that will work for your family.
Our day was spent hiking these rolling green hills dotted with charming rifugios that intersect abruptly with dramatic craggy mountains.
Probably are favorite part of the hike was the rifugios experience. We passed by three along our hike (not all are open daily so plan accordingly). A rifugio is a high-elevation mountain hut, situated directly along a hiking trail. There are currently over 1,000 rifugios that make up the Dolomites hut system. Each of these huts vary greatly, but staying in rifugios or simply drinking a stein of beer in the Italian Dolomites is an incredible way to experience the region.
Our 6-mile/5-hr hike in Alpe di Siusi was truly epic, and exhausting! We’ve had amazing hikes throughout Ireland, Norway, Slovenia, etc., but the Italian Dolomites are utterly breathtaking. Have you hiked the Dolomites?
The extraordinary beauty of the Dolomite landscape and its geological and geomorphological significance have even led these magical alpine landscapes to be included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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