The Mountains Were Calling - Solo Dolomites Adventure - Misurina - Cinque Torri & Tofana

The next morning, after breakfast, I drove the most beautiful 40 minutes to the chairlift for Cinque Torri. I got there a little early and had some fresh yogurt with honey and walnuts with my cappuccino while I waited. 

Then I caught the chairlift up to the top of the mountain and set off to explore. I spent a few hours hiking around the area and it was absolutely beautiful. 

At the beginning of WW1, as Italian troops were advancing towards Austria, it became clear that they could keep tabs on all military movements from up here. The troops installed cable cars; built forts and shelters; dug and lined miles of trenches; brought up telephone lines, food, animals, and even huge Navy cannons. This area became the headquarters of the Mountain Artillery Unit during the war. Each station was equipped with field glasses and binoculars, maps, target lists, batteries, observation posts, and strongholds. They lived up there for 2.5 years! I explored the bunkers, medical facilities, and lookouts along the trail system. 

After my hike, I started back towards Misurina and stopped in Cortina d'Ampezzo for a couple of hours to walk around. I dipped in and out of the little shops with cuckcoo clocks and whittled wooden figurines and very high end outdoor apparel and ended up with a couple of scoops of yogurt gelato. 

The mountain tops all around were shrouded in thin clouds and the weather called for another thunderstorm, but I found a gondola that looked interesting and had parking available so I decided to take it. The first section was just a cable car that dropped us off at another station higher up, but the second section was a large open gondola and we had to wait for about 15 minutes for it to take us up to the top. In the meantime, I was watching the clouds quickly building and figured that it would be a total whiteout once we got up there. The good thing was that there were only about 8 other people going up so it wasn't crowded at all. Even if it was completely cloudy, I still love being up in the mountains in the fog...I just didn't want to get up there and have to get right back down because of thunderstorms. Eventually, we took off, up into the mist.

About 20 minutes later, I was at Cime Tofana di Mezzo. This was the mountain that was off to my left as I was hiking the Cinque Torri a couple of hours before. Initially, the views down below were completely blocked by clouds. I scrambled around the mountain and enjoyed watching the mist drifting in and out. Then, about 10 minutes later, the clouds cleared and I could see all of the valleys down below. It was spectacular and brought tears to my eyes. It was so still and quiet and warm considering how quickly the clouds were moving. 

I hung out for about and hour and just bawled my eyes out. It was just so beautiful and so perfect and it was one of those moments were I just felt so grateful to be there and see that and have this life that I'm living. I think about how miserable I felt as a young adult and how I could never have imagined then what my life has turned into and I'm so proud. I couldn't help but think about almost exactly a year before, when I'd fallen and hurt my back and thought for a moment there that I'd never be able to hike or travel again because I'd be crippled both physically and financially. I hate when people tell me that "it must be nice" to be able to do these things, but being able to do these things is a result of a lot of hard work and discipline and making very specific choices throughout my life with this as a goal. I work a lot, I save a lot, I don't have a trust fund that I can dip in to and I'm not in debt...I just put things that are important to me into my budget and make them happen. Having said that, I still feel incredibly lucky too.

The next stop down on the gondola was at a bar where I sat out on the panoramic patio and had a piece of tiramisu and cappuccino (notice a pattern here?) and enjoyed the view for a bit.

From Cortina, I was only about 30 minutes from Misurina, so I drove back and then walked to my "regular" pizza spot. I met a retired couple there from Boston that invited me to sit with them and we talked for about an hour. It's funny to me how I get so used to not speaking to anybody for days on end and it feels perfectly normal but then once I meet people that want to chat about traveling, I can talk and talk. It turned out that they were going to many places in the Alps on their trip that I've been to before so they were asking for recommendations and my opinions about certain spots on their itinerary. It was really nice. 

I was sad to leave this perfect place that I'd spent the beginning of my trip, but I was so excited to see what was next...Val Gardena!