Our Italy tour this year (April 1995) visited two places, the Dolomites and Garda Lake not far to the southwest. Our Garda Lake excursions are described on a separate page.
The map on the left is a detail of the Italy map on the right, of the yellow rectangle south of Bolzano and east of Trento.
Mt. Marmolada is a mountain in the Dolomites in Italian Alps. We stayed in a hotel and Arraba, a small village to the north of Mt. Marmolada. We used Arraba as a base for various day tours. This report describes the longest and most interesting one. The length was only about 130 km (could be wrong - someone told me it's only 65 km), with two passes at 2056 and 2239 meters, respectively. The map above shows the roads we took; we rode the loop clockwise. We used Mountainbikes, but the same tour can easily be ridden with road bikes. Many interesting others in the same area require mountainbikes, though.
The left picture shows the dam that closes off Lago di Fedaia at its western end. There is a two-lane road on top, the tiny dots in the picture are cars. We crossed the dam attempting to find a trail to cross over the mountains towards Passo Pordoi, to avoid having to ride on roads. The trail was very steep and rocky, and forced us to carry the bicycles most of the time. After reaching the top of the first hill, the going got worse and the trail nearly disappered.
The right (second) picture was also taken on the trail and gives an idea of the dire consequences of slipping. My friend can be seen a little to the left of the center. The Alps are not inherently dangerous, but when the map says hiking trail they really mean it - expect a path that is so rough that it can barely be seen at times. Bicycling shoes with cleats for the clipless pedals are definitely not the right approach to a trail like this. It is easy to slip if the rubber happens to be worn down and you are walking on the bare metal.
Not that the scenery suffered because we returned to the roads. The picture at the top of this page was taken about 45 minutes later. Gorgeous vistas opened to the left and right, and here ahead, all the time.
The rest of the trip was downhill, mostly. Traffic was light, but there were frequent turns and we couldn't just let go and blast down most of the time. Still, this was fun. Although there was a lot of snow near the top of the hill and all the way to Arraba, the road was spotless and perfectly dry. Also, it was astonishingly warm, even in April and despite all the snow.