Saturday: 19th August: Weather: 22°C to 36°C: Hazy very hot sunny day.
Bolzano: 10.0k walk: 4hrs 30mins : 10.00am to 2.30pm: 2 x 30 min stops: Ascent: 300 m Descent 300 m
Dy Walk: Giro di Bullccia from Compacciò
Accommodation: Villa Anita Apartments Bolzano
Up in cable car to Alpe di Siusi
Highlights today were all about Alpe di Siusi, 1,800 metres high, and soooo much cooler than Bolzano. We took Bus 170 from Bolzano to Siusi where the cable car lifted us to Compaccio, then walked the Giro di Bullaccia, a 10k circuit. It was an easy walk on rolling hills, ascending only 300metres up and down, with absolutely stunning scenery on a warm hazy day. The photos don’t do justice to the views through the heat haze.
The cool morning starts at 6.30am with a cup of tea. That’s if you call 22°C cool. Then breakfast of meusli and yoghurt before walking 1k through town to the Autostazione to catch Bus 170 to Siusi. It’s a long windy road up the valley with the bus stopping and starting on sharp bends to allow cyclists and cars to squeeze through. These buses can do a 3 point turn on a ten cent piece and the drivers are amazing. It’s only 36 minutes to Siusi.
Setting off for the Bullaccia walk
Alpe di Siusi
Coffee with a magnificent view
View to snow capped Austrian Alps
Hexelbanke - witches benches
Views all round
More Views
Views to Ortisei and Mt Secede
We walk up to the cable car entrance and jump on and in another 12 minutes we’re at the stunning Alpe di Siusi, a large high plateau of rolling hills set between the Dolomites where they grow the hay for the village of Siusi below. It’s Saturday and there’s streams of people setting out on walks in all directions. Not as many as Tre Cime in Cortina, but still crowded.
We choose a combination of Walk 14 and 24 to walk the Giro di Bullaccia, a 10k circuit. It should be an easy walk with only 300 ascent/descent up and down. The path starts along a road, there’s no cars allowed up on Alpe di Siusi, except if you are staying at one of the expensinve hotels up here and have a permit to drive just to your hotel. The road is Mt Cotton steep and soon we reach a view point across to the dolomites to the south.
Following the crowds, we’re soon at another viewpoint across the snow capped Austrian Alps. A bit further on, another view point - yes the whole walk is full of view points. This time at Hexelbanke, which translates as witches benches, a place historically famed for it’s witches, and someone has cleverley carved a witches face in a tree stump. More uphill to the Bullaccia, a hump rather than a mountain at 2,174 metres. The air has warmed to a pleasant but warm 23°C, better than the temperature back in Bolzano which was supposd to reach 36°C today. At Bullaccia, we can see across to Mt Seceda, and down in the valley to Ortisei, where we’ll be starting our AV2 walk in a few days.
A leisurely stroll back down to the cable car - there’s no rush to get back to the heat of Bolzano. I buy a 3D Dolomites map from the sports store and stroll around looking for things I don’t need, then back in the cable car to meet the 3.40pm Bus 170 back to Bolzano. The bus has a clock/temperature guage above the driver and we can see the temperature rising as we drive the 30 minutes back down the valley and eventually step out into 33°C - hooray, the temperature has dropped a bit!
It’s a hot walk back to our Villa Anita where there’s a little breeze coming in our attic window. Time for a cold beer. Dinner of salad again, but it's almost too hot to eat so I have a banana and yoghurt. Time to sort some beautiful photos and blog before bed at 9.30pm.