Sunday: 20th August: Weather: 22°C to 36°C Bolzano: Sunny hot hazy day but 25°C at Costalunga
Bolzano: 11.1k walk: 5hrs 0mins: 10.15am to 3.15pm: 1 x 30 min stop: Ascent: 650m Descent: 650m
Day Walk: Circuit beneath Dolomites Rosengarten on Masare Track.
Accommodation: Villa Anita Apartments Bolzano
Track 548 to Rosengarten
Picnic Point Rif Roda di Vael 2280m
From Rif Roda di Vael to Marmolada
Track 549 Sentiero del Masare
Looking back to Passo di Costalunga
Eagle Point Sentiero di Musare
Stand in line for Eagle Point Photo
Masare Path beneath Rosengarten
Ian in a jam of families and bikes
Highlight today was walking the Sentiero di Masare beneath the towering walls of the Rosengarten group of Dolomites. I have always wanted to visit the Rosengarten ever since we first passed through Bolzano by train from Munich on our way to Pont St Martin in 2018 on our way to walk the Grand Paradiso in North Western Italy. The train was packed full, and an English gentleman offered me his suitcase to sit on. When we got close to Bolzano, he apologised that he needed his suitcase back as he was getting off in Bolzano to visit the Rosengarten on holidays with his family. He pointed them out in the distance as we neared the station, so it was on my list of places to visit whenever we walked in the Dolomites.
Awake at 6.30am, to another 22°C morning and we have breakfast and head off quickly to catch the 8.40am Bus 170 to Siusi to do another walk up on Alpe di Siusi. But of course it’s Sunday and there is no 8.40am bus - the next one is at 9.18am. So we wait in the heat of the morning. The next bus to pull in is the 180, and it’s going to Passo di Costalunga. There was a walk on the Masare I had wanted to do there but it was a point to point walk and I couldn’t find a bus at the other end at Frommer Alm. But there were so many hikers getting on this bus, likely headed to Costalunga, that we figured there’d be a solution to the bus at the end. So we hopped on Bus 180 and off we ent to Costalunga, not Siusi.
The bus is full and soon the driver is telling people along the way that there’s no more room, catch the next bus. It’s almost an hour later when we are arrive at Passo di Costalunga, and the Masare Walk 548 starts just opposite where we alight. It’s already a bit cooler at 1,745 metres as we head up a steep but well graded path towards Rifugio Roda del Vale at 2,280 metres. After 2 hours up hill, we arrive and find it’s picnic point. There’s already hundreds of hikers lying around scattered over the hill top, lolling in the sun. Most of them have come up by the chair lift to Rifugio Paolina at 2,120 metres, saving them 400 metres of uphill walk. The views are amazing in all directions. Any wonder there are so many hikers up here on this magical sunny Sunday.
Time for a cup of coffee while we admire the view across to the Marmolada, distinguished by it’s little cable car cabin on top that looks like a pimple on a pumpkin. It’s even cooler now at 19°C. We sit for half an hour watching the comings and goings of families and dogs, then back track a bit to join track 549, the popular Sentiero del Masare, a narrow balcony walk high above the pine trees, and slammed up against the high walls of the Rosengarten with even more spectacular views way to the south to the Pale di San Martino Dolomites, where we will finish our walk in two weeks time.
Soon we arrive at Eagle Point where the Eagle Statue commemorates the Viennese entrepreneur Theodor Christomannos who in 1909 constructed the road that connected Cortina and Bolzano through the Vigo de Fassa pass. There’s a queue of people waiting to get their photo taken with the eagle. The path then becomes narrower and more rugged beneath the 400 metre walls of the Rosengarten. On a difficult section, Ian has to manoeuvre around three guys carrying trail bikes along the path and a family with a young child trying to swing around a ledge on a cable.
After 9k, we reach the junction of the track going back down to the chair lift at Rifugio Paolina. We had already decided back at coffee to go down this track as to continue on the track to Frommer Alm, meant catching 4 connecting buses back to Bolzano and before we even left Brisbane I had trouble sorting out this bus time table. So we’d now walked most of the Sentiero di Masare track, it was a good time to go back to Costalunga where we knew that bus 180 left at 3.56pm.
It was an easy walk down hill and we arrived back at Costalunga at 3.15pm to wait for the 3.56pm back to Bolzano. It arrived on time and an our later at 5pm we step out of the bus into 36°C heat. The 1k walk up to Villa Anita is a hot one and our apartment isn’t much cooler. So a cold beer is warranted before a shower and dinner. Time to sort photos and blog and arrange tomorrow, which might be the cable cars. Anywhere above 2,000 metres will be good in this heatwave which is expected to continue until the weekend when we start our AV2 walk.