18 Days in the Dolomites, Rome and In Between

The general itinerary

Day one: Flew into VCE, jet lag recovery in Treviso. While Treviso doesn’t have major sights it was a perfect low stress place to reset our internal clocks in the sunshine, eat gelato and cicchetti (it’s not just in Venice!), and enjoy the vignettes created by the canals and river that lace the city. Because we were heading into the mountains Treviso was an efficient departure point. The Locanda Ponte Dante provided a great dinner and breakfast and was well located.

Day two: Picked up rental car at Treviso’s easy-in-out-sized airport, drove to San Cassiano by way of Cortina d‘Ampezzo. Cortina was the only spot in the Dolomites where we encountered unpleasant traffic. Otherwise the Dolomites didn’t seem busy to us. We took the Tofana-Cortina Cable Car to go to Cima Tofana. At 10,643 feet the views were incredible. Earth Trekkers website has a detailed website that was helpful planning this stop.

Days 3-6: Overnights at the Conturines hotel in San Cassiano in Alta Badia. The hotel was warmly family run and the amazing breakfasts fueled us for active days. San Cassiano was picturesque and pleasant to stroll in the evenings. Memorable hikes in the area: Rifugio Scotoni (great food!), La Crusc hike starting in Badia Abtei.

Days 4-7: Overnights in San Giovanni di Fassa at the family run budget-friendly Piccolo Hotel. Again the family went out of their way to help us enjoy the stay. Memorable hikes: Rifugio Paolina, Lego di Carezza and Il Labirinto del Latemar.We changed plans on the fly because the lift in Colfosco was being rebuilt, hiking around the ‘top’ of Poidoi Pass instead. The excellent Ladin ethnographic music in San Giovanni, Museo Ladino di Fassa, provided fascinating insights into traditions, agriculture, community organization and other aspects of life in the mountains. There are several Ladin museums in the Dolomites if you’re visting another area.

Days 8-10: Turned in the rental car at Bologna airport. We liked Bologna, although the word ‘gritty’ came to mind for both of us. I was joking with DH that they never clean the streets, and just when we were leaving our apartment the final morning a street cleaner came by, although it left cigarette butts in it’s wake. More people seemed to smoke; perhaps due to the student demographic. On the other hand we had some great meals. And the reds and oranges of the buildings play with the light beautifully. We enjoyed strolling the porticoes, window shopping and visiting the Quadrilatero and shopping for cookware, My husband the musician loved the Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica with it’s one of a kind exhibits related to music history. Unfortunately the Collezione Tavaglini, another collection of historic instruments, was closed. The University of Bologna museums were an insight into the development of scientific thought from the days where field collections and classification moved science forward.

Days 9-10: Ravenna. We visited both the Classe Museum Of the City and Territory and the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in nearby Classe. The newish museum provides useful background on Ravenna’s historic periods, the economic and military forces at work. We also toured the main sights with experiened local guide Silvia Giogoli. https://www.guidaravenna.com/ I wanted the UNESCO mosaics to mean more than “oh, that’s pretty”. Enthusiastic and answering all our questions, she helped us understand the religious and political meanings represented in the mosaics and made the sights come alive. We really enjoyed just strolling around Ravenna, which was pretty and quiet.

Day 11: train day from Ravenna to Bologna to Florence to Orvietto.

Day 12: Orvieto is so atmospheric: the views and light from it’s location atop a plug of volcanic ash made great pictures. It’s that perfect combination of relaxing with plenty of things to do and great places to eat. Not crowded, although busy enough to feel lively. The Orvieto Underground tour was especially interesting exploring the layers of history. We could have stayed one more day and slowed down more. We walked from end to end of the old city in maybe 30 minutes.

Days 13-17 Rome. A highlight was meeting guide Daniella Hunt for a ½ day tour of Ostia Antica. She’s high energy, upbeat and knows Ostia and Roman history in such depth. It’s clear that she really enjoys her job. She made the visit so much fun. Reference: https://rome-tours.com/daniella-hunt-private-guide/ Ostia is an easy trip from where we stayed in Monti at the Raffaello.

Memorable meals:

Treviso: Locanda Ponte Dante, both dinner and breakfast on a picturesque bend in the river.

Dolomites, San Cassiano: Rifugio Scotoni- alpine cute, beautiful setting, hearty food.

Dolomites, Vigo di Fassa: La Grotta restaurant - family run with loving care by a mother and son focusing on quaity and authenticity.

Bologna: Camera a Sud. Cozy, chill, relaxing, great menu, neighborhood place.

Ravenna: Hostaria Pasolini, on a back street, recommended by local guide. Passionate staff and extra delicious fresh pasta.

Orvieto: We were charmed by the family and had a very tasty meal at Labirinto Di Adriano.

Rome: Maharajah, on Via del Serpenti in Monti. I started craving something other than Italian. Reasonably priced very good Indian food.

We were happy we did:

Starting our trip in smaller cities and rural locations seemed like a gentler reintroduction to Italy. Rome was easy by the time we got there.

Renting a car with sufficient power to handle mountain driving. And not driving it large cities.

Hiring guides to enrich our experience. We also enjoy getting the perspectives of a local beyond the sightseeing. It’s a great opportunity to talk about life in Italy or in their city.

Learned again that we really like small inns with a combination of retaurant downstairs and rooms upstairs. Locanda Ponte Dante in Treviso was a perfect place to stay.

Distances in the Dolomites are frequently expressed in units of time due to the barriers provided by mountain ranges and winding roads. We used Gillian Price’s Day Walks in the Dolomites and her earlier Shorter Walks in the Dolomites Cicerone guides to choose two base cities for day hikes in different areas.

We trialed (for us) the Komoot hiking app. I wanted something more detailed than AllTrails. I read that Gaia GPS has become less reliable. Komoot appears to be actively developed and well supported. It offers a detailed bundle of maps for the Dolomites with views based on activity. It’s also possible to allow others to see your route in real time, which is a nice safety feature. We uploaded the gpx files associated with Price’s book nto Komoot and tailored them to our needs. Komoot tracked our hike progress very accurately.

When Google Maps wasn’t adequate we used the Here app for a second option driving and walking in cities; Sometimes Here’s navigation worked better than Google.

Made use of cable cars to ascend and descend to hikes, saving time for the most interesting trails and views. Rick Steves guidebook for Val Gardena discusses this strategy but it works well throughout the Dolomites. Arrive at the lift stations relatively early to ensure.a spot in the parking lot. It wasn't difficult to be early risers anyway due all the fresh air and exercise. I think most lifts were opening between 8:00 and 9:00 allowing time to finish breakfast at the hotel and drive to the station Both of our hotels in the Dolomites lent hiking poles to us for free, which saved money, time, and improved stability on trails.

Since we’d seen many of the major sights in Rome, and because 2025 is a Jublee Year, we focused on sights away from the Vatican and forum areas that we hadn’t already seen, such as the Baths of Diocletian, the National Roman Museum, the National Etruscan Museum, and walking around Monti. BTW the supposedly excellent coin collection at the Roman museum is currently closed, as are the tomb recreations at the Etruscan museum.

We used this website to check for train strikes: https://scioperi.mit.gov.it/mit2/public/scioperi This is more helpful since most strikes in Italy are planned in advance I read that companies are required to announce train strikes at least ten days before they begin. Although it can be difficult to interpret the strike info on the website above precisely it at least provides a heads up that something may be up on a given day. I changed our schedule for some of our Rome activities to mitigate the impact of a national rail strike occurring while we were there.

Things to change/Adjust To

Sometimes (often?) museums don’t update their websites when they’ll be closed for weeks, or even their onsite signage when exhibits are closed. For example, regarding the ancient coin collection in the National Roman Museum our first hint was a note on a piece of paper taped over the button in the elevator. If a sight is important to your trip it may be best to call ahead.

Restaurants in Italy were expensive, which is something we hadn’t noticed much on other trips. Food in groceries seemed inexpensive, even more so than here in the U.S. We picknicked more than usual. San Cassiano has a few high end grocery and food stores that made this more interesting, e.g. finely aged cheese. We sometimes paid for a packed lunch from the hotel. If our hotel had a big spread for breakfast we might skip lunch in favor of a snack or gelato.

Turning in the rental car to Sixt in Bologna was a struggle. It’s a very busy airport, and then Sixt gave us a ticket for the returns garage that expired too early; anyone for backing down the garage ramp at a busy airport with multiple cars behind you(?)

Staying on your toes while traveling by train: the track from Orvieto into Rome Termini was closed for repair so our train was rerouted to Tiburtina. We only noticed when the departures board said ‘Tiburtina’. RailEurope had our contact info and we had the app but we weren’t given a heads up. In Bologna the departure track changed last minute and the station staff compounded the situation by giving us the wrong new track number. I began using this website to remotely check the arrivals and departures at train stations “realtime” as we traveled: http://www.viaggiatreno.it/infomobilita/index.jsp About half of our trains ran 10-15 minutes late. We had one potentially tight or missed connection but fortunately the next train was just a handful of platforms away.

Lovely report. Just today I was dreaming of a 3 week long fall driving trip through northern Italy, Austria and Switzerland for the cooler temps and fall leaves. I’m taking this as a sign to do some planning!

Loved your report!

I especially enjoyed your report because we went to many of the same places this past June. We focused on Val Gardenia in the Dolomites and did not rent a car though. We had similar great weather in the Dolomites. But we had much hotter weather than you in June in Bologna and Ravenna.

Thanks for your report! We have time penciled in for several of these areas next year, very helpful.

Thank you, everyone! Sometimes we were alone on trails; more usually we were occasionally passing people as we hiked. Lift parking lots could get full by mid to late morning. So it wasn't low season, it was more like a busy season where the existing trails and facilities were handling the number of tourists pretty well. San Cassiano area seemed somewhat busier than San Giovanni area. We liked both equally well in terms of what the areas offered.

A staffer at the San Cassiano TI told us that she loves October because the tourists are gone and the mountains turn Fall colors. That sounds a little late in the season to me from what I've read because that starts to risk snow, and the lifts close between the hiking and ski seasons. Maybe shift our dates by a week or two(?)

BethFL, I loved reading your trip report. We were in Val Gardena in (I think) 2016, stayed in Ortesei, and really enjoyed day hikes and the food! Malcesine on Lake Garda is one of those trip planning regrets where I really wanted to go there but we simply didn't have enough vacation days. It was great to get a sense for it in your report.

Thank you for your report. I’d love to visit the Dolomites.