Dolomiti by motorcycle

20.-21.Aug 2013 – 601 km – Netto driving 11:30 hours

Day 1: Lesce-Toblach-Tre Cine-Cortina D’Ampezzo.

I was confident, when starting this trip in the middle of the day in the poring rain, that the rain will stop somewhere on the Italy-Austria border. Motorcycling in the rain is no fun for a rookie like me, but with every kilometre I was feeling more and more confident. Close to Silian, just before Italy, rain stopped and gave way to to clear, dark blue, sky. On the road from Toblach to Cortina, I made a detour via Tre Cine natural park. Probably the only mountain pass road in Italy where you have to pay the toll. But 10EUR is not a lot for all the views you get.  The road was a bit busy since in August almost all of the Italy is on vacation. My plan was to sleep in Cortina in one of the campings. Some years ago we were sleeping in of them. Two campings are situated just by the river, one on the left side when you cross the bridge and one on the right side. Without any true reason, I chose the left one. Due to luggage space limitations I took only my summer sleeping bag which turned out to be a bad decision. Even in August, nights in the Alps on altitudes above 1000 metres, can be chilly. 

Day 2: Cortina D’Ampezzo-Passo Giao-Passo Valparola-Passo Campolongo-Passo Pordoi-Passo Fedaia-Passo Giao-Cortina-Toblach-Lesce.

Starting just after 10AM, I went straight to one of my favourites, Passo Giau. Beautiful tarmac, second to none turns in a crispy summer morning. Pure fun. After descend, Passo Falzarego was next. Too crowded even to park a motorcycle, but the road and the scenery is just amazing. Just behind the corner from Falzarego is Passo Valparola with 1st world war buildings converted into small museum.

Descend towards Corvara and to Passo Campolongo was next, Campolongo is nothing special, but it was necessary to drive just to get to the next big thing, Passo Pordoi. In Arraba, I turned right and drove to Pordoi. Road to and from Pordoi was really the highlight of the trip. Again, the crowd at the pass pushed me downhill pretty fast. Passo Sella is very close and again, beautiful road around beautiful turns. After Sella, descend to Canazei and climb to Passo Pordoi with beautiful view of Marmolada and big lake at the top of the pass. To get to Cortina  and home, one more Giau was necessary. On Giau I decided to go straight home. My Zumo was telling me that I will get home at around 8PM, just before dark. After a long drive from 10AM to 8PM, I got home as predicted by Garmin.

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