As we were visiting Passo Sella yesterday we saw a curious looking lift going up to a spot on the mountain. We decided to come back and check it out, as Passo Sella is only about 20 minutes from our hotel.
I was surprised we had to pay for parking at the top, but it only turned out to be a few euros in the end. Motorcycles get to park for free? I guess they figure the motorcyclists will just drive around a barrier anyways, but it just seems wrong to me. These guys terrorize you at every turn, passing when they shouldn’t even think of passing, and they get free parking?
Here is what we came back up here for.
When we showed up at the ticket counter, we were told the guy selling tickets was “at lunch”.
Fortunately we only had to wait about 5 minutes. Seriously though…come on Italy!
Here we are crammed into our “coffin” lift. I know, nice selfie…for once!
Here is what these little 2 person coffins look like.
Crazy? Yeah! They literally pick you up and shove you into the thing! I felt like a starlet on a date with Harvey Weinstein!
A view to the west on the way up. You can see the hiking trail if you so choose to skip the lift.
The view from the top. This stuff never gets old!
The view to the north was a completely socked in with clouds, so we had some lunch in the hopes it would clear up. If they don’t have goulash and beer, it’s not a refugio!
The weather cleared by the time we were done, but it was only about 40 degrees at the top, so we didn’t stay long.
One last selfie attempt before heading down. Not too shabby!
The views to the east on the way down are excellent. Fortunately the coffin has a small window facing that direction so you can take an unimpeded photo.
Felt a little leery hanging my phone out the window…no way it survives a fall if I drop it up here.
One last view of a “coffin”. Hate to be stuck on one of these for a long time!
We drove back to our hotel and still had some time to kill, so we tried to find the trailhead to a waterfall we could see from our balcony. This is a viewpoint across the valley on this fruitless effort to find the trailhead.
We finally parked close to our hotel and found access to the trail to the waterfall.
Took some calve busting work, but the upper view of the waterfall is worth it.
Tomorrow we are off to Innsbruck, Austria. We will sorely miss the Dolomites though….this was the highlight of the trip for us…so far at least!
beautiful places! enjoy!!!
Thanks Narda! Kim says hello!