Italy/Slovenia/Austria/Liechtenstein/Switzerland, Fall 2021 - Petersontravels

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!

Our next door neighbors here at Dorfhotel Beludei, Justin and Jess, mentioned they drove to Passo Sella and the views were incredible. I surveyed the various mountain passes (Passo is pass) around us and realized I could make a day trip out of hitting the three major passes in the area, Gardena, Pordoi and Sella.

If you visit the Val Gardena, I highly recommend this route to enable you to see the major mountain regions of the area. We spent the better part of the day doing this, but as the screen shot shows, the entire driving time from and back to our hotel is under 2 hours.

My biggest issue with this post is going to be which photos to use, as I took well over 100. This has been one of the most gorgeous driving/hiking days of my life, and picking the best photos to show is going to be harder than Jen Psaki trying to decide which lies to tell during a press conference ($3.5 trillion equals zero?). Adolf Hitler himself said “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” If you believe $3.5 trillion equals zero, please contact me, I have 120 acres of beachfront property in Nebraska I’m willing to unload for just a few hundred thousand!

The first pass was Val Gardena. This is looking back down the pass.

The mountains at the top of the pass are impressive!

And a view of the valley we are heading towards.

Upon reaching that valley we stopped for a few, as the twisty curves were out of control!

The climb up Passo Pordoi was intense. This was easly the twistiest road I have ever driven on. It was like Lombard Street spread out over 15 miles!

The hairpin curves are actually numbered. I think that’s so you can tell the coroner where to go to pick up the bodies.

We were passed by about 80 suicidal motorcylclists, who all stopped at the top to look back and realize they were still alive. This road is truly epic. I wish I was driving something besides a piece of crap rental Fiat (Fix It Again Tony)! Yes, that’s Kim standing by our piece of crap…err…Fiat.

This is at the top of the Passo Pordoi looking back. This is a must do if you like driving in the twisties…I suggest getting a decent car!

At the top we walked up to this little church, which gave an excellent viewpoint for photos, including the one above.

The pass itself. Lots of high end cars…and tourists in busses. I can’t believe busses drive up and down these roads! Even the local busses come up here!

Everywhere you look it’s stunning mountains.

This is an official Unesco World Heritage Site. No shit! If this isn’t, what is?

At the top of this mountain, we saw a structure, and wondered what it was.

Shortly thereafter we saw a gondola coming down, and we knew what we were doing next.

Looking up at the final destination. Well, hopefully not THAT final!

The view on the way up is incredible, just as expected.

The view at the top seems from another world!

I’m having a really hard time picking photos…the views are off the charts! That’s the road up Pordoi pass below.

More of Pordoi Pass. I wish I had my Tesla instead of the crappy Fiat!

I’m loving the view. Right behind me is a 1200 foot drop! This is definitely a bucket list site!

Afer we took the gondola back down I saw a building that looked like a Memorial, and sure enough it was, so we drove over to check it out.

The Totenberg Memorial was started in 1937 to memorialize those who died during the Alpine War of WWI from 1915 to 1918. The crypt ended up including those who died during WWII, and was completed in 1959. This is a burial place for Germans, Austrians and Hungarians. It was well worth the drive and short hike.