Lagazuoi has tremendous views all around. The bluff to the west looked over a lumpy but mostly flat basin about 50 feet down that could have been a volcanic flow in Yellowstone. Maybe it was a seabed when the limestone Dolomites were being born. Beyond the close ridges, layered shades of paler and paler blue led your eye into the far distance. From the deck we could see a flock of sheep in a pasture far below. Maybe they were 1000 feet below us – just a guess. Sunrise colors were subtle. Top of the world!
It was a short drive to Cinque Torri, and we could still see the Lagazuoi rifugio where we came from, high above. We were here in 2012, when we stayed in Cortina and hiked from the parking lot around the edge of the valley to the rifugio. This time we took the gondola directly to the lodge. We saw a nutcracker (that’s a bird) foraging on the green moist forest floor of the gondola’s path.
Lunch and some rest time… The area around the lodge is a beautiful foreground for the rock towers – a marshy field crossed by a few paths. Small mountain birds gathered in the marsh. The Merlin bird app said they were water pipits and linnets. Off to the left are trenches built into the rocks where Austria and Italy fought for control of the mountains during WWI. Italy got the mountains, but there is a lot of German-speaking influence in the language, culture, and food. Signs are in both languages.
I thought it looked like 6 not 5 towers, but maybe at a different angle we would discover that some were joined together. There were lots of rock climbers – a scary pastime. That night, a couple of climbers stayed halfway up the cliff in a tent on a “balcony” that they attached to their climbing lines.
The group took sunset photos from the area above the trenches, close to the towers.
We were too tired for star photography even though they were brilliant and looked beautiful through binoculars.
We had our own room with a bunk bed on the floor above the restaurant with a deck outside. Pam, took her turn in the upper bunk, but the ceiling was low. In the night the air got close and a claustrophobia dream freaked me out. I went out on the deck to see the stars and get some air. When the motion-activated light in the hall turned off, it was really black-dark, no light at all. I couldn’t see the door. I thought I knew where it was but I couldn’t find it. Eventually I found the edge of the door and got back in.