Italy - Dolomites - Day #1

 Day #1 - Thursday, August 6th

It’s 9:30pm MST on Thursday, August 6th.   I’m currently aboard a Lufthansa jet headed to Munich, Germany.   We’re 5hrs into a 9hr, 45min flight from Denver to Munich.   I just finished watching Oceans Thirteen.  I’m still not that tired - so I thought I’d write for a little bit. 

The flight is going well so far.  I’m seated in the middle section of a 3-4-3 seating configuration.  This jet is a double-decker, and I’m on the bottom level.  The flight is not totally full - I have an open seat to my left, and the aisle to my right. 

After arriving into Munich, I have a connecting flight to Venice, Italy where I’ll meet up with my buddy Greg - who’s flying from Raleigh, NC.   The main goal of the trip - a 10-day hiking tour of the Dolomites, an incredible mountain range in northern Italy - in the area that hosted the most recent Winter Olympics (2026).  

The 10-day trip gets started on Sunday, August 9th.  We’re flying into Venice a couple days early to see some sites and get our bodies adjusted before we hit the trails.  

I’m set to arrive into Venice at 12:45pm local time on Friday, August 7th.  Munich/Venice are 8-hours ahead of Denver time.  The goal is to meet up with Greg, get checked into our AirBnB, walk the city a little, get a nice dinner, and then crash early for some much-needed sleep. 

We’ve booked a tour of the Dolomites with Macs Adventures- the same company we used for our trip of the Tour du Mont Blanc a couple years ago.   The tour agency booked our Refugios (lodging) and created the shell of the trip.  We’ll be hiking by ourselves daily - not guided.   We’ll be using an app from Macs Adventures to keep us on track during the day.  

I’m really excited to see this area.   The Dolomites are on the shortlist of most spectacular scenery in all of Europe.  Postcard worthy pictures around every corner.   Hoping the weather cooperates - and my legs are up to the challenge.  We’ll be hiking roughly 60 miles in 8 days, with a total vertical elevation around 17,000’.  So - the hiking miles will be relatively short on a daily basis - but the trek will be steep with some technical terrain to navigate.  The 1st and last day of the tour are effectively travel days - with no specific hiking planned on those days.  

I’m motivated to blog this adventure, because (while I’m familiar with the Dolomites), I’m not that familiar with the individual sites or name-worthy sections.   I did view a few YouTube videos to get an idea of what we’re in for - but I intentionally did little research on specifics.  

With that said - I’m fired up to get things started.  New places, new people, incredible scenery, great food, and adventures to be had —- sounds pretty good to me.   Stick around - let’s have a good time!