Local tours

EXCURSIONS IN THE AREA SURROUNDING THE MARMOLADA

• From Col di Rocca to Sottoguda, along fields on the left bank of the Pettorina torrent.
• From Col di Rocca to the old abandoned districts of Albe and Vallier. An old wooden flour mill testifies to the vanished farming community.
• From Malga Ciapèla to Tabià Palazza, an area where heavy avalanches buried dozens of Italian soldiers between 1916-’17. Remains of a military cemetery just above Malga Ciapèla, to the right, on a field in the hamlet called Pian Salère.
• From the Baita Dovich to the Coi de Friz.
• From the Baita Dovich to the Vallon Antermoia and to Muge. Evident traces of Italian instalments deployed from Malga Ciapèla in 1916.’17.
• from Tabià Palazza to Rifugio Padon (trail or chairlift). Wide views of the back of the Marmolada.
• From Passo Fedaia to Rifugio Padon: trail.
• From Rifugio Padon to Bivacco Bontadini, where an Italian artillery force was deployed (1916-’17).
• From Mesolina to the Rifugio Porta Vescovo (proper equipment) along the cracks of the Padon following the “Ferrata delle Trincee” (in a tunnel, bring appropriate gear, flashlight, etc.). At Bec de Mezzodì (m. 2727) there are remains of the Austrian outpost.
• From Rifugio Padon (m. 2369) to Rifugio Porta Vescovo (m. 2478) along a pasture area that borders the “Crepes de Padon”.
• From Malga Ciapèla (m. 1449) to Malga Ombretta (m. 1902) and to Rifugio Falier (m. 2080).
• From Rifugio Falier (m. 2080) to Passo Ombretta (m. 2704) and to Bivacco Dal Bianco (m. 2702).
• From Bivacco Dal Bianco to Cima Ombretta.
• From Passo Ombretta (m. 2702) to Forcella Marmolada (m. 2896) along the steep gravel slide under the sheer southern face.
• From Forcella Marmolada (m. 2890) there are two itineraries:
  A) – climbing up the cabled crest you reach Punta Penia (m. 3343).
  B) – from Forcella Marmolada you go down along a canyon on the glacier and veer right at alt. 2500, to get to Pian dei Fiacconi (the route on the glacier in summer is dangerous for cracks!)

 

INTERESTING VISITS IN THE AREA

• The Church of Santa Maria Maddalena (Rocca Pietore centre), dating to 1442, is now a national monument. It has a spikey spire, in gothic style, and contains valuable works of art.
• Sanctuary of Saint Mary of Grace (from 1965) halfway between Alleghe and Caprile, a destination for pilgrims not only from the province of Belluno (works from the sculptors Augusto Murer and Toni Benetton). Children are “entrusted” to the Madonna for supernatural protection. Next to the Sanctuary is the hamlet’s original church, built in 1726 after a vote by inhabitants of Regola di Calloneghe (the name Regola is no longer used): Many devotions are displayed for Grace Received.
• The chapel for saints Rocco and Fabiano, in Sottoguda, built in 1486, by devoted villagers from Laste and Sottoguda who survived the terrible plague of 1482. On the façade, a metallic marker overlooked by a wooden Christ commemorates the war fallen from 1915’-18.
• In front of the chapel is the elementary school dedicated to Carlo Delcroix, now abandoned (2005; above the door is the date 1884 and on a wall in the back is the very faded dedication.
• The Church of San Gottardo in Laste, from 1863, designed by the famous Giuseppe Segusini.
• The “Serrai di Sottoguda” (on the road for the Marmolada), a natural “rapid” through a type of canyon, celebrated by Ottone Brentari in the guide “Belluno e Feltre” in 1887. This “tortuous corridor about two kilometres long… flanked by steep walls…” was walked by Italian troops (1915’-17), accompanying carts pulled by mules and dogs, which were full of supplies for the troops stationed at Malga Ciapèla and on the Marmolada front.
• The “Sass de la Murada” (at Ronch di Laste), ex castel of the Roccabruna, today looks like a gigantic Dolomite tower and can be visited after climbing a short, vertical ferrata.