Distance Hiking the Italian Dolomites: Immersed in Nature… and Language
by guest writer Lea Cicchiello
After our first visit to the Dolomites, my husband and I knew we would have to return.
I searched for trips and found what looked like a great week of backpacking on the Alta Via 1, a high route in the eastern Dolomites. The trip would be with a guide and a group.
The twist: it was an Italian group speaking the Italian language.
I was born in France from Italian parents and grew up speaking both French and Italian, and visiting Italy every summer. As an adult, I moved to the United States and traveled to Italy less often. I maintained communication with my extended family living there, and even taught some lower-level Italian classes at a local Tech College.
My husband is fluent in Spanish and had picked up quite a bit of Italian from visiting Italy, some before meeting me, and some while getting to know my family, but all conversational Italian. Neither of us knew much technical vocabulary for hiking, the mountains, etc.
Still, the Dolomites were calling, and we had to go.
The other twist is that we live in flat Wisconsin, aspiring to trek the mountainous Alps. The toughest day on the program announced 13km (8 miles) of hiking with a little over 1,000 meters of elevation gain, nearly 3,500’. One advantage of this guided trip is that we would hike from hut to hut (rifugio): not carrying a sleep system would make the pack lighter.
The trip provided all it had promised and much more. It was physically challenging (more for me than for my husband). Every day was more beautiful than the day before as we walked a variety of landscapes: green pastures, forests, moon-like rocky sections, lakes, rivers, snowy segments, and more.
We also had plenty of time to relax after our day of hiking, enjoy a spritz aperol and explore the area around each rifugio. Most of our group explored tunnels built inside the mountains during WWII. During a storm, we even witnessed a perilous helicopter rescue from the comfort of Rifugio Giussani.
Hearing that a hiker was trapped in the storm, we watched a helicopter come and go in between blasts of lightning. She was finally found clinging to a rock face, and the helicopter lowered someone to snatch her up to safety before flying down to the valley for medical assistance.
One of the many wild cards of the trip was the people, and the trip provided generously in that aspect as well.
We love doing guided trips because on top of having less to plan logistically, we learn so much more about the area. We love to meet local people and get to know them. Signing up for a weeklong trip (as opposed to a weekend trip) ensures a certain kind of people– the kind of people who can be physically uncomfortable and use a squat toilet, who can skip a shower… or three.
Longer trips ensure the type of people who will keep walking through tough weather, who can eat lunch seated on the ground or a rock, who will sleep ten to a room in bunk beds… adventurous, tough people. But you never really know who signs up, all you can do is hope for the best.
On our trip, it was a diverse group of twelve, plus our guide and his dog, every one of them good-humored even during the tricky sections going up the steep mountain on all fours. All told, we were two couples and a mix of men and women, walking at varying speeds but everyone in fairly good shape, and it became very clear that on top of being immersed in nature, we were immersed in… Italian people.
We arrived at Rifugio Biella and sat down for a well-deserved drink after hiking up from Lago di Braies. Everyone ordered beer.
“Un te per me, per favore” I said (“A tea for me, please”)
“Ma, sei indisposta?” asked our guide (“Are you indisposed?”), and people laughed.
No, I was just cold. This was the first round of teasing we would experience during the trip.
After a couple of tricky sections of trail, my husband and I were teased for doing the hike in trail running shoes instead of proper hiking boots, Italian hiking boots.
People walked at different paces, and smaller groups naturally formed, we each chatted with those around us. Several times I was teased about my husband talking to the other women of the group: I had no problem with that. I talked to the men in the group, but no one seemed worried about that…
To be fair, we also teased them. In Rifugio Croda da Lago we shared a flight of grappa, a grape-based Italian brandy, and as we narrowed down the options from the 20 or so possible flavors, the Italians were getting excited about the “sedano” flavor. We didn’t know this word, so I asked: “Cos’è sedano?” (“What is sedano?”). They thought about it and answered: celery. They were excited about…celery?!
Each day, we survived the mileage, the elevation gain and loss, and the teasing. And we came back stronger for it.
I improved my Italian by having casual conversations with adults, discussing all sorts of topics such as family stories, our jobs, our previous travels and dreams of future ones. As people in the group came from multiple parts of the country, we talked about the various faces of Italy. We also learned more from the guide about the Dolomites region, which has belonged to both Italy and Austria. And everyone talked of their love for the mountains, especially in the evenings, as we watched the sun set on them.
My husband improved his Italian a lot and was able to also speak with everyone about lots of different things. He’s very funny in English, his native language, and proved on this trip that he can be funny in Italian, his fourth language!
But after the trip he confessed: he realized I really spoke Italian. He knew I could speak casually with my family, but hearing me being teased and talking back… that’s not something they teach you in school.
He gained a new appreciation for my language skills, and I for his.
Overall, we hiked a little over 50 miles of the Alta Via 1 in a week, between the gorgeous Lago di Braies and San Vito di Cadore, discovered new altitudes and new attitudes… and discovered new facets of each other and ourselves.
After all, isn’t that what long distance hiking is all about?
Born in France of Italian parents, Lea Cicchiello now lives in Wisconsin with her husband, where she shares her love of languages and cultures, professionally and personally. Her favorite activities include reading, hiking the Ice Age Trail, trail running, and kayaking, in her neighborhood and around the world. Follow her adventures on her Youtube channel or on Instagram @trailsandtravelswithlea.
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