Brussels → Dolomites → Lazio · a day-by-day diary
First leg out of Brussels — a long, steady haul through Germany. We called it a day in Ulm and checked into the ibis budget. Dinner was burgers at QMUH in town: exactly what a driving day earns you.
Second day on the road: down through Bavaria, over the Brenner, and into the Dolomites at last. We set up at Camping Miravalle in Val di Fassa — our first mountain basecamp — where we cooked up burritos on the little Camping Gaz stove.
Up the funivia in stages to Punta Rocca — out onto the terrace at 3,265 m with the glacier below and a sea of peaks in every direction. At the Serauta mid-station we visited the Museo della Grande Guerra, telling the story of the Italian Alpini and the Austro-Hungarians who fought right here on the ice. Cloud built on the way down and the rain set in.
We waited out the worst over a long lunch at Rifugio Fedaia: venison with polenta, salsiccia with fried cheese, and a strudel to finish. 🥟
The evening cleared into a treat: a tasting of four house beers at Rampeèr Birrificio Osteria in Campitello di Fassa, then back to camp to cook Speck with fried eggs for dinner.
We started at Lago di Carezza — the sight is genuinely stunning, but it was mobbed with tour groups and the car park wanted ~€5.50 for under an hour, so we fled, a little horrified, to the quieter Paolina chairlift car park at Passo Costalunga.
From there a proper hike: up trails 539 → 549 under the Rosengarten walls to Rifugio Roda di Vael for lunch — canederli di ortiche (nettle dumplings) and a gloriously heavy Kaiserschmarren to finish. We came down via trail 548 to Passo Costalunga, then the last stretch on trail 6 beside the road back to the car.
We packed up the tent and all the kit and pointed the car south for Modena. A lunch stop in pretty Lazise on Lake Garda served up lake specialities: spaghetti alla chitarra with lake sardines, and lavarello (lake whitefish) — plus a magnificent strawberry gelato. The view over Lago di Garda was cloudy, a storm clearly building.
It broke over us during a rest stop in Mantova. We rolled into Modena and slept under a roof for the first time in days.
The final day on the road. We left Modena in the morning and broke the drive in Arezzo — a beautiful Tuscan city full of folklore — where lunch was a mix of game birds, pheasant and goose. By dinner we reached our destination, Roccasecca. 🏁