We left JFK Friday evening and arrived in Milano Saturday morning (via Dusseldorf). We hopped on a bus to Milano Centrale and bought train tickets to Bolzano, only to discover we were all sitting in different cars. One comical wait at the help desk to change our tickets and two train rides later our zombie selves finally made it to Bolzano. We grabbed a room at Hotel Feichter, had our first meal at Nussbaum (both hotel and restaurant recommended!), then crashed hard. We had a tasty breakfast in the morning and were on our way to Passo Costalunga in Val di Fassa to finally start our hike.

The bus ride was about an hour on a narrow, winding road. As we climbed out of the valley we started catching glimpses of the mountains. Our destination was the Rosengarten (also called Catinaccio), a UNESCO heritage site with a colorful German backstory. According to legend, the dwarf king Laurin lived in the mountain whose outside slopes were carpeted with red roses (hence the “rose garden”). There was a battle and the red roses led the attackers to King Laurin and he was captured. When he eventually escaped and returned home, he cursed the roses and turned them to stone, never to be seen again at day or night. But he forget the in-between times, so after sunset King Laurin’s red roses would appear on the rocky mountainsides and glow for a few moments - what we today call alpenglow (or “Enrosadira” in Ladin). (from Walking in the Dolomites guide by Gillian Price).

We started our hike at Passo Costalunga (also known as Karerpass) and hiked to Rifugio Vajolet via Rifugio Roda di Vael and Passo Cigolade. The snow changed our plans and instead of continuing through the Rosengarten on the second day we hiked to Passo Principe, then backtracked to Vajolet to hike to Ciampedie and take the chairlift down to Pera. Despite our change of plans, the Rosengarten was a great way to kick off our trip and we enjoyed our time here. Book times and elevation gain/loss for our hike:

- Passo Costalunga (1745m) to Rifugio Roda di Vael (2280m): 535m/1755 ft gain, 1 hr 30 min
- Roda di Vael to Rifugio Vajolet (2243m) via Passo Cigoalde (2579m): 299m/980 ft gain, 336m/1102ft loss, 2 hr 30 min
- Vajolet to Passo Principe (2600m): 357m/1171 ft gain, 1 hour (plus return to Vaiolet)
- Vajolet to Ciampedie (1997m) via Gardeccia (1950m): 293m/961 ft loss, 47m/154 ft gain, 1 hr 30 min

Total: 7.5 hours, 1574m/5164 feet elevation gain, 986m/3235 feet elevation loss