Dolomites Hiking: Adolf Munkel Trail

I need to take a moment to say how amazing the hotel we stayed at in Velturno, Italy was. It's called the Taubers Unterwirt hotel, and it's an "active experience" hotel where they cater to hikers and cyclists and just outdoor enthusiasts in general. They have guided bike tours and hikes most days, plus other organized activities like pilates, castle tours, free cake set out every afternoon, a spa and sauna, etc. They also let you borrow any hiking materials you needed - hiking sticks, backpacks, etc. It was a great place but what made it really special was the friendliness, helpfulness, and knowledge of the staff. I re-injured my IT band during our first hike and so we needed a relatively easy hike for our third hike so I could rest my IT band a bit (we had originally planned a much more difficult hike for this day). So we went to the front desk and they gave us several options - including printouts describing the trail, how to get there, elevation profile, etc. They took all the hard work out of planning out this hike which was much needed because there are so many hikes in the area that we didn't have a chance of deciding which one to do.

There wasn't anything particularly special about the Adolf Munkel trail. There were a lot of people on it, it was mostly through the forest, and it was not particularly long or steep. Just a nice little hike. You do get a great view of a group of Dolomites every once in awhile through the trees, and there are two huts positioned in a meadow where you get an amazing view. Naturally, that's where we ate lunch and took a little break.

The start of the hike:



The lunch spot and the views from there:



We ordered Kaiserschmarr for lunch - it's basically pancakes, or maybe friend dough or somewhere in between, with some powdered sugar and some jam on the side. It's very popular in this region. When we saw somebody order it I had to have it for myself.



The lunchtime entertainment:



Our rest spot. There were a lot of chairs out here to relax on and enjoy the view - cows in a pasture just below us with Dolomites rising up right behind them. A really impressive view. I would do this hike again just to sit here again.



Hiking back down to where we started at Zanser Alm. We took a "gentle" route down to help my IT band out but it ended up in a good amount of uphill at the end of the hike, which wasn't very fun. No worries, you can take the non-gentle route (which just means it's rockier, narrower, and/or steeper than the nice road/trail we were walking on) and avoid doing any uphill on the way back.