Journey 01 · Italy
Buses Between Spires
The Dolomites without a car
Published 18 Jul 2025 · Travelled 28 Jun – 8 Jul 2025
- 9 moments
- 11 days
- 106 km
- Summer
- Italy
- 23mm · f/8 · 1/125
- 46.6188° N, 12.3025° E
- Tre Cime di Lavaredo
- 05:20
- 4°C, clear, cold
We walked out from Rifugio Auronzo before five, still in yesterday's clothes. The rock went from grey to ember in about four minutes, and everyone on the trail stopped pretending they weren't cold. In Delhi the haze eats colour like this before it reaches the ground.
- 23mm · f/5.6 · 1/250
- 46.6132° N, 12.3061° E
- Cadini di Misurina viewpoint
- 08:05
- 9°C, high cloud
An old war tunnel above the saddle, ten minutes of scrambling, and then this window. Two red tents sat in the basin like someone had dropped paan leaves on grey silk. Imran refused to come up and then refused to leave.
the first world war was fought through these holes
- 23mm · f/4 · 1/500
- 46.6405° N, 11.7181° E
- San Giovanni, Val di Funes
- 11:40
- 18°C, building cloud
Three buses to get to Val di Funes, and the last driver waved off the fare because his machine was broken. The chapel sits in the meadow and the Odle stand behind it like an argument it has already won. I took one frame and put the camera away, which never happens.
- 23mm · f/8 · 1/500
- 46.6015° N, 11.7331° E
- 23mm · f/8 · 1/500
- 46.6015° N, 11.7331° E
- Seceda
- 09:30
- 14°C, clear, breezy
The chairlift out of Ortisei hums like a ceiling fan and smells of pine resin and sunscreen. Twenty minutes later you are on the Seceda ridge and the ground simply gives up on one side. I shot both frames within the hour and they don't believe in the same planet.
Overheard · Rifugio Firenze · 13:10
"You came from India for these mountains?" — "From Delhi, yes." — "But you have the Himalaya!" He said it like I had ordered pizza in Lucknow. I told him the Himalaya doesn't have a bus every twenty minutes, and he bought us both beer.
- 23mm · f/2.8 · 1/250
- 46.5990° N, 11.7410° E
- Rifugio above Ortisei
- 13:20
- 11°C, drizzle starting
Every hut runs like a Delhi canteen at one o'clock: steam, shouting, no menu that matters. We ate barley soup at a shared table with two Czech electricians and a dog that knew the system better than anyone. Nobody's boots were dry.
- 23mm · f/2.8 · 1/160
- 46.6304° N, 11.7492° E
- Adolf Munkel trail
- 15:45
- 10°C, soft rain
Below the Odle the trail turns to pale gravel and walks you straight into the forest like a hand on your back. It rained without deciding to. My shoes, bought in Karol Bagh for a fifth of what everyone else paid, did fine, and I want that on the record.
- Cortina d'Ampezzo
- 19:00
Twenty-three buses and cable cars over eleven days, against one pair of legs. Total transport spend, both of us, all ten days: less than one night in the hotel we walked past in Cortina and laughed at.
- Lago di Braies
- 06:10
- 7°C, still, mist on water
- Last frame
The famous lake, yes, the one from everyone's feed. At six in the morning it belongs to the boats and about nine serious people with tripods. I stood on the jetty holding a paper cup of machine coffee and thought: fine. Some things are famous for the boring reason that they are the best.
- 23mm · f/4 · 1/250
- 46.6941° N, 12.0853° E
The route
9 stops
Journey completed
Eleven days, nine stories
- Distance walked
- 118 km
- Frames exposed
- 1240
- Buses caught
- 23
- Buses missed
- 2
- Cheapest espresso
- €1.20
- Favourite moment
- Lying in the scree below the Cadini needles while Imran read the timetable out loud
- Best food
- Casunziei at a hut above Ortisei, beetroot ravioli the colour of a Delhi sunset
