To mark a milestone birthday (no, I’m not confessing which one), the bucket-list destination I favoured most was none other than Val Gardena in the Italian Dolomites. Despite the fact that I’d only just visited this tranquil gem for the first time earlier in spring, the South Tyrolean showstopper had quickly become a firm favourite. Crucially, too, the UNESCO World Heritage range’s most renowned natural wonder saves itself till autumn when, by all accounts, the Burning Dolomites promised to be even more aglow than my inferno of birthday cake candles.
If, like me, you end up inspired to follow in the footsteps of famous artists, writers, adventurers, photographers and philosophers who repeatedly return to this verdant valley, captivated by its bewitching beauty, then as soon as you set eyes on the enigmatic Alpine peaks and pinnacles, you’ll come to understand their irresistible draw. The Dolomites These monumental massifs, often tantalisingly enshrouded in veils of cloud, have a magnetic personality all of their own – powerfully charismatic and awe-inspiring, with an underlying frisson of unfathomable danger, which I doubt even frequent visitor Sigmund Freud ever got to the bottom of. A nature lover all my life, there is nowhere I feel more nurtured than enveloped by a landscape that will never truly be tamed.
And there was no-one better to share this momentous occasion than with my close childhood chum, Elaine, whom I’ve known since she was born as our mums were .
