Innichen Through the Sexten Thal to Lake Misurina.
Innichen, reached from Toblach through a beautiful pine (larch) forest, is a prettily situated townlet on the Puster Thal road, with good accommodation for visitors. It possesses a fine monastery church, dating from the thirteenth century, which is one of the most interesting and unique buildings in Tyrol. It contains some very extraordinary and grotesque figures and faded frescoes, and a small chapel built in imitation of the Holy Sepulchre by one of the villagers, who once made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The road leads a little below past the village into the Sexten Valley, the principal hamlet of which is Sexten, or St. Veit, which is nowadays a charming and much-frequented summer resort, where one may wander amidst almost illimitable pine forests, and enjoy fresh mountain air and quietude surrounded by exquisite scenery. From Sexten one reaches in about an hour Fischlein Boden, by way of Moos, along a beautiful path through the pine woods, from whence one obtains an admirable view of the head of the valley, with the Drei Schuster Spitze, the Oberbacher Spitze, Drei Zinnen, Elferkofel, Zwölferkofel, and Rothwand, and an almost unrivalled vista of snow peaks. From this point, passing the Zsigmondy Hut, 7320 feet, one comes to the Bacherjoch. From the Zsigmondy Hut, the Elferkofel and the Zwölferkofel may be ascended, both of which are, however, very difficult. Over the Bacherjoch a footpath leads to the Drei Zinnen Hut on the Toblinger Riedel, 7895 feet, on past the celebrated Drei Zinnen to the pretty Misurina Lake, tree-bordered and mountain environed, one of the most charming and picturesque spots in the Dolomites.
Toblach through the Ampezzo Thal to Schluderbach and Cortina.
From Toblach there is an excellent excursion through the Ampezzo Valley to Schluderbach and Cortina. The starting-point is situated on the watershed of the high Puster Thal, and is a great place for consumptives and different forms of fresh-air cures. It is visited by people from almost all parts of the world, and in consequence the hotel accommodation is excellent and even luxurious. The village of Toblach itself is at the head of the Ampezzo road, which here leaves the Puster Thal at an altitude of nearly 4000 feet, and leads due south, passing between the Sarlkofel, 7740 feet, on the right, and the Neunerkofel, 8418 feet, on the left. The Puster Thal railway, which comes within about a mile of the village, makes Toblach easily accessible, and it is in the neighbourhood of the station that the huge modern hotels are built, acting, as it were, as gateways to the beautiful Ampezzo Valley. The road through the latter is a magnificent one, well suited for motoring if care be taken in descending some of the sharp curves which lead down into Cortina; and especially beautiful upon such an evening in June as we traversed it, just as the sunset hues were illuminating the higher peaks with that roseate glow which is destined too soon to fade to purples and through them to the slatey blues of twilight.
From Toblach the ascent is very gradual to the pretty and romantically situated Toblach Lake; and thence one passes on to Landro at the head of the valley of the Schwarze Rienz, where rise the lofty and snow-clad Drei Zinnen with the waters of the Dürren See, jade green and beautiful in colour, with Monte Cristallo with its cap of eternal snow and its glacier, the Piz Popena and Monte Cristallino, rising in the background. From the Dürren See to Schluderbach, 4730 feet, is a distance of less than two miles; and here, too, one finds a beautifully situated village surrounded by fine scenery, and provided with excellent accommodation for tourists whether they be but passing along into Italy or inclined to make a lengthy stay.
A ROAD THROUGH THE DOLOMITES
Schluderbach—Cortina.
From Schluderbach the road passes over the boundary between Tyrol and Italy, through a beautiful forest, past a deep ravine, down to Ospitale, 4835 feet, situated at the base of the Crepa di Zuoghi, 6745 feet, and afterwards skirting the Peutelstein or Podestagno, 4945 feet, by a wide though sharply curving road skirting precipitous slopes and crossing the deep gorge of the Felizon by the Ponte Alto, down to Cortina d'Ampezzo, 4025 feet above the sea, reached by carriage from Toblach in about seven hours, and distant from it just over twenty miles.