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Monday, July 24, 2023 - The Dolomites
A Porsche's Playground


I got up a little earlier today. I wanted to break the so-far unbroken pattern of basically frittering away the whole morning before setting out on the day's drive. So, that meant getting up early, getting breakfast done quickly, getting any media processing done in a timely fashion, and packing up quickly and efficiently.

Who knew trying to run this sort of big road trip and to capture it would be so difficult? (well, I did have an idea that it might, but not to quite this extent!)
Brentoni from the window
Morning at Rif. Fabbro
Mists of Morning
Before breakfast, I decided to head outside and get some nice pictures and video of our quiet and remote alpine accommodations. The meadows next to the rifugio were dripping with dew from the humid air. From my meadow vantage point up here at nearly 6,000 feet (1750m), the morning weather out the window looked promising. Clouds in the valleys obscured the views downward, but above, a misty blue encouraged us with the possibility of sunny skies and dry pavement.

Back inside, I set up the official GTS Chronicles laptop at our breakfast table and worked while we ate. I managed to knock out a short Instagram Post by 9:30 a.m. (viewable at instagram.com/p/CvF6gXeNoZ1). It documented our experiences on the first "real twisties" on the Nockalmstrasse. If you don't use Instagram, you can watch the clip directly in this webpage here:

The GTS Chronicles IG Post 084 - The Nockalmstrasse


Stretching the Range
The effort at efficiency paid off: our eight litres of double flat-six goodness fired up a 9:50 a.m. I wouldn't call it a truly early start, but it was loads better than the noon-ish starts of prior days.

The starting of the engines meant our slightly perilous fuel situation was front of mind again. I knew Luke was still a touch worried, but I had re-checked the gas station locations relative to where we were, also taking into account the road's downhill grade from our location, and I was still fairly confident. Now, to see if that confidence was warranted.

We pulled away from the Rifugio Ten Fabbro, heading west on highway SP 619. Because the rifugio was pretty much at the height of land, we immediately started to angle downward. we soon left the meadows, descending past treeline. The highway began a delightfully tight descent through the forest, and - it now being a weekday morning and a less-travelled route - was blissfully free of traffic. We didn't need to use much throttle with the steep downhill, meaning we could stop worrying about gas for the moment, and enjoy the cars a little. The Cayman felt light and nimble on these narrow hairpins, and it was a joy to heel-and-toe to match revs on the downshifts - downshifts that often went right down to first, given the tightness of the turns. The pavement was fairly good but slightly undulating, with the effect at times of nearly bottoming out the front suspension travel if such undulations occurred mid-hairpin. In these cases the front clip of the car would slightly graze the pavement with a "krrrrffft" sound. Hopefully that was only the underside of the clip and not the leading edge of the front spoiler.

Apart from one stop where a highway construction crew was doing some maintenance, it was a clear shot all the way down the forested valley from the pass. Our projected "to empty" distance in the instrument cluster actually increased a bit, no doubt due to the minimal amount of energy needed to descend nearly non-stop from the pass.

Our valley spilled out into a much larger north-south valley - the Cadore Valley - a major drainage of the eastern Dolomites. Beautiful little valley towns dotted the landscape. We stopped to film a little sequence of the 718s coming out of the forest and through one of these pretty hamlets.

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Mountain Gas
At the main highway in the bottom of the Cadore Valley, we turned south, and a minute later, an ENI gas station came into view. The prices were a bit frightful here, but we were down to fumes and anything but a stop to fill-up was out of the question. The large tanks of the Cayman and Boxster readily swallowed a hundred Euros each of RON 98.
Lunchtime Cafe Stop
Now no longer worried about range, we turned our attention towards the next leg of our journey. Today was the first full day of exploring the Dolomites, and I wanted to hit some of the highlights. I had extensively compiled my particular set of desirable roads, and I wanted to review them before proceeding any further. We drove a few kilometres further and stopped in the center of the delightful little town of Lozzo di Cadore. After parking safely on a side-street, we walked a short distance into the town's central piazza - the Piazza Quattro Novembre, and ordered coffees and pastries from a table just outside the town's tourist office. Here we reflected on recent events and I did my road planning for the rest of the day.

With our cafe stop complete, we walked back to our 718 twins and continued on. We had decided to take a route (via excellent roads, of course) that would land us in the very central part of the Dolomites by the end of the day. There were a couple of high passes in this area that I knew from experience were simply excellent in all respects, from road quality to the intricacies of the curves to the stupendousness of the scenery.

We continued for a ways southwest down the Cadore Valley, passing through many picturesque towns. This was actually a fairly major arterial route, and there was a fair bit of traffic - not tourist traffic - but locals just going about their weekday business. It didn't matter too much, though, as none of this section was particularly twisty.
Spires and Crags
Crags and Spires
At the fairly large town of Pieve di Cadore, we branched off out of the Cadore Valley and started ascending a major tributary valley - that of the Boite River. Even this side valley was big. It curves around and to the north and eventually leads to the town of Cortina D'Ampezzo - the largest town in the Dolomites. but we weren't in this side valley for long, and we were not headed to Cortina D'Ampezzo. I had my eye instead on a side road - the SP 347 - that led up a much smaller, steeper valley, to the Passo Remauro. In google street view, the highway looked delicious: excellent pavement, good width, really tight curves, and it seemed really off the beaten path.

After missing the turnoff, we backtracked and started up the SP 347. At first it was much like before, a mildly curvy valley road connecting many small communities. We stopped at a picturesque corner where the highway threads a gap between a scenic church with a tall bell tower and an old town hall. We stopped for a break to check out the church. At this point I realized ... this all looks a bit familiar. I discussed with Luke, and he thought exactly the same thing. Turned out, we'd been through here during our 2018 M2 Euro Delivery trip.
Scenic Church Lookout
Chiesa di San Lorenzo
The promise of a day full of high-grip dry pavement was looking grimmer now. A light rain had started to fall, and the crags of the surrounding high peaks were now fully wreathed in clouds. The occasional boom of thunder could be heard.
Luke's Thoughts
[on driving in the drizzle...]
Despite the drizzle, there is still lots of fun to be had with these amazing machines. The flat-six sounds so good, even a lower RPM, a really healthy growl that's so different to the S2000. I'm still at 6000 RPM for another hundred kilometres. With the rain, we're not pushing hard at all, but are just cruising to make some mileage. I get to hear the rather strange cylinder deactivation sound which is a bit disconcerting at first. Definitely if it goes on too long it gets a bit 'droney', so dipping in and out of the rev range where it kicks in is something I find myself doing.
Garnering Interest
GTS Chronicles in val di Cadore
From our roadside church stop, we continued up the SP347, up to its highpoint at Passo Remauro. As the road left the valley bottom towns and started to climb up to the pass, it indeed became excellent and very twisty, but by then it had started to rain pretty solidly. Although still fun, we really couldn't push things that much. We made our way up and over the pass and down into the valley of Zoldo.
Luke's Thoughts
[on driving in the rain...]
It's raining a bit harder now so I'm just driving peacefully behind other cars with no urgent desire to pass or anything like that, we can't really push it in the rain anyway. I'm playing around with the traction control, driving with it completely off now, and there's no drama. I'm pretty risk-averse at the best of times, but even I will agree that the panicky posts by people online about the deadly danger you are in when you turn off traction control are way too hyperbolic. If you drive intelligently, with the laws of physics in the back of your mind at all times, there's no drama. None. It doesn't take much of a throttle input to break the rear tires loose in the wet, but nothing untoward happens. It really is all about the driver, and understanding that the smoothness of your inputs is the real key. Well, that, and not being stupid.
Gas Station Picnic Stop
The rain only got heavier as we continued our way up the Zoldo valley, northeast towards the central Dolomites. We had intended to stop for a snack at a scenic roadside picnic stop, but that would not have been a pleasant experience given the current conditions. As we got hungrier and hungrier, we decided to just stop at whatever bit of cover we could find, and ended up stopping under the awning of an automated gas station. Yup, that's right - we had our picnic lunch at a countertop between two gas pumps.

We reached a spot in the upper Zoldo Valley, near the height of land at Passo Staulanza, that I had been eyeing in my good-roads database for months. It looked like a beautiful burst of extremely tight switchbacks that were also exceptionally wide (as in, there was very generous pavement width). And on top of that there were excellent spots to stop with picnic tables. On a dry day this would have been an awesome spot to do a bit of action filming and throwing the cars around a bit in the turns, with lots of space to catch any unexpected bit of over or understeer. Unfortunately, when we arrived it was pouring heavily. Crewmember Jenn was still kind enough to spend a few tens of minutes in the cold rain and we got at least a couple of runs on video. With the cold temperatures and the rain-soaked pavement, it was easy (especially with Porsche's PSM stability control turned off) to unduce some oversteer. Boy ... what a nice set of turns. Must come back to this spot at some point!
Luke's Thoughts
[on some wet hairpin driving...]
Andrew leads us along a nice little bit of road up and out of the town, which has me getting the tail out a little bit under acceleration. Although it feels like I am in full-opposite-lock-drift-mode, I'm sure the rear has only stepped out a centimetre or two. It always feels like WAY more from the driver seat. Andrew pushes harder than me but I'm not confident enough. Which is fine. It's MY expensive sports car.

(to read more of Luke's thoughts from this day, check out his blog post)
Rainy Excellent Hairpins
Rainy but excellent
On the other side of the Staulanza Pass, as we descended into the next valley (the Val Fiorentina), the weather broke - at least a little. The rain stopped, the clouds lifted (although there was still a solid overcast and the highest crags were still wreathed in clouds), and everything was still damp. But it allowed us to look around a little.

We came upon a little alpine church that was simply too pretty to pass by without getting a few drive-by shots. Against the moody skies, it was very striking. Turns out that this tiny edifice - the church of Santa Fosca, is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Chiesa di Santa Fosca
The Fabulous Passo Giau

At the town of Selva di Cadore, further down in the Val Fiorentina, we turned north, on Strada Provinciale 648. This was the way up to one of my favorite roads ever - the highway over Passo Giau. I have been over this route a number of times on various outdoor hiking, climbing, and driving trips, and I knew that it had excellent twists and turns of many types on both its southern and northern slopes.

I had really hoped that over this next section, conditions could be dry. But it was not to be - the rain came down as heavy as ever.
Back to a downpour
Through tunnel up to Passo Giau
Many excellent but rain-soaked hairpins later, we climbed out of the trees and into the bare alpine terrain leading up to the highpoint of Passo Giau. Although unpleasant, I really wanted to capture the essence of this stormy, rainy day. So I gave Jenn the driver's seat of the Cayman and had her drop me off at one of the hairpins just west of the pass. We then did a few runs with me recording the cars, spray streaming from the wheels, coming up the open alpine hairpins to the top of the pass. Up here, the cold rain combined with a strong wind had me soaked and shivering within minutes. But I got some good shots!
Cold filming
Rain-swept Alpine
We stopped at the height of land - at the top of Passo Giau - for a break. There are some mountain hotels here, and we ducked into one of them, the Hotel Passo Giau, for a warmup break in their bar-cafe area. Woof ... was some nasty out here today!
Passo di Giau
Ra Gusela
Warm-up Coffee Break
After reflecting on the day's drive so far over our coffee and cake - including lamenting a bit about the missed opportunity for some hard-charging on dry twisties - we continued on. From Passo Giau northbound, the road descended towards the Cortina area. There are some beautiful perfect serpentine bends in a few spots along this section, with excellent pavement and sightlines. The rain had stopped by the time we got to these, but the pavement had not yet fully dried out. I started to think that if we got accommodations in this area, maybe we could come back and enjoy these curves in better conditions.

Speaking of accommodations, seeing as it was now around 4pm, it was time to start figuring out where we were going to stay for the night. I knew this area fairly well, and I had a good sense of where the suitable rifugios would be. I decided that they were all close enough that we could simply visit them directly and walk up to the front desk, seeing if they had space for us.

We turned off on a narrow paved side road leading up to the first of these rifugios - the Rifugio Duca d'Aosta and the Rifugio Dibona, both nestled at the base of the towering peaks of the Tofane group. We got most of the way up to these rifugios, but then the pavement stopped, and unpaved steep tracks continued up into the forest. I had somehow gotten mixed up and thought a paved road led up to both of these, but apparently I was mistaken. The tracks - especially now in the wet, looked unsuitable for low-slung Porsche sportscars, so we turned around in search of easier-to-reach accommodations.
Punta Anna
Back on the main highway, we headed west, up towards the Passo Falzarego. I knew there were many rifugios in this area, and definitely several that were directly off of the main paved road.

We stopped at pretty much each rifugio we encountered as we drove west. Unfortunately, at each one, they didn't have accommodation for the three of us. Some of them had a spare bed or two, but nothing that would take all three of us. Uh-oh ... had I left my accommodation searching for too late today?

Up and over the Falzarego Pass. We continued west, on the highway leading down to the Alta Badia area of the Dolomites. The weather was genuinely starting to break up now, with patches of blue and the occasional ray of sun breaking through.

The next place we encountered on our accommodation search was the Rifugio Passo Valparola, nicely situated right on the main road with a nice paved parking lot. With my confidence now greatly reduced, I went inside, edging my way past tourists at the souvenir / snack bar to talk to a staff member.
Rifugio Valparola
An elderly lady with a somewhat distinctive dialect received my questions. In my best Italian, I explained that we were looking for accommodation for three people. She replied that she did not - and furthermore, she delivered that news in very tart sort of way. Ok, then. Fine. I went back outside and relayed the bad news to Luke and Jenn. I spent some time searching around online for nearby places, and didn't immediately find anything fitting the sort of mountain accommodations I wanted us to stay at.

Before thinking about falling back to a generic valley hotel (which I really did not want to do), I decided to go back inside and engage the tart elderly staff member one more time. I explained our situation to her, that we had been looking for an hour and had not so far found anything, and asked if she had any suggestions as to where we could go. She was .... surprisingly un-sympathetic. I can't recall exactly what she said, but it seemed like she was a little frustrated herself (maybe she had had a busy day) and was just being difficult as a way of blowing off some steam. But as I explained myself and our situation more fully, her demeanor seemed to shift slightly. It was as if she was reviewing the accommodation roster in her head and had just remembered something. She said that maybe she could do something for us after all. She disappeared into the back and I could hear some rapid-fire Italian being exchanged. Then she came back and said that she could offer a room but we needed to decide right now. And here is the price, take it or leave it.

Whoa ... ok. Great! I didn't even bother consulting with Luke and Jenn. I'd cover it if they had a problem, in any case (the price was higher, yes, but wasn't that much higher than other rifugios, really). What a relief. I went back outside and relayed the good news. Boy - we had only just managed to squeak into accommodations today!
Lago di Valparola
We carted our stuff up to our room. It was a surprisingly upscale room - more akin to a new modern hotel room than a rustic rifugio room. In fact, the whole building of the Rifugio Passo Valparola felt pretty new and rather upscale. Maybe that's why the prices were a bit higher.

We went back outside to take some pictures before dinner. The weather at the moment was beautiful. Late day sun against receding storm clouds made for fantastic lighting. The surrounding scenery under such conditions was especially stupendous. Gem-like alpine ponds and soaring pale walls, walls that supported jagged, craggy crests. In the farther distance were the dark brooding silhouettes of mountains still under rain clouds. We had parked our two 718 GTS 4.0s at the edge of parking lot. The terrain dropped off just beyond the edge of the parking lot, which allowed some shots of the cars with fantastic mountain backdrops. Amazing location for pictures.
Val Badia
Beautiful Boxster Vantage Point
Amazing Photo Spot
Against Cima Cunturines
Only +11
Although it was a summer day and the sun was now out, the air was distinctly cool (+11C on the rifugio's digital thermometer). In combination with a stiff breeze, we were feeling pretty chilled. After satiating ourselves with many photos and videos of the fantastic scenery (and of the cars against the fantastic scenery), we headed back to our room to await the start of the 7pm dinner time. I took the opportunity to start work on the content for an Instagram media post of our time in the Dolomites.
Thunderstorm in the Dolomites
Dinner in the rather elegant dining area was most pleasant, with large panoramic windows giving us a view out over the mountains while we sipped our mineral water and enjoyed our dishes of pasta. We noticed that the clouds and the mist had started to reform. I went outside for a few shots of the moody, gloomy weather, and was chased indoors when lightning and thunder started to make their presence known. By the time we tucked ourselves in for bed, torrents of rain from a full-on thunderstorm was pelting the windows. It was nice to be safe and warm and cozy in our comfy rifugio beds. Crossed fingers for no hail!
Interactive trackmap with photo points - July 24 - click map to view
Interactive trackmap with photo points - July 24 - click to view
July 24 - Drive Data
Start Time: 9:43a.m.
End Time: 6:02p.m.
Duration: 8h18m
Distance: 142.69 km (88.66 mi)
Average Speed: 17.2 km/hr (10.7 mph)
Start Elevation: 5828ft (1776m) *
Max Elevation: 7348ft (2240m) *
Min Elevation: 2433ft (742m) *
End Elevation: 7139ft (2176m) *
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain: 12241ft (3731m) *
Total Elevation Loss: 10948ft (3337m) *
 
 
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
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