The Lagazuoi Tunnel, Dolomites

Today we hiked up from Passo Falzarego to the Refugio Lagazuoi through the Lagazuoi tunnel. It was definitely worth the effort but we did take the cable car back down again to save our knees.

The tunnel was completed in June 1917 and is part of 11 tunnels built by the Italians during WW1. The tunnel itself is 1100 metres long and climbs 230 metres, although we climbed about 650 metres in total. The steps/ ladders were quite steep at times and we were glad of our climbing helmets and head torches. The section before you get to the tunnel was quite exposed but once we got inside it felt fine. We took a couple of detours to see where the soldiers slept, where the guns were kept and along the route there were occasional openings on the mountain side (although we didn’t look too closely).

It was cloudy for part of the time on the summit but we did manage a coffee in the sun. A restful afternoon in the campervan before we moved on to the Sella Pass.
See extra for a tunnel collage.