For this day’s hike, we walked up to the central bus station and hopped the 446 city bus for a 20-minute ride to Bad Moos/Bagni di Moso, and then jumped onto a gondola for the ascent to the high Rotwand pastures at an elevation of 6,280 feet, just below the Croda Rossa limestone peaks.

From here, we had a gentle descent (again, that’s a relative term!) along the pine-scented forest trails to the ancient Kreuzbergpass, South Tyrol’s most easterly mountain pass.

We ended up at the refuge of Nemes Alm, where we enjoyed a lunch outside on the patio, overlooking the mountains we had just hiked in. I decided to take an early bus back into town, while the others descended the mountain along a wide woodland track to the Tyrolean village of Moos, where they met bus for the trip back to Dobbiaco.