Our starting point for Debbie’s and my hike through Italy’s Dolomiti mountains was Lago di Braies, a surreal spot of unbelievable beauty. There’s a hotel on the lake, but early that September morning, there were few guests ambling around its perimeter. There were a dozen or so hikers who, like us, were embarking on Alta Via 1.
I just remember this calm quiet on the lake. Nothing disturbed its glassy silence. The mountains in the background served as sentinels. A dilapidated boathouse sat on stilts above the water. Half a dozen wooden boats gently bobbed against one another on one shore. Everything waited.
