There is a specific kind of quiet that exists only at altitude, and the Dolomites have cornered the market on it. Jagged gray peaks rise straight out of green pastureland like something drawn by an architect with no interest in subtlety.
We based ourselves at Chalet Al Fos, a wooden cabin on the hillside with its own hot tub and a garden that looked straight down the valley. It is the kind of place that makes you understand why people take the whole week off instead of just the conference days.
We ate pizza at the edge of an infinity pool with a mountain range for a backdrop, which is not a sentence I expected to write about a work trip that started with a legal conference two time zones away. The margherita held up fine under the pressure of a view like that.
For the hike up toward Seceda, we based ourselves in Ortisei and took the cable car up before the crowds. The ridgeline opens into a set of spires that look almost too dramatic to be real, the kind of landscape that makes you understand why so many people move their whole lives here for a single season.
A rainbow showed up on our last night, arching directly over one of the peaks, which felt like the mountains closing arguments with a flourish. I did not object.
