Trekking Munich to Venice. John Hayes
Alleghe
Stage 14 Pfunders to Kreuzwiesen Alm
Stage 15 Kreuzwiesen Alm to the Schlüterhütte (Rifugio Genova)
Stage 16 Schlüterhütte to the Puezhütte
Stage 17 Puezhütte (Rifugio Puez) to Rifugio Boè
Stage 18 Rifugio Boè to Rifugio Viel dal Pan
Stage 19 Rifugio Viel dal Pan to Alleghe
Stage 20 Alleghe to Rifugio Tissi
Stage 21 Rifugio Tissi to Rifugio Bruto Carestiato
Stage 22 Rifugio Bruto Carestiato to Rifugio Pian de Fontana
Stage 23A Rifugio Pian de Fontana to Rifugio 7th Alpini
Stage 23B Rifugio Pian de Fontana to Belluno
Stage 24 Rifugio 7th Alpini to Belluno
Stage 25 Belluno to Rifugio Col Visentin
Stage 26 Rifugio Col Visentin to Tarzo
Stage 27 Tarzo to Ponte della Priulä
Stage 28 Ponte della Priulä to Bocca Callalta
Stage 29 Bocca Callalta to Jesolo
Stage 30 Jesolo to Venice
Appendix A Route planner
Appendix B Accommodation along the route
Appendix C Useful contacts
ROUTE SUMMARY TABLE
The colourful canals of Venice at journey’s end (Stage 30)
INTRODUCTION
A view of Hintertux glacier from the Tux Alps (Stage 10)
Ever since Hannibal crossed the Alps the challenge of traversing Europe’s biggest mountain range has attracted walkers from across the planet. Despite this, the Munich to Venice backpacking route – one of the most popular trans-alpine routes – is little known outside the German-speaking world. In Germany walkers regard it as the hiking experience of a lifetime. Each year hundreds of walkers of all shapes and sizes leave Munich’s Mariënplatz, to arrive one month later in the Piazza San Marco in Venice. The walk is known as Der Traumpfad – the Dream Way – and its attractions are immediately apparent. It links two of Europe’s most iconic destinations with a journey across some of the best scenery in the Alps. From the heart of Bavaria, from beirgartens, wurst, and lederhosen, to the Adriatic and prosecco, fritto misto and tiramisù – it’s a journey across cultures as well as mountains.
Most long-distance treks involve compromise when it comes to scenery: breathtaking scenery doesn’t usually organise itself along straight lines, particularly when the lines are 570km long. Accordingly, some of the days on the Traumpfad are less than perfect, particularly the last four on the approach to Venice, but most compare with the best in the Alps. The scenic fireworks start to go off on Stages 3 and 4 with the climb up into Benediktenwand ‘pre-alps’ with its amazing ridge walk, and again on Stages 5, 6 and 7 on the journey through the Karwendel and the climb up its highest mountain, the Birkkarspitz.
Without time to draw breath Stages 8 to 12 cross the Alpine spine itself with an amazing journey through the Tux and Zillertal Alps. In Italy now, and yet more rockets explode. The route traverses the Dolomites, arguably the most beautiful mountains in the world. Stages 14 to 23 are spent crossing the Puez and the Sella groups, walking alongside the famous north face of the Marmolada, and finish with the Civetta (including its enormous west wall) and the Schiara group.
Approaching the Schlüterhütte – the first hut in the Dolomites (Stage 15)
The Traumpfad is like a modern-day pilgrimage – a long walk to an iconic destination but without the religious overtones. Like Chaucer’s pilgrims, walkers travel on a fairly standard schedule and so bump into each other night after night and exchange gossip and stories of their adventures. The company of other walkers, inspired by a common objective, is almost unavoidable and, for most participants, an attractive feature of the Munich to Venice route.
To top it all, the infrastructure is second to none. The Alps are where high-altitude trekking as a mass-participation sport was invented and walkers in their thousands have enjoyed ‘Europe’s playground’ for well over a hundred years. Whether it’s the paths, the waymarking, the steps and fixed steel ropes, or the alpine huts, there is nothing quite like it anywhere else – enabling ordinary walkers to go to extraordinary places.
History of the region
The walk from Munich to Venice passes through three countries – Germany, Austria and Italy – all of which went through intense changes from the mid-19th century which have a direct bearing on the character of the walk.
Munich, capital of Bavaria, is surprisingly ‘imperial’. Bavaria was a distinct country until 1871 when a secret bribe from Bismark persuaded the high living and indebted Ludwig II (called the ‘fairy tale king’ because he built so many castles) to nominate Kaiser Wilhelm I as Emperor of a united Germany. Bavaria retains a special status in Germany to this day and its inhabitants will describe themselves as Bavarian first and German second.
The style of food and accommodation don’t really change when you cross the border from Bavarian Germany into Austria and the two countries share much in terms of culture. Their recent history is also intertwined. The Austro-Hungarian Empire dominated the loose confederation of states that existed before the unification of Germany and, although the triumph of Bismark and Prussia, reversed the power hierarchy, the fate of the new Germany and the old Empire remained connected until after the First World War.
World War I dramatically reset the national boundaries crossed by the Traumpfad. Much more of the walk is now spent in Italy than it might have been! The total collapse of the vast Austro-Hungarian empire resulted in the border moving north with Italy absorbing German-speaking South Tyrol. This results today in an intensely confusing nomenclature from Stage 12 with mountain huts, mountains, towns, cities and food known by two (Italian and German) and sometimes three (Ladin, another local language) names.
The War settled the boundaries of modern Italy and also completed the process of Italian unification that had taken place