Many of the mountain ranges are of the usual gray but such is the atmospheric condition that they seem to reflect the rosy rays of the setting sun or the purplish haze that often is found.  The peaks are not great peaks in the sense that we speak of Mont Blanc, the Jungfrau, the Matterhorn or Monte Rosa.  They impress one more as pictures with wonderful lights and strange grouping....

If the reader intends some day to visit the Dolomites he is advised to enter from the north.  Salzburg and the Salzkammergut, so much frequented by the Emperor Francis Joseph and the Austrian nobility, make a good introduction.  Then by way of Innsbruck, one of the gems of the Tyrol, Toblach is reached, where the driving tour may properly begin.  Toblach is a lovely place, if one stops long enough to see it and enjoy it!  It is not very far to Cortina, the center of this beautiful region.  The way there is very lovely.  And driving is in keeping with the spirit of the place.  It almost seems profane to rush through in a motor, as some do, for not only is it impossible to appreciate the scenery, but also it is out of harmony with the peace and quiet which reign.

For a while there is traversed a little valley quite embowered in green, but presently this abruptly leads into a wild gorge, with jagged peaks on every side.  Soon Monte Cristallo appears.  This is the most striking of all the Dolomite peaks.  At a tiny village, called Schluderbach, the road forks, that to the right going directly to Cortina, the other to the left proceeding by way of Lake Misurina.  Lake Misurina is a pretty stretch of water, pale green in color and at an altitude of about 5,800 feet.  On its shores are two very attractive and well-kept hotels, with charming walks, from which one looks on a splendid panorama, picturesque in extreme.

From Misurina, the road again ascends, becoming very narrow and very steep.  The top is called “Passo Tre Croci,” the Pass of the Three Crosses.  The outlook is very lovely, with the three serrated peaks Monte Cristallo, Monte Piano and Monte Tofana, standing as guardian sentinels over the little valley of Ampezzo far below, where lies Cortina sleeping in the sun, while in the distance shine the snow fields of the Marmolata.  Just as steeply as it climbed up one side, the road descends on the other side, to Cortina.  This place is the capital of the valley and altogether lovely; beautiful in its woods and meadows, beautiful in its mountain views, beautiful in the town itself and beautiful in its people.

Cortina has much to boast of—­an ancient church and some old houses; an industrial school in which the villagers are taught the most delicate and artistic (and withal comparatively cheap) filigree mosaic work; and a community of people, handsome in face and figure and possessing a carriage and refinement superior to any seen elsewhere among the mountaineers or peasantry.  In the neighborhood of Cortina are many excursions and also extended rock climbs, but those who go there in the summer will be more apt to linger lazily amid the cool shade of the trees than to brave the hot Italian sun on the peaks!