June 18th - 27th, 2007

The Dolomites, north Italy

(in conjunction with the New York Botanical Garden)

Price: £1245 for a 10-day tour (full-board)

Leader:Bob Gibbons and Peter Marren

The Dolomite mountain range is one of the most extraordinary and dramatic places in Europe. Limestone peaks of quite exceptional beauty tower above a sea of forests and flowery pastures, yet it is readily accessible thanks to a network of roads and passes. In this 10-day, 2-centre tour, we get to see some of the finest parts of the Dolomites, and should see a wonderful range of flowers, butterflies and birds.

purple saxifrage

We leave Gatwick at lunchtime to arrive at Venice by about 4 o’clock, from where we transfer to our first hotel in Selva, in the upper reaches of the beautiful Val Gardena. From here, we can easily reach the spectacular Valle Lunga on foot, and visit the high passes around the Sella group of mountains. As we drive over the passes, we can stop anywhere that takes our fancy - in ancient woods with wintergreens, coral-root, and other flowers, by a boggy flush with marsh orchids, butterworts and copper butterflies, or amongst the endless flowery pastures, alive with orange lilies, orchids, gentians, pasque-flowers, mountain sainfoin, and abundant insects. On outcrops of dolomite by the roadside, there are clumps of the lovely blue Paederota bonarota, beautiful rose-pink hairy alpenrose and the even more beautiful Rhodothamnus chamaecistus, and other choice flowers. Nutcrackers are common in the woods, and alpine choughs may come down to share our picnics! For those who feel like it, we can climb further on foot above the Pordoi pass, in the hope of seeing king-of-the-alps, Snowdon lily, saxifrages, pasque flowers, primulas and much else, on the more acid rocks in this area.

black-veined white butterfly on pyramidal orchid

After 5 nights in Selva, we transfer to our second hotel, superbly situated on a lake at Misurina, nestling below the amazing Drei Zinnen (Tre Cime) range, high above Cortina. The views are spectacular, and there are marvellous walks in flowery habitats all around the hotel, at a rather higher altitude than Selva. This gives us a chance to explore the more eastern parts of the Dolomites; on one day, if the weather is reasonable, we'll go up the high toll road to the peaks of Drei Zinnen, which should be superb for flowers such as cushions of the gorgeous pink Potentilla nitida (a dolomite speciality), dwarf alpenrose, several species of Primula, saxifrages, gentians, Monte Baldo anemone, and tiny flowery cushions of the endemic Androsace hausmannii and many others.

hairy alpenrose

On another day, we can walk up through the lovely woods and flowery pastures of the Val di Fanes where we should see lady's slipper orchid (which is abundant in this area), louseworts, alpine clematis and many other flowers, together with a host of mid-altitude butterflies. There’s an excellent walk up an easy trail towards Monte Piana directly from the hotel, where, in addition to many commoner species, we might see the special Devil’s claw Physoplexis comosa or the attractive balm-leaved archangel Lamium orvala. On the 10th day, we return to Venice for a mid-afternoon flight home.

The flowers of the Dolomites are quite outstanding, not just in their variety, but also in their sheer exuberant abundance, almost always with spectacular views beyond. Despite the steep terrain, most of the habitats are easily accessible via good roads and well-maintained trails.

The tour price includes return flights Gatwick-Venice, accommodation with private facilities throughout on full-board basis, transport throughout, road tolls and services of leaders, including pre-tour information and post-tour lists. tour grade.

Tour code: NHT/07/09

Price: £1245

Single room supplement: £100

Deposit: £150 plus insurance