Weds 12 September - Hotel Plaza, Seiseralm

We were told a few days ago that the weather would be fine until Wednesday, then it wouldn't be so good. It looks like the weather forecasters in Northern Italy are much better than those in the UK, because they seem to have got it right. It's very grey outside.

We had hoped to climb the Sciliar today, but it's a high route and shouldn't be attempted in bad weather, so we have breakfast, then ask for the password to the hotel's free Wifi to look up the weather forecast. What we see isn't good. It's meant to be fine up until lunchtime, then heavy rain all afternoon through to 5am tomorrow. The temperature is also set to plummet to -2 degrees overnight. We can't really believe this, it was 26 degrees yesterday and last night we were sitting outside on the balcony in shorts and t-shirts.

It does feel cooler though. We decide that the best thing to do is to walk to Mont Seuc and take the cable car down to Ortisei (also known as St Ulrich). All plans for climbing the Sciliar are shelved until tomorrow.

For the first time I'm glad that I packed a couple of long sleeved t-shirts, as Alistair and I reckon it feels like it's around 11 degrees outside. This is the lowest temperature we both feel comfortable walking in without needing a jumper or coat.

It's quite a straightforward route and we march along at a brisk pace. Alistair gets a few weird looks from other walkers as they are all wrapped up, whilst he still has shorts on and a short-sleeved t-shirt, but then he is Scottish!

We follow route 6b and pass by the Sanon Hutte, but don't stop, as we only had breakfast a little while ago. There is a bit of boggy ground and after that, a section where two cows have taken up all the path. We stop to give them a scratch and notice that they have a yellow tag in each ear, one gives a number and the other a name. These two are Gloria and Heidi.

On the way to the Hotel Sonne Sole, there is a wall, which is a great place to put the camera on and set it to automatic so as to get shots of both of us with a splendid mountain backdrop. Unfortunately, there is a huge gaggle of German tourists there doing just that. They each go through the procedure of taking a group photo, then start showing each other all the other photos they have taken this holiday - it's going to take an age. Alistair is quite cross as he thinks it'll be raining by the time we get back and we'll miss the opportunity. A little further on the ground is quite marshy again, so he has the genius idea of screwing the camera onto the top of his walking pole and using that instead. The photo is duly taken. As usual, I'm not particularly worried as I hate having my photo taken!

Eventually, after a bit of a climb, we reach the cable car station, but bypass this for the moment to get to the top of Mont Seuc. There are some good views down, with just a few white clouds in the sky below. We wonder briefly whether we could have walked up to the Sciliar. I stop Alistair before we get to a telecoms pylon and mutter to him about microwaves. We then turn round and walk back to the cable car. After parting with €31 we receive two return tickets.

The journey down is as steep as the price - Mont Seuc is at 2005 meters above sea level and Ortisei is at 1265 meters. The first bit of the journey is a steep plummet over the side of the cliff. As we dangle hundreds of meters above the ground I try not to think about James Bond films and also how we would be rescued if the cable car was to stop.

Once at the bottom, I recognise Ortisei as somewhere we visited some ten years ago as part of a package trip. Alistair isn't so sure, but I'm convinced. We see a shop with walking poles on offer. I've had my very cheap walking pole for years now and think about refreshing it. The average price seems to be €35 for two Leki poles, then I stumble upon the most beautiful set of walking poles I have ever seen. They are feather light, but super strong and fold really small, making them ideal for taking on aircraft. They are also €125! Alistair agrees they are nice, but points out they don't have the removable handle and camera fixture that his has! I decide to look in other stores and see whether they are cheaper anywhere else. One of the few things I miss when I'm abroad is the ability to just surf the net on my phone and check prices.

We walk through the town and look at lots of stuff, when it starts to rain. So we head for a cafe and sit outside under cover. We're lucky to get our seat, because of course everyone has the same idea. After some refreshments and feeding of the sparrows (which I'm sure is forbidden) the downpour stops and we start to walk back through town. This is when we notice that all the shops are shut and with it, the opportunity to buy expensive walking poles! Then the rain starts again and this time it doesn't look like it's going to stop, so we head off back to the cable car.

We spend the whole of our journey up, putting on jumpers, waterproof trousers and coats. We also put the protective rain covers on our rucksacks. There is nothing to see outside of the cable car, it's all just mist. We can't even see when we're about to pull into the cable car station. Back up at the top it is teeming down with rain and noticeably colder, but at least the visibility isn't too bad.

We take the fastest route back to the hotel, surprisingly noticing only a few other people on the way! We are outwardly soaked by the time we reach the hotel in just over an hour, but our trousers and jumpers etc are dry. The great thing about the hotel being principally a skiing hotel is that they have a drying room and we leave everything there to dry. We agree there is no way we would have wanted to have been up a big pointy mountain in this weather.