Once upon a time there was a people of dwarfs living in South Tyrol, on the Catinaccio massif. Their king was called Laurin. One day he fell desperately in love with a Princess called Similda. The Princess didn’t want to have anything to do with the King of Dwarfs, who then got her kidnapped and locked up in a rose garden!
After seven years Teodorico, Similda’s brother, managed to free his sister.
This time around it was Laurin to be taken prisoner! In the end he managed to escape, but he was very angry: “It’s those roses’ fault”, he mumbled, “if Teodorico hadn’t seen them, he would have never found the hideout.”
For this reason, Laurin casted a curse to his beloved roses, and turned them into stone. Neither by day nor by night any human eye wouldhave admired them anymore.
But the dwarf in his spell had forgotten about dawn and sunset! This is why, looking at the Dolomites in those times of the day, you can see again, for a fleeting moment, the red roses of that enchanted garden.