I am a professional photographer and have hiked solo all over the world whether by day or night (for astrophotography). i recently visited the cime de lavaredo mountains (a portion of the dolomites in italy). when traveling at national parks such as this, you can expect it to be completely dark outside, so a head lamp and/or flashlight is a must. i have never considered not going out alone at night, but am fairly certain i never will again after this sighting. i started at a car park called rifugio auronzo, right by a cabin/restaurant called forcella longeres, and hiked 1 hr to another cabin located on the opposite side of the mountain called dreizinnenhütte rifugio antonio locatelli for both a sunset and milky way photograph. there were other people around throughout my time there and by the time i decided to head back to my car at 12:00pm they were asleep. once en route for about 5 minutes, i noticed a small person sitting at/near the cliff’s edge at the corner of my eye (admiring the view as anyone would assume), but didn’t want to point my head lamp in his/her direction out of courtesy. however, once i passed, i felt the urge to briefly scan in that direction with my light only to not see anyone there. i felt a little uneasy about this, but was not phased in the end and simply continued on south admiring the lightning storm far in the distance. it wasn’t until about 15-20 min near the end of my hike when i passed chapel of the alpin (with a view of the forcella longeres cabin/car park slightly uphill and in sight) that i decided to observe my surroundings again when i saw a large bright irregular orb-like structure, consisting of many-many visible bright lights, sitting stationary and silently on the cliffs edge about 500 ft behind me where i just passed moments before. i couldn’t see anything of the structure itself other than the lights appeared to be multi-colored and covered an area the size of a two-story cabin. after reviewing it only briefly, it most certainly didn’t look like anything i have ever seen or could logically deduce, so i decided to run on from that point to the car (for about 5-15 minutes) while looking back a handful of times. i have a pretty good sense of fear and i felt compelled to flee. i did not want to photograph the structure for a few reasons i came to fairly instantaneously, in fear of making my presence more known than my head lamp and flashlight already did, i would’ve had to unzip my backpack and assembled my camera, and upsetting whatever it may be. the only logical explanations for what i saw were: 1. massive tree with multi-color christmas tree lights hanging downward. 2. 50+ drones hovering in one sizable spot. 3. another cabin not listed on the map had all of these lights abruptly turned on for whatever reason. first off, i don’t like this conclusion, and i wish i never saw this strange thing, but the main issue i have with these 3 explanations is: 1. there were no massive trees in this area on the cliffs edge. 2. drones have a distinct humming sound. 3. there are no cabins at this particular area in between the chapel and the cabin/car park that was in front of me. 4. any feint light can be seen from across a valley in a dark sky national park such as this, so these lights definitely would’ve been seen prior to me coming up upon it. 5. it simply looked large, oddly shaped, and not normal. truly, i am nervous that my presence was made and that i may be abducted.