A Dolomites Primer for a First Timer
Let's ski the Italian Alps this year.
Before we dive into the holidays, we’re thinking about our (and your) winter ski trip. So let’s head to the Dolomites for a few very satisfying reasons:
cheese, chocolate, and canederli
farmy encounters with too-cute alpacas
mountain retreats that give restorative highs
It’s all uphill from here.
Pavia here. Yes, the Dolomites are as amazing as you’ve heard. The skiing is extensive (745 miles of slopes), the food is outstanding (not the typical Italian cuisine), the language and the styles are as German as they are Italian (before WWI, much of this area was Austria), the landscape is universally gorgeous (deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its beauty), and the towns are ripped-outta-Heidi cute.
I’ve been coming to these mountains in northern Italy since I was a kid, always in the summer during visits to my grandmother’s house outside Venice. My experience of the Dolomites was a sunny one — long walks and picnics by lakes in the mountains, hours spent splashing in indoor/outdoor swimming pools, trying to pet lots of random cows. Jane Larkworthy reported on her family’s summer vacation for Fathom in Climbing and Drinking Our Way Through the Dolomites, and her trip looks a lot like my childhood memories.
It's been an altogether different experience getting to know the Dolomites in recent years on ski trips with my husband, when green is replaced by a blanket of white, and afternoon snacks switch from speck panini by a mountain stream to steaming bowls of canederli at a mid-slope rifugio.
Lay of the Land and Getting Around
Let’s cover a few basics. The Dolomites are often referred to as a singular place, but the region is huge, with 2,200 named mountains (several more than 10,000 feet high) spread over some 6,100 square miles, subdivided into a dozen or more smaller areas (depending whose map you consult), across three different regions of Italy (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Veneto, and Friuli Venezia Giulia).
I’ve flown in and out of Venice, Innsbruck, and Verona, depending where I was staying, and I’ve never rented a car, relying instead on car services and trains. Driving between towns along the switchbacks and up and down the mountain passes in the winter can be challenging, even without snow — and I say this as someone who navigates Amalfi Coast summer traffic with one hand on the steering wheel. Also, don’t be fooled when distances between towns appear small on a map: I’ve spent an hour going ten kilometers.
When you’re planning a trip, don’t try to visit too many destinations. Unless you want to spend a lot of time in a car, keep your geographic area tight, and consider whether you want to be near a bigger town (like glam Cortina) or prefer a village vibe (like tiny Corvara). Think about it like this: If you book a ski trip to Aspen, you probably won’t also ski Vail in the same week.