(Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy)

Cortina d’Ampezzo, located in the Dolomite mountains, hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics.  It was a very proud moment for post-war Italy and Cortina remains a very fashionable Italian ski resort…although I would say that the majority of guests do not ski.  Many are here to relax, see, and be seen.  Furs are commonplace.

Normally, I would avoid places like that.  However, I’m here in Cortina because I had a very enjoyable ski week last year in Val Gardena, Italy.  In fact, on the balance, that was probably my favourite week of skiing ever.  The skiing, weather, food, accommodation and scenery were practically perfect.   My skiing friends felt the same way, so we decided that we would return to the same general area; moving only from Val Gardena on the western (German and Ladin speaking) edge of the Dolomite Ski Region to Cortina d’Ampezzo on the eastern (Italian speaking) edge for this year.

The Dolomites are like no other ski area.  Massive, tooth-shaped rocks crown the mountain ridges.  The rocks glow slightly red, especially as the sun goes down in the late afternoon.  There are just as many “Kodak Moments” as in Venice.  Mountain restaurants are everywhere and the food is excellent.

Happily, the first two days of skiing have lived up to expectations.  As it is relatively late in the season and many Cortina guests aren’t skiers anyway, there are practically no lift lines.  There is a lot of snow – Cortina being one of the few resorts in the Alps to have substantial snowfall this winter (which has been very mild in Europe).  However, the most important factor is the weather.  Today, the temperature reached 16’C in the early afternoon.  I was skiing in a t-shirt and a jacket; even such minimal layering was too warm.  The sun has been shining brilliantly for two straight days and we expect more of the same for at least the next two days.

Yesterday, we concentrated on skiing the Faloria and Forcella Staunies areas.  We had Forcella Staunies practically to ourselves.  There was one very interesting period of high winds.  Although it was perfectly sunny, the wind was strong enough to move me uphill (from a full stop) on my skis.

Today, we spent the day in the Tofana and Pomedes areas.  We ate lunch outside, high above Cortina at a place called Col Druscie.  Col Druscie hosted the slalom races in the 1956 Olympics; right before lunch, we were able to ski the actual Olympic slalom piste ourselves without any other skiers on the slope.

With three languages and a history of being shuffled around between various countries and empires, this part of Italy is also extremely interesting from a cultural perspective.  I hope to comment more on that in a future post.  Right now, I need to get some sleep so that I can fully appreciate tomorrow’s skiing in the Lagazuoi/Passo Falzarego area.   We also hope to go to a professional Italian hockey game in the evening.