Veneto itineraries:
Cortina d'Ampezzo winter

Small groups Cooking Tours to Italy

Cortina d'Ampezzo winter

Cortina d'Ampezzo is one of the most charming ski resort in Italy, near the north-eastern border with Austria.

The village, boasting a thousand-year old remarkable historical background, has nearly 7,000 inhabitants. It attracts visitors from all over the world for its lively international atmosphere, its fashionable shops, and excellent restaurants.

Cortina is also known as the "Regina delle Dolomiti" - Queen of the Dolomites - since it is in the heart of the wonderful Dolomites.

Cortina is surrounded by forests and wide ski slopes, below the towering craggy red rock mountains. It offers something for everyone and most keen skiers will be willing to visit it.

A number of worldwide famous movies have been shot in Cortina. Among them:

Ash Wednesday starring Elizabeth Taylor and Henry Fonda
The Pink Panther starring David Niven and Peter Sellers
For Your Eyes Only starring Roger Moore
VonRyan Express starring Frank Sinatra
Cliffhanger starring Sylvester Stallone

Nowhere is more picturesque than chic Cortina, the most up market of Italian resorts. Dramatic pink-tinged peaks rise sheerly from the top of the slopes, giving picture-postcard views from wherever you are.

Cortina's slopes are fine for its regular up market visitors from Rome and Milan, many of whom have second homes here and enjoy the strolling, shopping, people-watching and lunching as much as the odd leisurely excursion on to the slopes. For beginners and leisurely intermediates, the splendid beginner slopes and long, easy, well-groomed runs are ideal. For keen slope-bashers, Cortina's fragmented areas can be frustrating, especially if snow is scarce and the area is fragmented even more; but the access to the Sella Ronda and other Dolomiti Super ski resorts, though time consuming, is some compensation - having a car is best for exploring. For experts, there are few tough runs, and the best of those are liable to poor snow conditions and closure because they face south.

These areas are loosely connected by a system of inexpensive buses and taxis.

Recommended  restaurants (we visited them...):
- Ristorante El Zoco

Cortina accommodations... >>>

© 1997-2010 Enrico Massetti
TangoItalia - Food, Wine, Travel, and... tango in Italy.