Dolomites of Val Pusteria & South Tirol

Cortina d'Ampezzo

After a couple of hours drive from Venice or Treviso we need to stop, breathe the good mountain air and admire one of the pearls of the Dolomites and its surroundings: Cortina D’Ampezzo, which in 1956 hosted the Winter Olympics. Since then Cortina d’Ampezzo has been considered as a prestigious location for winter sports and a privileged location for La Dolce Vita. You can sit at the bar of the Hotel de la Poste having a drink admiring the valley and the peaks around, or just walk through the alleys looking for some shopping. In Cortina you can also visit the Museum delle Regole an ancient Longobard institution knowing the families who run the woods and pastures of the valley; the Church of San Filippo and San Giacomo with its bell tower, symbol of Cortina; the Modern Art Museum "Mario Rimoldi" exhibits one of the largest private collections of figurative arts of the Italian twentieth century school, with over 300 works of art by the major painters of the early 1900s: Campigli, De Chirico, De Pisis, Sironi, Guttuso, Morandi, Music, Savinio, Tomea, and many others. The Ethnographic Museum of the Ampezzo Valley collects the objects of our past, from rural life to domestic life, from the religious beliefs to the artistic expressions of the Ampezzo Valley. The Palaeontologic Museum "Rinaldo Zardini" hosts the most important Italian private collection of fossils. Interesting to know the evolution of life of these incredible beautiful mountains.

San Candido

The market town of San Candido (Innichen) stretch far into the Sesto and Three Peaks nature park. A pleasant and lively pedestrian zone is ideal for strolling and shopping. San Candido boasts many churches and chapels. You should not miss the collegiate church, which is considered as the most beautiful sacred building in the Eastern alpine region. Worth a visit is also the Romanesque parish church of St. Michael, and up on a hill the parish church St. Nicholas in Prato Drava.

Green Braies Lake

Proceeding to Val di Braies a side valley of the Val Pusteria. Our destination is the amazing emerald Green Braies Lake located in the Fanes-Senes-Braies Nature Park. You can walk around the lake or row a boat admiring the fairy-tale scenery. The lake has become popular because it was the set of the Italian television series “Un passo dal cielo” (One step from heaven).