Cortina d'Ampezzo: Queen of the Dolomites
Population 5,627. Two Winter Olympics seventy years apart — 1956 and 2026.
Best time winter
Chapter 3 of Alpine Grand Journey · Italy
The stops
- Dining · Price: very high Tivoli - 20 Years of Michelin Stars 20 consecutive years with a Michelin star. Chef Graziano Prest's personal wine collection includes historic French Burgundy and aged Barolo. Ask for something from his private stash — the sommelier will oblige.
- Adventure · Price: low Cinque Torri Sunset Wine Hike Hike to the iconic Five Towers and watch them glow pink during Enrosadira. Wine from the rifugio terrace while 250-million-year-old dolomite spires turn colors the Ladin people named. Bring your own bottle or buy at the hut.
- Adventure · Price: moderate Rifugio Lagazuoi - Wine in WWI Tunnels at 2,752m At 2,752m, this refuge sits atop WWI tunnels where Italian and Austrian soldiers fought. You can explore the tunnels, then emerge to drink Alto Adige wine on a terrace with 360° Dolomite views. War history meets wine at altitude.
- Dining · Price: very high SanBrite - Michelin Star Cheese Cellar Surprise Michelin star + Green Star, 7 tables, regenerative farm-to-table by Chef Riccardo Gaspari. The unannounced cheese course descends into a 12°C limestone cellar carved into the Dolomites. Don't ask about it — let them surprise you.
- Tasting · Price: high Masi Wine Bar Al Druscié Masi - the legendary Amarone producer - has a mountain wine bar at Cortina's Druscié cable car station. Their Costasera Amarone with mountain views. Vertical tastings of Masi's top wines with Dolomite backdrop.
- Tasting · Price: high Enoteca Cortina - The Curtained Door Since 1962 Behind a curtained door on Cortina's corso, this 1962 enoteca holds hundreds of Italian wines. The Dolomites' most serious wine bar. Amarone specialists. With the 2026 Olympics returning to Cortina, this is where the cognoscenti drink.
- Tasting · Price: high Baita Fraina - Father & Son Sommeliers, 600 Labels 600-label enoteca run by father-son sommeliers Adolfo and Simone Menardi. Outdoor barrel tables, extensive Champagne selection, 30 years of collecting. Ask Simone for the best Alto Adige Gewürztraminer under €15/glass.
- Tasting · Price: moderate Chalet Tofana - Enrosadira Sunset Prosecco Stylish terrace at Socrepes with DJs noon-sunset. The real show is Enrosadira — when Dolomite limestone turns pink at sunset. Prosecco Superiore di Valdobbiadene while the peaks glow.
- Adventure · Price: high Great Dolomite Road Wine Pilgrimage 110km driving pilgrimage on Europe's most beautiful road. Stop for Trentodoc sparkling at 2,239m Pordoi Pass, then descend to Tramin — the village that gave Gewürztraminer its name. You're drinking the origin story.
- Adventure · Price: moderate Lagazuoi Sunrise from 2,800m - Rifugio Overnight The cable car takes three minutes to 2,800 meters. You spend the night at Rifugio Lagazuoi — exploring WWI trenches carved into the mountain, eating dinner with Alto Adige reds, maybe hitting the Finnish outdoor sauna under the stars. Then you set your alarm for thirty minutes before sunrise. When first light hits, the Dolomite peaks turn pink, then orange, then gold. Cloud inversions form below you. You're holding an espresso on the most panoramic terrace in the Dolomites, watching 360 degrees of UNESCO World Heritage mountains wake up. This is the story you'll tell for twenty years.
- Adventure · Price: high 2026 Winter Olympics venue with legendary wine culture The "Queen of the Dolomites" returns to the world stage hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics. Cortina's glamorous Corso Italia pedestrian street is lined with wine bars and boutiques, while the surrounding Dolomite peaks provide the most dramatic ski backdrop on Earth.
- Adventure · Price: moderate Sunset prosecco at Rifugio Lagazuoi with WWI history Rifugio Lagazuoi sits at 2,752m with 360° views of the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage peaks. The mountain contains restored WWI tunnels and trenches. Stay for sunset prosecco as the peaks turn pink, then cable car down or ski the legendary "Hidden Valley" run.
- Adventure · Price: moderate Cinque Torri wine terrace with Dolomite spires The iconic Five Towers (Cinque Torri) provide one of the most photographed Dolomite backdrops. The rifugio terrace serves Alto Adige wines with spectacular views. In winter, ski in; in summer, a chairlift makes this accessible to all.
The story
Cortina d'Ampezzo earned the title Queen of the Dolomites not through skiing alone but through a century of Italian glamour.
The wine story here is pure Veneto: Prosecco flows like conversation at the Tivoli (Michelin-starred), while the Masi Wine Bar at Col Druscié cable car station serves Amarone and Valpolicella with Dolomite panoramas you can only reach by gondola. The Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT (established 1997) gives local producers latitude to experiment at altitude. Antica Bottega del Vino opened a new location specifically for the 2026 Olympics crowd.
Here's the paradox that defines Cortina: the town lost 34% of its permanent residents since 1971 (down from 8,499), yet became exponentially more exclusive. Fewer locals, more five-star hotels. The skiing is excellent — 120km of runs across Tofana, Faloria, and Cinque Torri — but Cortina has always been about the passeggiata on Corso Italia after the last lift closes, Aperol spritz in hand, Dolomite spires glowing pink in the alpenglow. The rocks here are 250 million years old — ancient coral reefs pushed 3,000m into the sky by tectonic force. The wine is younger. The glamour is forever.