Saturday, Sept. 12
Today we made our way north to the mountains to see Cortina where some events of the 2026 Winter Olympics were held. We were very close to the Austrian border. In fact, after World War I some of the villages near here went to bed as Austrians and woke to discover that their area was now a part of Italy. To this day, German is the language in these villages and they have kept their Austrian traditions. We didn’t have the opportunity to stop in any of these towns but a little Austrian influence was apparent in the areas we were in.
The mountains, called the Dolomites, were breathtaking. They look different from the Rocky Mountains in that they are not as high in elevation but they seem higher because you are starting from a lower elevation (sea level) and then..boom there are mountains! They are also more jagged. Another difference is that there are not many mountain passes to climb because there are several tunnels that go through the mountains. We did have to climb to get to our hotel in an alpine village called Misurina. It wasn’t until we arrived did we realize that we were at the base of Tre Cime di Laverado - the famous 3 peaks of Laverado. The road in front of our hotel led up to a big parking lot and from there you can hike to see the peaks. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do the hike so instead we had lunch near the lake, Lago di Misurina. It turns out that this lake was where the natural lake speed skating events were held during the 1956 Winter Olympics. No ice today but it was definitely cool mountain air.
After lunch we made our way into Cortina. This is a beautiful village that reminded me of Vail without the annoying I70 rushing through. We found the ice arena first which housed the curling events during the 2026 Olympics and the opening ceremony in the 1956 Olympics. The hockey rink is at the base of the ski area so we decided to take the gondola up to have a look from up high. On the way we saw the bobsled and luge tracks on the side of the mountain. Our gondola ended near the top where we had a terrific view of the beginning run of the Olympic women’s Alpine events which was much higher than we were. I knew it when I saw it because of the menacing rock formations on each side of the run. The man at the gondola ticket booth confirmed that it was indeed the run that “Lindsey Vonn broke herself!”
In the center of the village are a lot of shops. One shop owner told me that he had visited Breckenridge a few years ago. I think that if I lived in Cortina, I wouldn’t need to go anywhere else!
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