Boondock Puffins

February saw us heading to Cortina, which meant a drive across from France which took about 9 and a half hours. There is a weird smog across the north of Italy that doesn’t dissipate until you enter the mountains (more on this in a coming post). To note, Italy has excellent service station food, far better than most of France, with options of sandwiches, pasta (stereotypically!) and even salads that don’t look horrendous.

We ended up staying in San Vito di Cadore, an awesome little place and somewhere that we’d recommend to stay if you want to be a bit more affordable than Cortina. As we were here on work, this wasn’t a choice we actually got to make but it was still a lovely place to be. (For those who are interested, we would also highly recommend the hot chocolate in this area – we had many a good cup from Fiori Pasticceria).

Hikes in the area in winter:

The little lake in San Vito is not really worth it, but once down there if you cross the river there is a fun 5km loop walk that takes you up the other side to just above a logging road. It has great views, as you’d expect from a path called “Panoramica”.

The other way, you can hike up to the top of a ski area (and back down again safely on a path that only once worryingly crosses a ski piste… and then near the bottom sends you down a blue run). This is a very quiet area and truly beautiful. Were we to do this route again in the morning, we’d recommend doing it in reverse to make the most of the sunshine. We managed to hike both up and down in the shade, whereas if we’d gone in reverse we’d have had sunshine throughout the descent which would have been very welcome!

Ski thoughts:

Cortina as a ski area is beautiful, but very much for the more advanced skiers, or those who like ice. Perhaps this is just a result of the current lack of snow in most ski resorts across Europe, but most of the slopes in Cortina seem to be ice sheets with a very thin layer of snow (real or snow cannon manufactured) which makes for some very hairy moments if you’re not prepared. However, don’t let this put you off if you are happy to have a go – the views at the top are absolutely worth it.

Even if you aren’t a skier, you can still enjoy the views from up in the mountains in Cortina as it is possible on most lifts to get a “pedestrian pass”. We’ve never seen these before on chair lifts, but it was very fun (if cold on the toes) to get one up on a day when we had no ski pass and to have lunch at the top of the mountain at the Rifugio Scoiattoli. If you do make it here, we recommend the “Alpine Dish” which is a plate of polenta, grilled cheese, mushrooms and sausage, or any of the pastas which are freshly made and delicious. We have it on good authority that this is a place that holds epic parties as well, though sadly, as we were here for work that was not something we were able to discover!

Cortina:

Cortina itself is a very fashionable place. Not dissimilar to Chamonix or maybe Courcheval in feel, it has all the designer shops required to attract even the pickiest of ski clientele. For recommendations, get a hot chocolate with cream (or a Bombadino if you fancy something stronger) from the cake shop Lovat, and a pizza from the 5 Torri (named after the rock formations that you can see from the Rifugio Scoiattoli, to come full circle).

Running:

For runs, San Vito was an awesome base, giving the options of some paths up into the mountains on either side of the river, as well as a picturesque bike/pedestrian path running all the way from Calalzo to Cortina (34km) – this runs along a former railway line and is lined with little houses that are former rail buildings.

Final thoughts:

As a place to come in winter, as a skier or not, it is beautiful and certainly worth a visit. However, we cannot help feeling that this is somewhere to which we will have to plan a return in summer to make the most of the multitude of hiking trails up into the Dolomites, the turquoise lakes that are currently frozen over into snow fields, and the Via Ferratas that make a moderately bold hiker feel like a seasoned mountain climber… we will hopefully be back!