The Dolomites experience
with a mountain guide

The Dolomites: a blend of History, Nature, and Culture

A UNESCO world heritage site since 2009, the Dolomites are found in Italy’s North-eastern Alps, split between the provinces of Trento, Belluno, Bolzano, Pordenone and Udine.

If we imagine flying above them and looking through the plane window, we would see some isolated mountain groups very close to each other. The colours range from the white mountain tops, the grey rocks and great green basins. Let’s imagine for a moment that the green represents the sea and the grey some ancient ocean atolls. This  more or less explains the geological history of this unique, incredible place.

The history of the Dolomites and its secluded valleys begins a lot earlier than what we might think: the burial sites discovered under Mondeval’s cliffs, at an altitude over 2400 metres high, go back to neolithic times. The Dolomites have always been a border zone. Several Italian kingdoms from the Po Valley and the Austro-Hungarian empire ruled these lands at different times. The end of the First World War, which was fought among these very peaks, brought the entire area under Italy’s control. Luckily, despite this, local customs and the German language have been preserved very proudly and are very much alive to this day. Essentially, many of the valleys are bilingual between Italian and German. This linguistic landscape is enriched by Ladin, a third language both written and spoken in 5 of these valleys: Val Gardena, Val Badia, Ampezzo, Livinallongo and Val di Fassa. Ladin is a very old language, dating back to the 5th century. It managed to live through to this day thanks to the location of these valleys, pretty isolated until not that many years ago.

This original mix-up between mediterranean and germanic culture can be seen everywhere: from the architecture and the wooden houses to the arts, traditional food, language and local customs. Talking about customs, the hotel’s receptionist wearing traditional ladin clothes isn’t just a tourist attraction. Wearing the typical “loden” is a custom very much alive here. It is fairly customary to put it on for special occasions, such as weddings and celebrations, and even just for a Sunday lunch.