Welcome to Part 4 of my Northern Italy Tour where we visited my absolute favorite part of the entire tour – Cortina and the Dolomites. We planned our entire trip around this leg of the tour. We chose this particular tour because it was the only bus tour we found that took us through and up to the top of the Dolomite mountains. And it did not disappoint – it was absolutely incredible!
Here’s a a map to remind you of the tour. If you missed my posts on Milan, Verona, Trento, and Bolzano, you can read them here:
When I read about Cortina D’Ampezzo online, it was described as one of the largest towns in the Dolomites By Massachusetts and New England comparison, I was expecting a town similar in size to a Burlington, MA or Portsmouth, NH, but it’s actually much smaller in regards to the number of buildings and commercial property.
Cortina is quaint town nestled in a valley sprinkled with chalet-style homes and surrounded by towering cliffs. We were in the center of bowl surrounded by the most stunning mountains I’ve ever seen.
In this post I’ll show you the downtown and the valley. In the next, we’ll travel up to the top of the Dolomites in a tram.
Our hotel (Hotel de La Poste) was perfectly situated in the center of town. If you watch the 2026 Winter Olympics they showed the hotel over and over again when they highlighted the town.
And somehow, my sister and I got one of the best rooms with the best views – it was the corner room on the 4th floor with the wrap-around balcony.
Our hotel room had a modern bathroom and a corner door that opened up onto the balcony.
When we walked out to the balcony, the views were stunning…
Like all of the towns in Italy we visited on this trip, this mountain town had cobblestone street, small chalet-style hotels, outdoor restaurant seating, churches, and small shops.
Cortina hosted the 2026 Winter Olympics. They were in the process of building a few things when we visited, including the bobsled run.
Here are a few more photos of the views. Every photo was like a postcard. It really was that beautiful.
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And stay tuned… next up is our adventure to the top of the Dolomites.
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