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 Burlington, MA or Portsmouth, NH, but it’s actually much smaller in regards to the number of buildings and commercial property.
Cortina is a quaint town nestled in a valley sprinkled with chalet-style homes and surrounded by towering cliffs. We were in the center of a 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 watched the 2026 Winter Olympics the media often showed this 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 large wrap-around balcony.
Our hotel room had two twin beds, a wardrobe to hang clothes, a modern bathroom, and a corner door that opened up onto the wrap-around 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 streets, small chalet-style hotels, outdoor restaurant seating, churches, and small shops. There were also well-known retails like Patagonia and United Colors of Beneton. I haven’t seen a Beneton store in New England in more than 20 years so I was so excited to shop there.
Cortina hosted the 2026 Winter Olympics. They were in the process of building a few things when we visited, including the bobsled run.
The weather was around 55 degrees and overcast one day, but we didn’t let it spoil excitement. Â
Here are a few more photos of the views. Every photo was like a postcard. It really was that beautiful.
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Next up is our adventure to the top of the Dolomites.
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