Cortina d'Ampezzo

Cortina is the grande dame of the Italian Alps, set among the jagged pink Dolomites and famous for its style, its long lunches and its shopping. It co hosts the 2026 Winter Olympics, which has brought a wave of new lifts and energy.

Passeggiate con i Fiocchi, the free winter walks. The best free thing we have found in any resort in this set, and the best organised. Eleven winter footpaths groomed with a tracked machine within two days of a snowfall where the snow allows, each one published with a walking time, a height gain and, the part that matters, the bus line that reaches the start. Almost nobody else publishes that last column, and it is what makes these work for a guest who has not hired a car.

The ski bus, free with a ski pass. Four lines round the sectors, funded by the Comune di Cortina and free to anybody holding a valid ski pass. S31 runs La Vera to Socrepes to the Freccia nel Cielo, S32 comes in from Acquabona, S33 goes out to Pocol through Socrepes, and S34 links the centre with Faloria and the Freccia nel Cielo every fifteen minutes, which is the busiest of the four. Live tracking, timetables and tickets all sit in the Dolomiti Bus app, with QR codes at the stops.

The Trampolino Italia, floodlit. The 1956 Olympic ski jump has had a philological restoration back to the way it looked that year, and it has been floodlit since 6 February 2026. It is a monument now rather than a sports venue, and on a clear evening it is a genuinely good ten minutes, for nothing, from the outside.

Corso Italia on foot. Cortina was a town long before it was a ski resort and the walk up the main street is the free half of that. Corso Italia is pedestrian, the bell tower is the thing you navigate by, and the Regole buildings along it belong to a collective land ownership system that still runs the forests and pastures around the valley. The three museums sit in one building on the same street at number 69, so the paid version of the same walk is fifty metres away.

Under eights ski free. Dolomiti Superski carries children under eight free, and across a pass covering twelve areas that is a real saving for a family. It is the only thing on the lift side here that we can call free without qualification.

Sledge hire, and the moonlit descent. Snow Service hire sledges and bobs by the day up to a week, and they deliver to partner hotels and collect again, which is the detail that makes it workable when nobody wants to carry a sledge onto a bus. They also sell a moonlit descent with dinner at a chalet, with the snowmobile transport up included in it. Under 20 euros.

Snowshoeing with a guide. Two guiding bodies work here. Guide Dolomiti publish a rate card and Guide Alpine Cortina, at Corso Italia 69/a, do not, so it is worth ringing both. The number that changes the arithmetic is that snowshoe days are priced per group rather than per head: three hundred and seventy euros covers up to five people, so a family of four pays what a couple pays. Over 50 euros.

Ice climbing on the frozen waterfalls. The valley freezes real waterfalls, so the ice here is the mountain's own rather than something built for the purpose. Four hundred euros buys a guide for a day and that guide takes two people at most, so it is one to book as a pair. Over 50 euros.

All 15 picks for Cortina d'Ampezzo, dining included, live in the Ski Snug app.

Venice is about two hours away, with Innsbruck a scenic alternative over the border.