The Winter Olympics Have Arrived—Here’s How to Navigate the Dolomites

Fuel Up at a Low-Key Rifugio

While traversing the area’s designated hiking trails, like the tough, high-altitude Alta Via or the scenic, beginner-friendly Tre Cime di Lavaredo, you’ll find rifugi, convivial taverns that offer the hearty cuisine typical of the Dolomites, such as sausage, spaetzle, and cheesy polenta. There are more than 1,000 rifugi in the region, all conveniently connected by hiking trails, making multiday treks easy and rewarding. In the east, on Mount Plose near Bressanone, Rossalm, a former shepherds hut and barn, serves plates of tagliatelle, air-dried Alpine speck from Alto Adige, and crispy pork knuckles. In the Sella Pass, which links Val Gardena and Val di Fassa, a snowcat whisks you up the piste to the gemütlich Fienile Monte, where you can wash down carpaccio-wrapped grissini and chateaubriand with fortifying glasses of Lambrusco. In the west’s less-visited Valle Isarco, join the snow hikers at rustic Almhütte Am Rinderplatz, a rifugio north of Bolzano, for simpler fare, including cups of homemade glühwein and tripe soup. From San Cassiano village, take the gondola up to Piz Sorega in Alta Badia, where Ütia Bioch pairs chanterelle and spinach knödel with local Pinot Nero, and warm apple strudel with a sweet Moscato. Toast any and all ambulatory odysseys with Forst, the refreshing local beer. If you can, catch a farmers or Christmas market in town: Bolzano’s greengrocers specialize in such endemic varieties as Terlano asparagus, high-altitude Val Venosta apricots, and Pala pears; the festive season comes especially alive in Merano, Bressanone, and Vipiteno.

adler caffe – adler hotel – finsterwirt – vitis – BrixenBrixen Tourismus/Tiberio Sorvillo

And Try Some Elevated Eats

Fine dining in the Dolomites takes Alpine cuisine to new heights. One of the best? Oste Scuro-Finsterwirt in Bressanone, which serves cherry gazpacho with nettle cream and saddle of venison with celery cream and potato praline. Plus, the owners run the nearby and recently renovated Adler Historic Guesthouse, so you can fall right into bed after dinner—or soak in its rooftop pool right before.}

Reinhold Messner was the first person to ascend Mount Everest solo—he’s also from the Dolomites.

Annika Huett

Reinhold’s Recs

In 1980 the first person to ascend Mount Everest solo was the Dolomites mountaineer Reinhold Messner. Now 81 years old, he still scales peaks closer to home. Here are his picks for where to eat, hike, and hang in his Dolomites domain.

Adolf Munkel Trail: “For me, this is the most beautiful hike in the Dolomites. This loop is almost six miles long and isn’t that steep. While hiking, you can see the Geislerspitzen (Gruppo delle Odle), these 250-million-year-old rock formations that poke out from the mountains.”

Gschnagenhardt Hut: “This is my favorite rifugio. It’s on the Adolf Munkel Trail and sits below the Geisler (Odle) peaks in Val di Funes. I always have a plate of fried eggs, bacon, and roasted potatoes. For me, that’s the ultimate mountaineer’s meal. It fills you with energy after a long ascent.”