The Dolomites

Many of the via ferrata in the Dolomites, the cables and ladders bolted up the rock, began as supply paths, when these mountains were a First World War front line. Now, with a guide, they take people up exposed rock without any technical climbing, which is a kinder use for them. UNESCO listed the range in 2009 for its geology, and most of a holiday here is spent getting up onto it.

There are two seasons. Winter runs from mid-December to late March or early April. Summer runs from mid-June to late September, when the huts open and the via ferrata become possible, and July and August belong to Europe's school holidays. Come after them. From early September the larches go gold and the crowds thin, and the lifts and huts are still open. Avoid April, May and November, when many lifts and huts shut, several hotels with them, and the weather cannot settle on anything.

Where there is a cable car, take it rather than the road. On the Alpe di Siusi the decision has been made for you: Europe's largest high-alpine meadow is closed to private cars for most of the day, so the way up is by cable car or shuttle from Castelrotto or Siusi, and then on foot or by bike below the Sciliar. Summer lunch belongs at a rifugio, a mountain hut reached on foot or by lift, so the effort is optional. In winter the Sellaronda joins Alta Badia and Val Gardena to Arabba and Val di Fassa in one loop of lifts and pistes; in summer the same loop can be walked or cycled, a stretch at a time.

Alta Badia and Val Gardena are Ladin valleys, where a third language sits beside Italian and German on the menu, and both are on the Dolomiti Superski pass, about 1,200km of linked pistes on one ticket. For the most mountain from one door, stay in one of them. Brixen is quieter, an old market town with a cathedral and cloisters, and the Plose plateau above it is less skied and less fashionable than the Ladin valleys, and none the worse for either. The Brenta Dolomites, around Madonna di Campiglio, are a separate range to the west, with a smaller ski area of their own. Cortina d'Ampezzo is the grandest base and the most visited, on a lift network of its own. A link into the rest, the Carousel of the Dolomites, was announced for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The Games came and went in February, and the link is still unfinished.