Cortina d'Ampezzo

June 5, 2025

Our day began at the downstairs breakfast buffet, which opened at 7:00am. They offered everything we could ask for, but we were not the first ones to the buffet. It had been ravaged by 8:15am by some very hangry patrons. How dare them! 😂 We made the best of it and came away full satiated.

Today is another day off to let our legs rest and to scope out Cortina d’Ampezzo, which we won’t be stopping at on tomorrow’s ride. The bike trail we rode along yesterday continues on to Cortina, so we could have ridden there today, but we wanted to explore it on foot without being concerned about the bikes. So, we decided to use the local bus for our wheels. We were able to get bus tickets for €2.20 each at the hotel reception desk and the bus stop was just across the street from the hotel. So, after a leisurely start, we caught the 10:15am bus to Cortina, a short 15 minute ride.

Cortina is a popular international alpine resort and was the site of the 1956 winter Olympics. A Canadian figure skating pair captured the bronze medal in the outdoor skating rink, the last time this event was held outdoors. Nowadays, a professional hockey team plays in the ice rink. Cortina has quite a few other distinctions as well. For example, it often hosts World Cup ski competitions, it’s been featured in James Bond movies (For Your Eyes Only and Pink Panther), it has chic shopping opportunities and après-ski for those who want to be seen and its alpine setting attracts photographers, movie-makers and writers, among others. It is also part of the Dolomiti Superski area, one of the world’s largest ski networks which doubles as a hiking trail in the summer. Its population increases from about 6,000 to 50,000 people in the winter season and in August which tells you it is popular for people who love the outdoors and those who like to be seen loving the outdoors.

We hopped off the bus and went strolling. The first thing we noticed, even when we were on the bus, is that Cortina is one big construction site. Oh, the chaos and the noise as heavy equipment drills, pounds, and scrapes and generally clangs as it works to the looming deadline! Pedestrian walkways were interrupted and of course, roadways were dug up and closed or re-routed.

I had in mind to take a gondola or chairlift to see some of the more alpine areas above the city, but the only one that was open was about 10km away. Again, it’s a bit early season for the gondolas. So, instead, we strolled and window shopped along the main drag, eventually stopping for coffee. There were many cyclists here doing the same thing. Some were day trippers, but quite a few were equipped for bike packing or cycle touring.

The city sits in a bowl, surrounded by the Dolomite mountains.

A bright set of Olympic rings announcing the upcoming 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.

Traditional alpine buildings adorn the downtown of Cotrtina.

A new bobsled course is under construction.

Not so many tourists here today, thankfully. It will be filling up very soon.

Beautiful entranceway to a private residence.

Lots of Piaggio’s here, very suited to the small tangled roadways.

We had asked at the tourist info or if there were any historic Olympic sites to see and we were directed to the Hotel Alaska a couple blocks away. We set off in the general direction and came across a locked door to a venue calling itself the ‘Road to 2026’. We guessed that this is where we might find some Olympic history, but it didn't open until 3:30pm. That was a little disappointing. The other Olympic facility, the ice rink, was also temporarily closed today.

We had seen about all that was on offer in Cortina, so we caught the bus back to San Vito in the early afternoon. David took advantage of the hotel’s nice bike room facilities to lube the chains, clean the cogs and top up the air in the tires while I finished off the journal from yesterday. At 4:30, we headed for the happy hour bar for snacks.

Happy hour bar…aka, free food! Just one lonely mini pizza left in the warming tray.

Dinner was at a pizzeria across the street where I had a favourite dish, eggplant parmesan, and David had a pizza. We returned to our hotel for coffee and dessert.

A fun fact about our hotel lies in its history. It is a locally owned hotel, owned by members of a family has lived in this area since… get this, 1278! In 1910, a father and son duo from the Fiori family opened a pasty shop here. It became a social centre of the town and it still stands today, in the same building as the hotel. In 1956, the family (with 11 children) transformed their home into a boarding house with a bar, a restaurant and soon thereafter a renowned patisserie. Fast forward to 2019, and the entire space was renovated to create today’s hotel and the adjacent pastry shop that supplies pastries to the hotel. The recipe for the strudel we sampled tonight is the same one used by the original pastry chef, Tomasso Fiori, in 1910.

Hotel in the left, Patisserie on the right.Talk about the advantage of proximity!

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Anne AnastasiouLike you, we arrived to construction everywhere in Porto yesterday. It was hard to find our way out of the train station between tourists and construction! We understand the shock of the of the noise after peaceful countryside days.
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1 week ago

Keith ClassenThat strudel should power you up some of those upcoming climbs!
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1 week ago