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When winter’s chill was thawed by the blossoming of spring, our family would set off for the long drive from the Oxfordshire downs to our holiday house in Le Marche, central Italy. Cruising through the arable heartlands of Europe, my heart would skip a beat as we neared the totemic slate gradients of the Italian Alps. Snaking over the Brenner Pass, it felt like being spirited to another world: a sky-bright Narnia, as we emerged blinking-eyed into the Dolomites sun on the other side. Stopping in simple, family-run hotels for the night, the breakfasts were a joyful, modest but perfectly formed ode to the Sud Tyrol locale—the creamiest Sterzinger yogurts that we savored with crimson forest-fresh lingonberries, flower-flecked cheese (for breakfast!) draped with silky threads of marjoram honey from their farm. Today, most hip restaurants are ingredient-led, but these these mountain families have been doing it for centuries.
I returned more than 30 years later, and while you can probably add a zero to what we paid for our roadside inns, the breakfast spread at the region's hero hotel, Forestis, still recalls that homage to the terroir that I remembered: glistening slivers of speck, creamy moguls of pistachio nut butter slathered on hay-baked rye bread, and granola laden with dried fruits from a bosky forage.
This adults-only hotel built on the site of a former pulmonary sanatorium—where the Plose mountains overlooked by its rooms are bathed ice blue in the mornings and glow russet red at dusk—shapes its entire cuisine around its neighboring valleys, vineyards, villages and woodlands. Beard lichen, ribwort plantain and lady’s bedstraw find their prosaic way onto loins of venison, fillets of river rainbow trout and parcels of hand-curled gnocchi, wild juniper flavoring lamb and salads consisting entirely of flora you have never heard of. Everything is imbued with local flavors—from the postbox shiny apples in the monastic spa to the pine-scented spring water from the fountain in the spruce-honed lobby. A stroll through eiderdown soft forest reveals an edible carpet, from larch blossoms to ground elder. It is worth hauling yourself up the Giogo Bello observation deck to earn the evening’s banquet—the room price includes a seven-course set dinner every evening, taken in the almost cinematic dining room with circular booths all facing the floor-to-ceiling windows—except the film is the moving shadows of eventide and shape-shifting mountains.
The Dolomites—meaning pale mountains—span a vast area of 6,000 square miles, over 2000 mountains and hug Austria to the north (the South Tyrol was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1919) and Verona in the south and incorporate several regions within its boundaries, from Alto Adige to Trentino and Belluno. With its proximity to Austria, many travelers fly to Innsbruck; otherwise, Verona or even Venice provide the gateways—or occasionally Bolzano, where there are some direct flights. It is a region of old lore and fiercely proud tradition. In this Italo-Germanic fusion, onion dome churches and gaily painted wooden chalets sit alongside frothy cappuccinos and delis selling handmade pasta. A network of alte vie—high paths—connect the mountains, dotted with rifugi—mountain huts, many of which are now being turned into gastronomic destinations. The region even boasts a third language (alongside Italian and German), Ladino, a Romance language with 35,000 speakers, mainly based in the Alta Badia region.
One of the loyal speakers is Markus Valentini, owner of mountain hut Bioch, reachable from the villages of La Villa, Corvara and San Cassiano via cable car and a gentle walk. What started as a simple rifugio with a handful of tables over thirty years ago now has six full-time chefs and an enviable 11,000-bottle wine list with a focus on local grapes such as Schiava, Lagrein and Trollinger, but with a smattering of interesting inclusions (one does not expect to find a Kazakh Pinot lurking halfway down the list). These are supped alongside handmade tortelli with speck cream, buffalo ricotta on a bed of mashed risina beans, or Austro-inspired apple strudel with a honey-sweet Sissi Passito wine.
It's a 30-minute stroll to the Piz Sorega lift, which winds down to the Aman Rosa Alpina. It opens this winter after a two-year refurbishment and, in summer, guests help forage for aglio orsino—a local wild garlic—alongside mountainside BBQs searing hunks of valley veal with wild herbs.
In the other direction, the Arlara and Col Alto lift dispatches weary hikers to La Perla, Italian in name. Still, half close your eyes, and you might expect Julia Andrews to come waltzing out. Here, dirndl and loden-clad waiting staff serve up elevated Michelin-starred dishes such as goose with caramelised onions in its La Stua de Michil restaurant; in the village its Ladin-focused menu at Restaurant Ladinia offers mountain fuel delicacies such as pressed dumplings with cabbage salad alongside more delicate barley soup with spinach turta—an ancient dish where Ladin households still flavour their hand-me-down recipes.
The culinary riches of the region are celebrated in both the simplest and the most fanciful fare – where mountain huts reside alongside Michelin dining establishments. At the Gostner Schwaige in the Seiser Alm, somewhat eccentric hut owner Franz Mulser doles out the crisp white Muller Thurgau wine over a plate of six kinds of cheese he has made over the winter – prandial laughter is accompanied by the trill of cowbells outside from his resident dairy queens – there’s an edelweiss camembert, a muscat infused cream cheese and a fenugreek speckled mountain cheese served on red beet shuttelbrot (a Tyrolean crispbread). The star of the show here, however, is the heublutensuppen soup – an “if I tell you I will have to kill you” secret recipe of 15 herbs and flowers, served in a hollowed-out homemade sourdough bowl. After a thigh-busting stomp through the undulating terrain under the guiding gaze of the Val Gardena peaks, the silky broth is as delicious as it is unplaceable. Is it mushroom? “No,” says Mulser. Is it cheese? Guess again. As we scoop out umami-rich soup-soaked spoons of bread from the inside of the sourdough bowl, we are left baffled but aware that it is one of the most delicious things we have ever eaten.
From here, it is an easy walk to the shiny futuristic modernist Como Alpina in the Alpe de Suisi, with its rotunda crafted from quartzite and angular wood – an architectural spaceship that’s landed into the folds of hills under the looming Sassalongo massif. Decked out in industrial lights and posters of old Tyrolean ski societies, pizzas with bubbling charred crusts and oozing stracciatella comfort families and all-day hikers. The main hotel's afternoon trestles laid with slices of strudel, mortadella, and pecorino sandwiches—complimentary to guests—are taken with treacle thick espressos or Aperols, depending on your poison.
As GM Julian Seeber explains over a lavish spread of pepper-rimmed salami and cumin goat's cheese, accompanied by mounds of piquant homemade horseradish, “We have the German precise way of doing things alongside the Italian passion. That’s what makes the region—and the cooking—so unique.”
Where to stay in The Dolomites
La Perla
One of Alta Badia’s most beloved Dolomite hotels and home to the region’s only Michelin-starred restaurant, La Stua de Michil, La Perla in Corvara in Val Badia, has welcomed guests since 1956. The hotel now houses new rooms, including the two-bedroom Dolomite suite with a double balcony. Take an aperitvo of Franciacorta and local hams in the treehouse, which can house two people for drinks. In summer, the hotel offers everything from rock climbing courses to golf at 5,500 feet. Chef Simone Cantafio organizes immersive cooking sessions in the Stua de Michil restaurant, concluding with a wine and tasting session.
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Forestis
An adults-only refuge focused on wellness, run by husband-and-wife team Stefan and Teresa Hinteregga, the spruce-scented rooms are cool white and minimalist. Tower suites have a day bed outside to soak in the panoramic views. The spa is based around the ancient Celtic reverence for nature and comes with an indoor-outdoor swimming pool, a Wyda room (a Celtish form of yoga practised here), and ‘silence’ rooms. The cuisine is first-rate, with Chef Roland Lamprecht’s fare drawn from the surrounding forest. Don’t miss the spectacular hikes—accessible by cable car, or for the hardier, by foot. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more calming sanctum for a long weekend break.
Como Alpina Dolomites
What was just the Alpina Dolomites, the Singaporean brand Como took it over last year and, along with it, a palette refresh—out with the taupe and neutral palette and in blue-hued lounge areas and bedrooms. The new Trattoria dell’Alpe offers food from Venice and Verona, focusing on fish. However, Sassolungo delivers crisped coated schnitzel alongside Como's signature healthy fare for hearty mountain food. The labyrinthine sauna complex nods to the region’s German roots in etiquette—so make sure to read the rules and leave modesty (and swimsuits) at the door.
The best restaurants in The Dolomites
Hotel Gardena
After a day soaking in the Alpine views on Via Ferrata and well-marked trails above, the Hotel Gardena in Ortesei heads back to their One Michelin-starred Anna Stuben for a blow-out treat. The tasting menu is elevated trad cuisine—pumpkin comes with seasoned buffalo cheese, and gnocchi is crafted from beetroot and cave-aged cheese, with local riffs such as Villnoser Valley lamb alongside a gremolata. Pair with Alto Adige wines such as the blossom-rich St. Paul’s Praeclarus Brut.
Alpinn Food Space
A glass-boxed restaurant located in the LUMUM—the Museum of Mountain Photography—in Kronplatz spearheaded by Dolomites-born chef Norbert Niederkofler and designer Martino Gampner, Alpinn explores the terroir’s seasonal produce, with a focus on small local producers and an aim to cut down waste as much as possible, from reusing potato peelings to vegetable water. Having gained three Michelin stars at St Hubertus in Rosa Alpina (now part of the Aman group), Norbert opened the restaurant in 2023. Tuck into onion cooked in ash with Sasso Nero cheese or marinated golden trout fish with a silky yolk sauce and poppy seeds.
Gostner Schwaige
Under the looming Mount Schlern, the mountain huts service hikers all summer. They come for a three-course feast – don’t miss the rhubarb strudel – or a simple cheese and bread snack perched on the benches outside. In addition to making its own cheeses and delicious hay soup, the restaurant’s twinkly proprietor Franz Musler runs cooking courses in the summer, with a focus on herbs and flowers growing in the surrounding pastures.
Address: Gostner Schwaige, Saltriastrasse 13, 39040 Seiseralm, BZ, Italy
Website: aussergost.co
The best things to do in The Dolomites
Wine and chocolate tasting at Ciasa Salares
The family-owned hotel Ciasa Salares offers beautiful chalet-style rooms in the foothills of the Fane National Park. Still, it also has incredibly stocked wine and cheese rooms, both offering guests and visitors experiences. The chocolate room houses over 120 varieties of chocolate, spanning Vietnam and beyond, with a tasting led by a cocoa master. You won’t even scratch the surface of the 23,000 bottle list in the wine room, but a sampling led by sommelier Jan Clemens is a journey through Alto Adige, biodynamic or Italian regional wines.
Ladin Experience
Spend a few hours immersed with Ladin beekeepers, cheesemakers, herbalists and break makers on the Not Ladins experience, where you can live alongside a Ladin-speaking local. From making bath salts from pine needles on a woodland walk to learning to make typical ‘pucia’ flatbread of the region, join a small group to learn traditional pastimes.
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Preidlhof – Fie Lakes experience
The wonderful Preidlhof wellbeing resort runs programmes that restore the body and mind – from ‘trauma therapy’ with Sicilian Shaman Stefano Battaglia to sleep retreats – as well as some of the best saunas in the Dolomites. However, it is worth taking time out from a stay for a half-day trip to the gastronomy tour of Lake Fie to discover mountain herbs and woodland cooking. After plucking forest herbs, you can learn to grind flour at an ancient mill before a cookery lesson crafting tagliatelle or e Schlutzkrapfen from the flour.
A version of this story originally appeared on Condé Nast Traveller.
