Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy

The Dolomites has been on Austin’s list for years and we finally made it there in June. It was such a beautiful and relaxing trip. This one was a little different than our typical trip - we stayed in the most beautiful hotel with an incredible restaurant and ate nearly every meal in the restaurant! We did lots of hiking, relaxing and eating delicious food. It was a perfect getaway.

Day 1

There’s a few main areas of the Dolomites to see and we decided to base ourselves in Cortina d’Ampezzo. To get there we flew to Venice and then rented a car and drove to Cortina. The roads were really nice & easy to navigate and it was sunny and beautiful for the drive.

We stayed at a beautiful hotel, Hotel Camina. It was so lovely - we had the most beautiful room and the staff was so friendly. We also had a really balcony with a view. The hotel also has a small sauna with the same gorgeous view of the mountains, and is an easy walk into Cortina city center.

For dinner we had our first meal in the beautiful hotel restaurant. We shared a ham and cheese strudel, some bread dumplings, goulash and an apple strudel. It was amazing and our server was so kind. He actually served us every meal we ate in the restaurant for our whole stay!

Day 2

Lago di Sorapis

For our first day we ate breakfast at the hotel and then set out to hike Lago di Sorapis. It was a pretty short drive from our hotel and parking there was easy (we did go first thing in the morning though and we were still technically in shoulder season in early June).

The trail starts off pretty easy, through some trees and with a beautiful view off to one side. It eventually starts getting steeper and some parts are pretty narrow. This is definitely one you want to bring plenty of water and wear real hiking boots for. There was a couple spots that you had to hold on to a metal rope while walking on the edge of a cliff or climb up some rocks!!

Finally after our very long hike, we were rewarded with this beautiful alpine lake. The hike is quite popular so there were quite some people there even in the shoulder season, but there was plenty of room to spread out and explore.

The color of it and the surroundings were just unreal. We stopped to eat the sandwiches that were fresh made for us at the butcher that morning and admire the view.

Unfortunately it was starting to rain and we were worried about the hike back being slippery, so we didn’t stay as long as I might have otherwise wanted to.

Finally 8.3 miles later (or 13.45km) we made it back to our car and drove back to our hotel. After a shower, a nap and a trip to the sauna we enjoyed a beer on our gorgeous balcony.

For dinner that night we had some charcuterie, a broccoli pasta, a ragu and another piece of apple strudel.

Day 3

On day 3 it looked like we would have the worst weather, so decided to skip a major hike and took the cable car to try to see Cinque torri (a famous rock formation). From the cable car you can hike to a couple of rifugios (where there are usually restaurants & also places for people to stay).

Once we got up, the fog was so bad that we couldn’t see much. We did the short 1km hike to the first rifugio but you really could see almost nothing so we opted not to go further. We stopped at Rifugio Averau for some hot apple cider and some strudel and then hiked back down to the cable car.

We got lucky then & the fog was moving a bit and we managed to get some pictures of Cinque Torri. There was a lot of WWI history in the area so we wandered around a bit to learn about it before heading back down.

Since the weather wasn’t cooperating we decided to walk into the town for lunch instead.

For dinner, we had goulash, a steak and some cake.

Day 4

Lago di Braies

We saved our most exciting trip for the day that we were supposed to have the best weather. If you’ve ever seen a picture of the Dolomites, it was probably a picture of Lago di Braies! We woke up super early again to get there as soon as we could. It’s pretty touristy so there’s a ton of parking but it was pretty easy and we managed to park in the lot closest to the lake because we were there so early! In peak season you aren’t even allowed to drive up to the lake at all.

The lake was so gorgeous! There’s a trail all around the lake that you can walk that is relatively easy. We chose to go the opposite way from the classic boat view and all the people and had a pretty quiet walk! The views were absolutely incredible.

There was a small cafe near the beginning of the trail where we stopped for a break and an aperol spritz with a gorgeous view.

Lago di Misurina + Rifugio Col de Varda

Since our hike was relatively short and it was still early, we decided to also check out nearby Lago di Misurina. This lake was much smaller and next to a few small shops but there’s a cable car next to it that we decided to take. It ended up being amazing!

The views from the top were amazing.

They also had the most beautiful dog!

We decided to also have lunch at the rifugio, we shared a schnitzel with fries and some tiramisu. It was lovely and they had a great view!

The views from the chair lift going back down were just as spectacular, maybe even more so!

After our lovely day we had a drink on our balcony in the sun before enjoying dinner.

Day 5

Before heading back to Venice for our flight, we enjoyed breakfast and a final cup of coffee on our balcony.

Cortina was such an amazing experience, and I would go back to this hotel in a heartbeat. It was so gorgeous and relaxing!