Italy's Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage Site
Italian Alps Named Among World’s Top Natural Wonders
Jul 23, 2009
“It features some of the most beautiful mountain landscapes anywhere, with vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys,” the committee states in its citation that includes nine different areas within the northern Italian mountain range. Speaking also of the region’s diversity, the citation mentions landscapes marked by “steeples, pinnacles and rock walls” and furter remarks that the area “features one of the best examples of the preservation of Mesozoic carbonate platform systems, with fossil records.”
Driving Tour of the Dolomites
Unlike many mountain areas, the Dolomites are relatively easy to tour by car. A driving tour of two days can cover the highlights, with time to stop and enjoy the sights. A few more days allows travelers to explore some of the side valleys, which offer spectacular views and remote Alpine villages that seem to have been frozen in time.
Hikers and climbers can spend weeks among the Dolomites, and in the winter it’s ski trails and towns rival any in the Alps. Some of the lifts that carry skiers to the high snowfields are open in the summer to take tourists for even more spectacular views.
The roads through the Dolomites follow a series of mountain passes, through wild mountain landscapes and green forests, past waterfalls, Alpine lakes, tiny stone-built villages and even castles. Those interested in history will find the sites of some of the fiercest fighting in World War I, with a number of memorials and battle sites.
Strada delle Dolomiti
The route from Bolzano to the Olympic ski resort town of Cortina D'Ampezzo is called the 'Strada delle Dolomiti', and leaves Bolzano along the Ega River through a dramatic gorge of convoluted rock walls.
Mountain views begin almost immediately, as the road enters the Val d'Ega, then crosses three passes: Passo di Costalunga, then the higher Passo Pordoi, beneath the magnificent Gruppo di Sella, one of several clusters of peaks that mark the route. The third is Passo di Falzarengo, near Cortina D'Ampezzo.
Rustic Lodging in Mountain Villages
All along the Strada delle Dolomiti, signs point down side roads to other passes. Adventurous travelers who are not afraid of narrow and winding mountain roads could spend weeks exploring these, staying in rustic inns and stopping to walk some of the trails that form a network throughout the Dolomites. Pieve di Livinallongo is a typical Dolomite town filled with Tyrolean-style buildings, but it is one of the larger ones, with lodgings, restaurants and cafes.
Italy’s UNESCO Sites
The Dolomites bring Italy’s total of UNESCO World Heritage Sites to 44, but only one other – the Aeolian Islands -- is designated as a Natural Site. This puts the Dolomites in the ranks of great natural treasures of world, in the company of the Serengeti, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Yellowstone and the Everglades.
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