The Dolomites

The Dolomites are the Alps' most distinctive sub-world — a group of pale limestone ranges in northeastern Italy whose sheer towers, pinnacles and sunlit walls look like no other mountains in Europe. Straddling Trentino-Alto Adige (South Tyrol) and the northern Veneto, they are a UNESCO World Heritage landscape and, culturally, a fascinating seam where Italian, Austrian-German and the ancient Ladin language all meet in the same valleys. As a sub-region of the Alps, the Dolomites trade the glacier-and-cog-railway grandeur of the west for something more sculptural: rock as architecture.

The experience is defined by the towns beneath the towers — Cortina d'Ampezzo, the glamorous Veneto resort under the Tofane; Ortisei and the Ladin villages of Val Gardena; Canazei at the foot of the Sella massif. It is a paradise for two very specific travellers: the via ferrata climber following the iron routes first strung across these walls in the First World War, and the hut-to-hut walker linking mountain rifugi across the high passes. And because the valleys are Italian, the food and the coffee are a genuine part of the appeal.

The Dolomites are organised around a handful of great massifs — the Sella, the Marmolada (their highest point and only true glacier), the Tofane, the Pale di San Martino — separated by high passes that connect the valleys like spokes. The rock is what makes them: a pale, weathered limestone and dolomite that glows pink and orange at dawn and dusk, the celebrated enrosadira. The ranges sit south of the main Alpine crest, so they are drier and sunnier than the northern Alps, with the vineyards and orchards of the Adige valley on their western doorstep.

Afternoon summer thunderstorms are common on the high routes — start early and watch the sky.

The Dolomites have no airport of their own; travellers arrive through the surrounding cities. Venice (VCE) and Verona (VRN) to the south, and Innsbruck (INN) over the Brenner to the north, are the usual gateways, each about two to three hours from the mountain towns; Bolzano and Trento are the railheads on the western side. There is no single train into the massif — the last leg is by mountain road or bus.

Inside the region, connectivity is by the network of high passes (the Sella Ronda circuit links four of them) and a good but seasonal bus service; a car gives the most freedom, though the passes are slow and some close in winter. Onward, the Dolomites connect naturally north into Austrian Tyrol over the Brenner and west into the rest of the Alps down the Adige valley. Practical notes: this is Italy, so the euro and Italian apply — though in South Tyrol you'll hear as much German, and the Ladin valleys their own tongue — and the best mountain access is tied to the summer and winter lift seasons, with the shoulder months thin on transport.