The 2026 Winter Olympics and the Dolomites: A Guide to History, Culture, and Cuisine

The 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, taking place in Italy between February 4-22 and March 6-15, respectively, are making history as the most geographically widespread Olympics to date. For the first time, they’ll be jointly held by two official hosts, the northern hub of Milan and the Alpine resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, some 250 miles away to the northeast. The venues will be scattered across an even wider surrounding area, covering over 8,500 square miles of mostly mountainous terrain. The athletes will face off for medals, but the peaks might turn out to be the year’s real winners.

Most of the events will play out in the Dolomites, a sub-range that lies within the Alps but is set apart by its unique geology and resulting landscape. It’s formed almost entirely of dolomite, a mineral rock with characteristic pale-grey shades and dramatic formations—colossal, jagged, seeming to have just clawed their way out of the Earth’s crust. The view is so distinctive, the summits were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site for their exceptional natural beauty.

Visitors can plan to cheer at a total of 195 competitions, with ski mountaineering—which involves climbing up slopes and skiing back down—making its debut as an Olympic discipline. But the destination will remain in the spotlight long after the closing ceremonies. Cortina and 11 other towns in the Dolomites are part of Dolomiti Superski, the largest ski area in the world, connecting 450 lifts with one pass. In the summer, the same network gives easy access to over 6,200 miles of signposted hiking trails, 250 miles of mountain biking paths, and myriad other outdoor pursuits.

Regardless of the season and preferred way of exploring, the main calling card of the Dolomites is the breathtaking scenery. Some of the most popular sites, including the Three Peaks of Lavaredo, which emerge from the ground like crooked teeth, and aquamarine Lake Braies can become overrun with visitors in high season. Consider looking into alternatives; summits like Croda dei Toni and Vajolet Towers or Lake Carezza are just as evocative but comparatively less trodden.

To learn more about mountain life, there’s the Messner Mountain Museum, a collection of six alpine-focused centers dotted around the province of South Tyrol in the Dolomites. They’ve been founded by legendary Italian climber Reinhold Messner, best known for having completed the first solo ascent of Mount Everest. The most exciting in the collection is perhaps the Museum in the Corones (meaning Museum in the Clouds), dedicated to mountaineering. It’s set in a Zaha Hadid-designed building that looks as if sunken into the peak of 7,463-foot Kronplatz, with futuristic viewing windows emerging from the rock.

There’s living culture to be discovered, too. The Dolomites are home to the Ladin people, an ethnolinguistic group who speak a Rhaeto-Romance language and maintain distinct folk traditions. These are explored at the Museum Ladin Ciastel de Tor in the village of San Martino in Badia (note that the information panels are written in Italian and German; English-language audio guides are available). The wider Val Badia valley is a Ladin heartland; visitors can explore well-preserved viles (Ladin settlements with granaries, woodsheds, and more) like Lungiarü or join experiences led by locals, including a cheese farm visit or cooking class.

Like in the wider Alps, tourist season in the Dolomites runs in winter (early December to mid-April, depending on snowfall) and summer (June to mid-September). The slopes are busiest during the winter and spring school holidays, when Italian families traditionally head to the mountains, and visitors might come across ski lesson groups for young children.

Many hotels, restaurants, and lifts at higher altitudes close in the shoulder months (mid-April to May and mid-September to November). If that doesn’t deter you, these are wonderful times to visit, with the meadows in bloom and foliage shifting from yellow to red.

The cuisine of the Dolomites mixes flavors from northeastern Italy and neighboring Austria, as well as Ladin specialties. Recipes lean on the hearty side: Typical orders include Ladin casunziei, which are dough half-moons filled most often with beets, doused in melted butter, and sprinkled with poppy seeds; or canederli, stale bread rolled with cheese or speck (cured pork) into gnocchi-like balls, a local take on the Austrian knödel.

You’ll find them everywhere, but meals are especially atmospheric at high-altitude refuges. It’s hard to go wrong here, so the best approach is to simply choose your daily itinerary and break up the outing at a chalet along the way. That said, popular options for those heading to Cortina for the Olympics include Rifugio Capanna Tondi, built in 1941 by the grandfather of the current owner and chef, and Baita Resch, where the pastry chef owner works magic on the desserts.

For a higher-end experience, the region is collecting an ever-growing number of Michelin accolades. In the small town of Brunico, Atelier Moessmer left the culinary world agape in 2024 when it received three stars four months after opening. Local chef Norbert Niederkofler’s "cook the mountain" philosophy makes use almost exclusively of hyper-local, seasonal ingredients, among them spruce, elderflower, and Arctic char. Newly starred in 2025 in the town of Pinzolo, Grual similarly celebrates its setting. The "altimetric" dishes here embody different altitudes, from the valley floor—mountain potatoes with dog-rose ketchup, for example—to pastures—say, red turnip gnocchi with smoked ricotta.

The main gateway to northern Italy is Milano Malpensa Airport, which has direct flights from all over Europe and long-haul destinations including the U.S. and Canada. Renting a car affords most freedom. Alternatively, the cities of Bolzano and Trento in the Dolomites have easy rail links to Milan (around three hours) and other Italian hubs; higher-altitude resorts like Cortina require onward travel by bus (one-to-two hours). It’s always worth looking into specific travel arrangements for where you’re staying and planning on visiting.

Once in the mountains, how you get around depends on the season, activities, and areas. In winter and summer, most travelers base themselves in one resort and use the Dolomiti Superski or Supersummer (as it’s called in the warmer months) pass to explore with lifts during the day. To cover longer distances, and in shoulder months, it’s possible to rely on buses, though it might require more flexibility and forward planning.