Cortina ~ Trekking & Relax™

Join us in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the gem of the Italian Alps, with this 6-day, 5-night food, wine and outdoor trekking tour.  Cortina is nestled in the heart of the Dolomites in the Veneto region of Northern Italy, just a few hours’ drive from Venice. The Boite River cuts through the gorgeous town, while imposing breathtaking mountain peaks surround it, including Tofane, Cinque Torre, Cristalo, and Marmolada—the Queen of the Dolomites. Cortina is a summer and winter vacation destination, as well as a multicultural hotspot; the region is home to the Ladin people, who have combined their Italian and Tyrolean heritages into their own unique culture, language, traditions, architecture, and cuisine.

While Cortina has more than a thousand years of history, it was not until 1956 when the Olympic Winter Games thrusted Cortina’s small-town charm and idyllic setting into the spotlight.  Since then, Cortina has become a must-visit locale year-round.

The breathtaking Natural Park of the Ampezzo Dolomites spans nearly 30,000 acres north of the center of town. Visitors who come during the warmer months can hike, bike, and climb on hundreds of kilometers of marked trails and via Ferrata routes, taking in the area’s luscious green valleys, high mountain pastures, alpine lakes, streams, and waterfalls, along with the wide variety of plants and animals that call the Dolomites home.  During the winter months, Cortina’s first-class ski resorts, downhill slopes, and cross-country trails take center stage.

Cortina is also famous for its popular shopping center. Corso Italia is the most well-known and prestigious pedestrian street in the Dolomites and the center of Cortina’s social life. There you will find trendy boutiques side-by-side with local artisans creating handmade decorative crafts, art galleries, jewelers, bars, and restaurants. While the stores are constantly changing to follow the hot trends of the day, the town’s majestic bell tower made of Dolomite stone remains the pillar of the community.

Cortina Cooking Classes

Tie on your aprons and join us in the kitchen for 2 hands-on cooking classes where you will be preparing farm-to-table ingredients into local fare.  Traditional Cortina cuisine combines the influences of Italian and Tyrolean ingredients flavors into its recipes. Corn, potatoes, barley, pumpkins, mushrooms, and beans are typical elements of Cortina dishes. Cortina also boasts an ample production of high-altitude pasture cheese like Contrin, Fodòm, Renàz, Schiz, Tosela, Zumelle and Zigher.  During your cooking program, you’ll visit a local farm for an experience to learn and taste one of Cortina’s finest cheeses.

During your hands-on cooking classes, you will prepare antipasto such as chenedi, breadcrumb dumplings filled with speck, lard, spinach, and cheese, then served in a hot broth or with butter.  Learn how to mix and roll pestarei, a flour and water dough that is boiled in salted milk.  Using fava beans from the nearby fields, prepare faariesa, a fava beans and barley soup.  Mix and roll out Cortina’s signature pasta casunziei, beet-filled ravioli served with melted butter, cheese, and poppy seeds.  Main dishes like gröstl, a potato and meat pie of Austrian origin, and gulasch süppe, a meat-based soup originally from Hungary, will wow!  Desserts, sweet and buttery, include: krapfen, small jelly-filled donuts, brazora, sweet focaccia bread sprinkled with sugar, and apple strudel.

You will also sip and swirl a selection of Cortina’s finest wines at a rifugio, one of the many mountain huts that populate the hiking trails on the Dolemites.  During your visit to this rifugio, in the stunning Cinque Torre area, you will enjoy four prized wines from the Veneto region—the sparkling Adami Bosco di Gica Prosecco Superiore DOCG, the white Pieropan Souave classic DOCG, and the red Masi Campofiorin Rossi di Verona IGT and Zenato Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG—or the Trentino region from South Tyrol—the sparkling Ferrari Maximum Brut Trento DOC, the white Colterenzio Lafoa Chardonnay Alto Adige DOC, and the red Girlan Shiava Alto Adige Fall 9 DOC and Girlan Blauburgunder Patricia Alto Adige DOC.

Cortina Accommodations

Your inviting 5-Star Luxury property set in the heart of Cortina with a beautiful panoramic and charming location. The luxury property offers all the modern comforts with an elegant architecture that seamlessly blends with the surrounding and vibe of the Alpine region.  Rooms are spacious and bright decorated with soft Ampezzo fabrics.  Modern and comfortable beds are dressed with Italian linens.  Each room includes a private ensuite bathroom, full beautiful bathroom and hairdryer. There’s free Wi-Fi, a minibar, and LCD TV.  Daily maid service and a traditional breakfast with Alpine bread, cakes, biscotti, fruits, yogurts, coffee, cappuccino, and more are included daily.  The property offers a luxurious Spa with well-being treatments of every type along with a professional staff.

Cooking & Trekking in Cortina in the Italian Dolomites is available mid June to the end of September.

Click for Property Photo Gallery

Itinerary

Day 1:  Benvenuto, Check-In, and Chef’s Tasting Dinner at a Michelin-Starred Restaurant

• Arrival in Cortina d’Ampezzo
• Check-in to 5-Star Luxury hotel located in the heart of Cortina d’Ampezzo town center.
• Free time – choose to relax and rejuvenate at the Spa. Two massages per person included in tour.
• Enjoy your Cooking Vacations’ Welcome Bag with Prosecco toast and soft drinks for anyone under 18 years old.
• Private transfer and dinner at Michelin-starred restaurant. Indulge in the Chef’s Tasting Welcome Dinner with farm-to-table local ingredients of the territory and the creativity of the Chef.  Beverages are not included and are payable directly at the restaurant.
• Following dinner, return to the hotel with driver.

Day 2: Artisan Cheese Tour & Cooking Class

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, meet your driver at the hotel and transfer to a local farm. Meet Enrico, a young local entrepreneur who owns 22 hectares of meadows where he produces organic hay for his goats and another hectare where he cultivates organic seasonal vegetables and potatoes.  Enjoy the tour and discover local farming and bio-dynamic farming where he produces yogurt, cheeses, ricotta.  Following the tour, you can see all of the artisan products on display at his barn and where you can purchase, if you’d like, to take home.
• Following your tour, return to the property with your diver.  Take time to relax before your Cooking Class 1.
• Tie on your aprons and learn how to prepare three courses with the chef, who will unveil some of the secrets of the traditional cuisine of the Dolomites. Following the cooking class, everyone enjoys the food that was prepared in the cooking class together.  Sample of local cuisine include, canederli, strudel, gnocchi and kaiserschmarrn. The cooking class starts with a Prosecco!
• Following your cooking class, return to the hotel.
• In the evening, enjoy free time in Cortina d’Ampezzo and dinner on your own with dinner suggestions provided.

Day 3: Alpine Excursion – Trekking to Mondeval Palteaur and Lake Federa, High Altitude Sauna and Alpine Dinner

• Breakfast is served at the hotel.
  Following breakfast, the morning is free to relax, enjoy a Spa treatment, stroll through Cortina and indulge in local shopping.
• Following lunch, meet your driver and Alpine guide at the hotel and transfer to the starting point of your hike to Mondeval Plateau and Lake Federa. This walk offers superb views of Cortina seen from the Giau Pass, the extensive pastures surrounded by Dolomitic peaks at Mondeval plateaus and the splendid Lake Federa in the midst of the forest. You will enjoy a High Altitude Sauna, followed by Alpine dinner, included.  Wine not included.
• Following your experience, return to the hotel with our driver.
• In the evening, enjoy free time in Cortina d’Ampezzo  on your own with suggestions provided.

Day 4: Alpine Hiking to the Dolomites, Cinque Torri and Open Air Museum, and Alpine Wine Tasting

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, meet your driver and Alpine guide at the hotel and transfer to the starting point of your picturesque hiking excursion in one of the most enchanting areas of the Dolomites: the famous Cinque Torri. The area is also of historical interest, as it hosts the World War 1 Open Air Museum.
• The hike starts at the Bai de Dones parking area. From here there is a beautiful trail through the woods with many panoramic points on the Tofane mountains. After about 1 hour the landscape opens up, offering a stunning view of the Dolomites around Cortina d’Ampezzo – Croda da Lago and Lastoi de Formin, and further beyond, mounts Nuvolau and Averau. The trail crosses the Rifugio Cinque Torri, a traditional lodge in a setting of rugged beauty at the feet of the Cinque Torri peaks. From here the trail will take hikers directly through the stunning peaks and along the WW1 trenches. Finally, the trail will lead to a beautiful mountain hut, where our host welcomes you to an Alpine Wine Tasting featuring wine of the region.  After the experience, descend to the staring point.  You can opt to stop for lunch, not included or add it on following the wine tasting.
• Following your experience, return to hotel.  Enjoy your free time, indulge in a Spa treatment or stroll through Cortina.
• In the evening, enjoy free time in Cortina d’Ampezzo and dinner on your own with suggestions provided.

Day 5: Cooking Class and Panoramic Terrace  

• Breakfast is served.
• Following breakfast, meet your driver and transfer to the kitchen.
  Tie on your aprons and learn how to prepare three courses with the chef, who will unveil some of the secrets of the traditional cuisine of the Dolomites. Following the cooking class, everyone enjoys the food that was prepared in the cooking class together.  Sample of local cuisine include, canederli, strudel, gnocchi and kaiserschmarrn. The cooking class starts with a Prosecco!
  Following your cooking class, return to the hotel.
• In the evening, enjoy free time in Cortina d’Ampezzo and dinner on your own with suggestions provided.

Day 6: Arrivederci

• Breakfast is served.
• Check out of the accommodation.
• Arrivederci!