As dusk falls over the valley, the bell tower of the Basilica Minore dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo glows above Cortina d’Ampezzo, announcing the town at the heart of the Dolomites. Once a farming and shepherding hamlet, Cortina has transformed into the ‘Pearl of the Dolomites’ — an alpine luxury hub ringed by the jagged limestone peaks that make the region a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its compact historic center still feels like a shared living room for visitors from high society and the world of film and fashion.
Strolling Cortina’s main street is an exercise in glamour. Boutique windows display the same haute couture names found in global capitals — Dior, Fendi, Gucci, Prada — and elegant shoppers in fur coats thread between them. The town’s upscale shopping and discreet celebrity culture make the promenade feel both familiar and otherworldly more than 4,000 feet above sea level.
Cortina has been back in international headlines recently as a host for recent Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, but its fame goes back much further. On nearby slopes, skiers pause at alpine lodges for hot chocolate or a spritz poured by Riccardo Fiore, whose family is woven into the area’s winter-sports legacy. His grandmother, Yvonne Rüegg, won Olympic gold in giant slalom, and his grandfather coached Alberto Tomba, who learned to race on these very mountains. ‘Tomba still stops by here,’ Fiore says, matter-of-factly.
Fame here is ordinary. Fiore casually names Italian politicians, actors and singers he has served behind the bar, and points to international connections: Sylvester Stallone shot scenes for the 1993 film Cliffhanger on these slopes; Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake and director Ridley Scott are among those who have visited. Many celebrities try to blend in, Fiore notes, disguising themselves to avoid attention — a factor that helps preserve Cortina’s reputation as a discreet refuge.
That air of celebrity is reinforced by places like the Hotel de la Poste. Its wood-paneled bar, a favorite of Ernest Hemingway in the 1940s, still bears a small plaque marking the corner table where the writer sat. The suite he occupied has been preserved as a kind of time capsule, complete with his typewriter. Servane Giol, who chronicled Cortina’s history in her book The Queen of the Dolomites, says the town’s ascent began in the 1920s when the then king of Belgium fell in love with the Dolomites’ peaks. Royal visitors and connections — including a marriage between the Belgian king’s daughter and an Italian crown prince — helped make Cortina the chic destination of the interwar years.
That glamour attracted Italy’s wealthy set and culminated in hosting the 1956 Winter Olympics, the first Games to be televised. Grainy black-and-white footage of the opening ceremony captured what contemporary commentators called a ‘spectacle of peace.’ Athletes from 32 countries raced down mountains and sped along a bobsled track built at the town’s edge. Television brought Cortina to living rooms worldwide; in the decades that followed, Hollywood turned to the mountains for dramatic backdrops — from The Pink Panther to the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, in which Roger Moore hurtles down a mountainside on skis.
Today the Dolomites’ dramatic ridges and turquoise alpine lakes draw social-media attention, swelling summer and winter visitor numbers. The recent Olympic events brought new crowds in February and March, but also highlighted a growing reliance on artificial snow. With winters shortening and warming, concerns about climate change and the long-term viability of snow-dependent tourism are increasingly urgent.
Cortina is responding by diversifying. The town now welcomes summer hikers and food-minded visitors seeking connections to local agriculture. At SanBrite, chefs Ludovica Rubbini and Riccardo Gaspari have built a Michelin-starred kitchen that also earned a green star for sustainability. Their ‘agricucina’ links the restaurant directly to their farm: waitstaff describe the cows that produced the butter, served in large pots alongside sourdough, reinforcing a sense of place and seasonality.
Inside SanBrite, dried flowers dangle from the walls and lamps once used during the 1956 Olympics cast a warm light. The menu is rooted in mountain and forest flavors — a Jerusalem artichoke ‘cigar’ served on a mossy bed, filled with artichoke cream, wild mushrooms and marinated shallots, or a dessert meant to evoke a frozen lake: a panna cotta base topped by a glassy layer suggesting ice and elderflower, finished with a dusting of yogurt ‘snow.’ Rubbini recalls how a walk by a frozen pond inspired that dessert — her husband tapping the ice, conjuring the idea.
Despite modern refinements, traditional alpine elements endure. Rifugi, rustic mountain huts decked with Ampezzo heart-patterned textiles, remain refuges for skiers and hikers and offer sweeping views of the Tofane massif. The blend of cozy mountain hospitality, upscale boutiques and a cinematic past gives Cortina a character that is both rustic and cosmopolitan.
Cortina’s history reads in layers: pastoral roots, aristocratic patronage, cinematic and Olympic fame, and a present that leans into sustainable gastronomy and year-round outdoor tourism. Its future will hinge on a careful balance — protecting the cultural and natural landscape that made it famous while adapting to climate realities and the pressures of global attention.