Ski Holidays in Italy: Cortina, Kristian Ghedina and Olympia – Travel

It takes a while before this man can start his first swing. As he gets off the chairlift, which is advertising Gucci with white banners, a slope worker pats him on the shoulder – he needs to have a chat first.

At the top of the Pomedes hut, where the bright rocks of the Dolomites shine in the morning sun, he is asked to take a dozen selfies, and he laughs heartily for each one. A woman snaps and says triumphantly: “Il re di Cortina.” The King of Cortina – that’s Kristian Ghedina, the Italian downhill skier, who took part in five Olympic Games and became famous above all because he once did a sliding tackle in the air during the target shot jump at the Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel high spirits He has lived in Cortina d’Ampezzo since he was born 52 years ago.

His mother was already a ski instructor here. She also taught her son how to move on two boards in the snow. He preferred to ski off-piste, he remembers, “I was looking for obstacles that I could jump over”. At the age of four he skied down the Olympic downhill course for the first time. Toni Sailer won the gold medal for Austria on the 1956.

These Winter Olympics were an event that all of Italy cheered on. Was the country able to organize a sports festival for the world eleven years after the end of World War II? The semi-open ice rink with wooden stands became an icon of post-war architecture. Next to it, a large cable car was built up to the Tofana and proudly named it “Freccia nel Cielo” – arrow in the sky.

Seventy years later, the Olympic flame will burn again in Cortina. The place with almost 6000 inhabitants, 1200 meters high, will host the 2026 games together with Milan. What is going on in a ski resort with a glorious tradition that is, so to speak, preparing for the second run?

Open detailed view

Kristian Ghedina, who also tried motor sports after his skiing career, compares his hometown with a sports car. He says: “It’s nice when you buy a fast car. But you have to keep it in good condition, at some point it needs an oil change.” By that he means: “The Olympics bring money that we can use to renovate Cortina – that’s urgently needed. Many hotels are showing their age. At Christmas it’s still like Porto Cervo in summer. Then we have 50,000 people . But we don’t have enough parking spaces.”

In Cortina there are not only mountains and slopes, but also dignified luxury. The Corso Italia, the cobbled pedestrian zone, leads neatly through the town, past the Venetian Campanile. Here, as in Toni Sailer’s time, women wearing fur can still be spotted, in the Christian Dior boutique a pair of moon boots costs 1190 euros. Nobody gets soaked in a ski suit at an umbrella bar, you take a stylish aperitif in a vinotheque before dinner. It’s no wonder that this sophisticated holiday resort has long basked in the splendor of bygone days.

Open detailed view

“The eighties and nineties were the worst,” says Giovanni Menardi, “then we were focused on the lifestyle. Now we’re thinking about our mountains again.” He runs the traditional hotel Villa Argentina together with his mother. His grandfather built it before the First World War, when the Great Dolomite Road from Bolzano to Cortina was built for the beginning of Alpine tourism. The Argentina is one of the few hotels in the area that was not eventually sold by the local owners to strangers for a lot of money. Many Ampezzo residents were resting on their Olympic laurels, as Menardi describes it: “We were tired.”

Now signs of awakening are increasing. Before the World Ski Championships, which took place here last winter, the “Freccia nel Cielo” was rebuilt, and a modern gondola replaced the old large gondola. A new cable car went into operation this winter. The “Skyline” is 4.6 kilometers long, cost 18 million euros and connects Cortina with the Lagazuoi ski area. Ten-person cabins float slowly through the panorama of the Dolomites, the journey takes 17 minutes.

New railways, more modern hotels: Olympia should act as a project accelerator

“We needed eleven years for this track,” says Menardi and groans. This was not only due to the objections of the conservationists, but also to the structures in Cortina. The network of lifts and mountain railways consists of eight companies. “It takes a while before you can make joint decisions,” says Marco Zardini, the president of the association, “everyone thinks they have the best idea.”

Olympia should act as a project accelerator. Another cable car is planned for the games. It is intended to bring athletes and spectators from a large multi-storey car park on the outskirts to the ski area. But she should not write another chapter in the history of Olympian gigantism. Zardini says: “The people from the Olympic Committee demanded a capacity of 3,500 people per hour. We negotiated it down to 2,800 – this track should not only make sense for 15 days, but should function for 15 years.”

A wide area opens up at the end of the Skyline Bahn. Old calf killer chairlifts are still running here without a balaclava or other comfort. But after a few runs, the appeal of these slopes becomes understandable. They weren’t designed on a computer, but nestle in gentle terrain. Characteristic rocks wear bizarre snow caps. Italian families have lunch in the huts.

At Rifugio Averau, a friendly waitress serves radicchio flan and black ravioli with pumpkin. In the Baita Resch there are millefoglie – artistically layered puff pastry tarts – with porcini mushrooms and parmesan cream. Chef Ivan Resch ran a pastry shop in Cortina for 15 years. Then he took over this cabin and renovated it. He lives with his family on the first floor. When he’s done in the kitchen around 3 p.m., he puts on his skis and skis with his daughter until the lifts close. “At some point Corona will be over and the Olympics will come,” he says.

Open detailed view

Cortina is located in the Dolomites, but does not belong to South Tyrol, but to Veneto. This fact worries Andrea Ronchetti. He is the director of the Grandhotel Cristallo. This has offered a box seat above Cortina since 1901. From the balconies, from the dining room and from the spa, guests look out over the striking mountains that surround the place like a large amphitheater. “The Pink Panther” was filmed here in the 1960s – the film that made Peter Sellers a world star alongside Claudia Cardinale.

Despite this glamour, the hotel director sees South Tyrol as competition. Because the ski areas there are organizing an arms race with comfortable and fast lifts. Not to mention Austria, which also has respectable luxury hotels on the slopes. Cristallo guests have to take the shuttle to the Faloria gondola, which opens up wide carving slopes on the 3221 meter high Monte Cristallo. But the cable car is showing its age and looks like it did in Toni Sailer’s time. “In Cortina we need big changes in the next four years,” says Ronchetti. “We Italians are not known for good time management, we like to wait until the last minute. But we can if we want to.” His hotel has since been bought by a British hedge fund. They now want to make it fit “for a new generation of luxury travelers who want larger rooms and more comfort,” says Ronchetti. Otherwise, the director gives the impression that he is just a spectator in this process.

After the last descent, Kristian Ghedina walks the short way home. He does not yet know whether he will be on the road again as an ambassador for the next major event in his home country. The Beijing Olympics are the first he hasn’t attended in 30 years. But he’s not sad about that. “In four years we’ll finally be able to have ski races again in a real place in beautiful mountains,” he says and laughs.

Getting there: By train over the Brenner Pass to Fortezza; from there by regional train to Dobbiaco and by bus to Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Accomodation: Hotel Villa Argentina, three-star hotel directly on the slopes, some rooms with their own sauna; double room with breakfast from 93 euros, hotelargentinacortina.it, phone: 0039/0436/5641. The Hotel Cristallo offers traditional luxury at the box seat above the town with spa, gourmet restaurant, shuttle service, double room with breakfast from 449 euros, cristallo.itTel.: 0039/ 0436/881111

Skiing and Corona rules: The ski pass for 120 kilometers of slopes costs 179 euros for three days. 2 G applies in hotels, restaurants and ski lifts, masks are compulsory in the cable cars and lifts, dolomitisuperski.com

Further information: cortina.dolomiti.org