Vacation to Cortina and roundabouts: the beauty of Dolomites

Wordly city, Cortina d'Ampezzo offers also enchanting sceneries. Just as the villages in the Valboite, such as San Vito di Cadore, Pieve di Cadore or Cibana, the "village of wall paintings".

In the heart of Dolomites, surrounded by a marvellous natural amphytheatre, Cortina d'Ampezzo is one of the most desired destinations of international tourism. But also its valley offers a variety of proposals and curiosities.

The best periods to visit Cortina are Summer and Autumn: the sun shines warm until the end of October and this season is perfect for excursions, also at high altitudes. Around Cortina wind 98 lanes, each with a different difficulty degree: some of them can also be scoured by disabled people. For any information - and to contact the best guides - you can call Gruppo Guide Alpine of Cortina (Corso Italia 69, "Ciasa de Ra Regoles" - tel. ++39/0436/868505): they organize excursions for adults and children, during which you can receive information about history, botany, geology and know the curiosities of the places you are visiting.

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For lovers of extreme sports Cortina No Limits proposes rafting, snow rafting (going down ski slopes with a rubber raft), hydrospeed, "torrentismo" (a sort of trekking in the mountain streams), kayak and bobsleigh (going down with a 4 people competition bobsleight or on wheels on an asphalt track).

Natural beauties can be best relished in the Natural Park of d'Ampezzo Dolomites created in 1990: it is one of the four regional parks of Veneto and extends on 11.000 hectares in the North of Cortina, together with the bordering Park of Fanes-Sennes-Braies it forms a protected area 37.000 hectares wide.

The natural patrimony of the park counts populations of chamois, deers (over 1500), rock goats and marmots. Further, it hosts the royal eagle, the royal owl, the grouse and the Greek partridge. Also the brown bear and the lambs volture have recently been seen in the park. The vegetation is made of centuries old forests of red firs, larches and stone-pines and of an astonishing flora. The sedimentary layers of the rocks contain a rich fossil fauna. The park opens the whole year long and it may be visited both in the Summer and in Winter with the help of guides.

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Pieve di Cadore lays in a dominant position between the hills Contras and Montericco. It is a lively village of over 4.100 people and is the main historical and artistical centre of Cadore. In 1490 the painter Tiziano Vecellio was born in the house on the main square of the village that is dedicated to him and is decorated with a bronze statue of the artist. Worth a visit also in the palace of the Magnifica Comunità di Cadore.

Vacanze a Cortina D'Ampezzo

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