More information - Alta Badia - Italy

Alta Badia is a pretty Italian area that includes the villages of Corvara, Colfosco, La Villa, San Cassiano, Pedraces and La Val make up the Alta Badia ski area in the Dolomite region of Italy's South Tyrol. Franz Kostner, a famous mountain guide, was the pioneer of modern tourism in Val Badia. At the end of the 19th century Franz and his brother Ojop climbed many famous peaks including some in the Himalayas. On his return to Val Badia he saw all the possibilities for tourism in the area and started by founding the "Automobile Company" - before then Val Badia was only accessible on foot or by horse-drawn coach. In 1908 along with his wife Ottilie, Franz Kostner opened the first hotel in Corvara, the Posta Zirm which today has one of the most popular night spots in the village - the Taverna Posta. Alta Badia is linked to the Sella Ronda - one of the most famous ski tours in the Dolomites - which has famous skiing valleys radiating off it like spokes from a wheel with almost all of them lift-linked - most famous is the Gardena Valley. The Sella Ronda runs around the Sella Massif - a vast, vaguely square shaped mountain of rock that juts out of the earth with jagged sides. Its spectacular to look at but difficult to cut a piste through so there are gentle trails leading around the gently sloping base, the circuit of which is some 25km (16 miles) long and possible to complete in a day. The Dolomites take their name from the French aristocrat and geologist Déodate Guy Silvane Tancrède de Grandet, Lord of Dolomieu. He was born in 1750 in an age when science, exploration and discover were highly fashionable. Dolomieu explored the mountains of Italy, Tyrol and Graubünden but whilst in the South Tyrol he discovered a type of mineral consisting of calcium magnesium carbonate, the main component of the renowned 'pale mountains' which were eventually named after him. The First World War was devastating for Val Badia and the other Ladin valleys. For 4 long years, the Dolomites were the scene of bloody conflicts and battles which ended in the deaths of thousands of soldiers on both fronts. It was above all a war of position where surviving the adverse climatic and living conditions were added to the continuous struggle. The routes and scars of those battles, which had their most hard-fought fronts in the Col di Lana, Tofane and Marmolada, are still recognisable in the Dolomites. At the nearby Marmolada there is a museum to the history of World War 1 in this area and a model of the ice town which was built in the glacier by the elite Austrian mountain troops, the Kaiserjager. The "ice town" was an 8 mile labyrinth of tunnels and trenches carved in ice and rock by the troops and lived in by many soldiers between 1916-17. This incredible feat of engineering is slowly melting as it becomes visible, but other remnants of the era are now the targets of souvenir hunters - items include sardine tins, weapons, used rounds and boots - all over 80 years old. The Dolomites are an impressive example of an area where 3 languages and cultures meet - the German speaking areas of the Tyrol, the Italian-speaking provinces of Trentino and Belluno, and the Rhaeto-Romanic or Ladin areas in the Val Gardena, Badia and Fassa Valleys. Once considered a dialect, Ladin has only recently been recognised as a language. In Val Badia and Val Gardena, the 2 Ladin valleys in the Province of Bolzano, the Ladins are recognised as the third ethnic group and consequently their language and culture are protected. Ladin is now taught in schools, is used in public administration, and there are radio and TV programmes in Ladin. There is even a Ladin newspaper "Usc di Ladins" which is published weekly. This new awareness of the Ladins is confirmation that, for these mountain people, their intention and desire to keep their history, language and culture alive is deeply rooted.