Italian Dolomites: Cortina d'Ampezzo, Cadore, Asolo

October 1, 2025

The sun gets brighter, the food gets better (pasta!), the potholes get bigger, the driver horns get louder, and the tidy fields give way to the exuberance of prosecco vineyards - Italia! But first a long drive in a small, stuffy, swaying bus driven by a quintessential Italian who liked to approach hairpin mountain turns at full speed and navigate roundabouts like a Formula 1 driver. To stave off motion sickness, I kept my eyes closed all the way from Lienz to Cortina d'Ampezzo. 

When I opened my eyes, the Dolomites! A truly unique and spectacular mountain range, pale and pointy, etched against seemingly eternal sunshine. The windy descent to Cadore was cold though, and I was grateful for packing our winter cycling gear. We biked on the Via delle Dolomiti, a trade route turned World War I rail line which has been converted into a long-distance cycling path. I took a moment to let it sink in that this area was bitterly contested a mere generation ago, and even in peace, the land doesn't seem to have forgotten the many, many lives lost.

Of course, one can't mull too deeply while on a bike in Italy. Seemingly as soon as we crossed the border, we hit a pothole. Not a small one either. There were also construction detours that put cyclists on the same roads as Formula 1-wannabe Italian drivers, and also stretches of road that became mountain-biking territory with no warning. Italy is as exasperating as it is delightful.

The best meal of the trip was at a little converted train station, the Tai di Cadore, serving up phenomental salmon homemade pasta and panna cotta. Afterward, it was a lovely ride along a deserted well-paved road along the river Piave to Belluno. Rain was threatening, so we hopped on the shuttle to Asolo.

The Veneto is a wealthy, populous region in north-east Italy, part of the Republic of Venice until the late 18th century. Asolo, the "City of a Hundred Horizons," is a small town in the Veneto. Our hotel, the Hotel Villa Cipiani, certainly had views of many horizons. Asolo is a delightful place, slowly crumbling with age, elegant in its decline. I wished they would make their old city centres car-free, but I guess its part of the experience to have cars whipping around tight cobblestone corner blaring horns.

The next day was perfectly sunny, and made for exceptional cycling through prosecco vineyards around Asolo. I am not generally a fan of sparkling wine, but whyever not when in Valdobbiadene? This was an excellent way to end our Backroads trip. A toast and a farewell, and we were on our own again, en route to Venice.