There’s something surreal about walking down the main street of Cortina d’Ampezzo. One moment you’re in the Italian Alps, surrounded by jagged limestone peaks and crisp mountain air. The next, you’re passing storefronts for Dior, Fendi, Gucci, and Prada as casually as if you were strolling through Milan. Fur coats drape the shoulders of passersby like it’s completely normal to be dressed that way 4,000 feet above sea level.
This town wasn’t always the “Pearl of the Dolomites.” Once upon a time, it was just another small village where farmers and shepherds went about their business, unbothered by the glittering world beyond the mountains. Then everything changed.
How a King’s Holiday Sparked a Legend
The story goes that in the 1920s, the then-king of Belgium decided he wanted to climb the Dolomite peaks. He came, he climbed, and apparently, he loved it so much that his daughter ended up marrying an Italian crown prince. Suddenly, Cortina wasn’t just a mountain village anymore. It was where royalty went to play.
Between the 1920s and 1940s, the town transformed into something genuinely exclusive. European high society descended on the slopes like a carefully orchestrated ballet. The glamorous royal families made it the chicest destination imaginable. Money started flowing in. Mountain lodges turned into luxury resorts. The local economy shifted entirely around this new reality.
But the real turning point came in 1956.
When Television Changed Everything
Cortina hosted the first Winter Olympics ever to be televised. That grainy black-and-white footage of athletes speeding down mountain slopes and hurtling down bobsled tracks didn’t just capture a sporting event. It broadcast Cortina’s existence to millions of people around the world who had never even heard of it before.
Hollywood took notice. Filmmakers started showing up to shoot movies against those stunning backdrops. The first Pink Panther movie was filmed here. Then came Roger Moore as James Bond in “For Your Eyes Only,” performing death-defying ski stunts and outrunning assassins on motorbikes down the mountainside. Each film added another layer to Cortina’s mythology as a place where extraordinary things happened.
The celebrity sightings became legendary. Ernest Hemingway practically lived in the Hotel de la Poste bar during the 1940s, nursing drinks at his corner table. His old room is still there, frozen in time like a museum exhibit, complete with his typewriter. Sylvester Stallone filmed action sequences here. Snoop Dogg visited. Justin Timberlake passed through. Ridley Scott directed scenes here.
The Modern Era: Snow, Sustainability, and Social Media
What’s wild is that today, the town is bustling with a different kind of fame. Sure, celebrities still show up (many disguising themselves to avoid attention), but increasingly, Cortina is attracting visitors through news outlets and social media images of turquoise Alpine lakes and stunning peaks.
The Dolomites became a UNESCO World Heritage site, which gave the region official cultural weight and drew even more curious travelers. But there’s something beautiful happening in Cortina now that goes beyond the Hollywood glamour of decades past. The town is quietly building a reputation for thoughtful tourism and sustainable living.
Take Ludovica Rubbini and her husband Riccardo Gaspari, who run SanBrite, a Michelin-starred restaurant that’s earned the guide’s rare “green star” for sustainability. They’re not just serving fancy food. They’re telling stories about their own cows producing the butter on your table, about Jerusalem artichokes foraged from the surrounding woodland, about frozen desserts inspired by walks around frozen lakes. The dishes look like edible art, but they’re rooted in genuine connection to place and season.
Riccardo Fiore serves drinks at his family’s Alpine lodge, the grandson of an Olympic gold medalist and grandson-in-training to legends. He casually mentions that Alberto Tomba, one of the greatest Alpine skiers in history, still stops by for hot chocolate. This place is living history wrapped in limestone mountains and served with impeccable hospitality.
The Shadow of Climate Change
There’s something ominous lurking beneath all this glamour and sustainability, though. The 2026 Winter Olympics that just finished relied almost entirely on artificial snow. As winters grow warmer and shorter, the question isn’t really whether Cortina will remain relevant. It’s whether the snow will even show up anymore.
A ski resort without snow is like a jazz club without music. The venue might be beautiful, but something fundamental is missing. Cortina’s transformation from farmer’s village to celebrity hideaway to sustainable tourism destination could all become abstract if the climate continues warming at its current pace.
Maybe that’s why places like SanBrite matter so much. They’re not just restaurants. They’re statements about what a mountain town can be when it moves beyond chasing winter sports fame and starts celebrating what the land actually produces. When it acknowledges that summers are for hiking and that food and hospitality can be just as much a draw as perfect powder.
Cortina d’Ampezzo has reinvented itself multiple times already, from obscure village to royal playground to Olympic host to Hollywood backdrop. The question is whether it can do it again in an era where the very thing that made it famous might be melting away.
