COUNTDOWN TO CORTINA

With the Winter Olympics returning to Italy, the Dolomites are likely to steal the show.

- Kayla Webley Adler

A view from a ski safari, offered by Dolomite Mountains tour company.

Cortina d'Ampezzo first captured the world's attention in 1956, when it hosted the Winter Olympics, the first-ever televised games. This was in the days before broadcast satellites, so taped recordings of the events were shipped to the US, where black-and-white images of the Dolomite mountains encircling the town wowed viewers and cemented the destination as a luxury hot spot that would attract the skiing glitterati for years to come—Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn, Ernest Hemingway, and Brigitte Bardot all spent time here. Now, with the Olympics returning to Cortina, the “Queen of the Dolomites” is readying itself for another close-up.

The 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics are the first in history to be hosted by two cities: Cortina d’Ampezzo and Milan. Two months before the games, I traveled to the region to get a look at the natural beauty and luxury accommodations that will soon be on everyone's IG feeds. My journey began on a nonstop flight from New York to Milan on La Compagnie, the French-owned, all-business-class airline that bills itself as the best way to get to the Olympics, for good reason. Upon landing in Milan, I checked into the Carlton Hotel, the Rocco Forte group’s 10th Italian locale. One of many new luxury offerings timed to the games, the property underwent an extensive renovation, and the resulting space is a bold-hued mix of contemporary and Art Deco design by architects Philip Vergeylen and Paolo Moschino.