My snow obsession (as shown in the last three posts), and my Italy obsession (as shown by pretty much all of the other posts) came together one winter in Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Dolomites, in the Veneto region. When I get back to trying to include virtual travels to every Italian region through regional cooking, we will get to Veneto.
Cortina is way up in the northwest near Austria, and the drive was not for the faint of heart. I will confess, my spouse did the driving, or I doubt that I ever would have made it there.
For that matter, the gondola is also not for the faint of heart.
If you are a James Bond fan, Cortina featured in For Your Eyes Only, with a ski scene on the trail in the picture below.
Considering that the area used for a Bond film, it should come as no surprise that the skiing is incredible. As someone accustomed to skiing in the United States, it takes some getting used to that you can accidentally ski into Austria from some of the trails in Cortina. The area is also rich in history, and there are remnants of bunkers from fighting between Italy and Austria in WWI in these mountains.
With no offense meant to the food that is available on mountain at United States ski resorts, eating on mountain in Cortina is in an entirely different class. There are no hockey puck hamburgers here. For example, lunch one day, sitting outside, was a simple, excellent dish of potatoes topped with a fried egg and speck, with a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar.
The view from our outside lunch spot was also extraordinary, although we had to keep an eye out that we didn’t lose any of our food to the birds.
I am not including a recipe with this post, but I recommend making yourself some roasted potatoes and onions, topped with an over easy egg and some speck on your next snowy day.
Beautiful photos!