The Mountain-Summer Issue

We begin this month above the tree line, in the pale mountains of north-east Italy, because they are the clearest answer we know to a simple question: where do you go in high summer to walk in the morning and sleep somewhere quiet at night? The Dolomites were listed by UNESCO in 2009 for the shape of their rock, but what draws us back is the way the whole range is organised around staying: a country of valleys, each with its lifts, its huts, and often its own language.

This issue is a plan more than a survey. August is the fullest, warmest, most expensive month here, with the whole of Italy on holiday around Ferragosto and the famous sights filling by late morning. So we have built everything around two habits that make the crowds beside the point: choose one valley and settle into it rather than touring, and walk early, before the afternoon storms and the coach parties both arrive on the high ground at once.

We have a clear preference about where to base, and the guide makes the case for it. The Ladin valleys of the north, Alta Badia and Val Gardena, and the meadow villages of the Alpe di Siusi, earn their price for a first week: high enough to walk from the door, well served by cable cars for tired legs, and a little removed from the busiest honeypots. Cortina is the grand alternative, reachable without a car by direct airport coach, though the 2026 Games are already raising its prices.

The heart of the issue, though, is one night up high. The rifugi, the mountain huts, are what make this range feel like nowhere else, and a single booked night in one changes the whole trip: you have the mountain in the hours the day-trippers do not, from the last light to the first. Book it months ahead, bring cash and a liner and earplugs, and keep your promise to the guardian. Plan the trip around that one night and the rest of it follows.

Vivienne Hartwell, Editor-in-Chief