Alleghe-Civetta

Alleghe is the Dolomites resort that people in the know keep for themselves. The village sits at 980 m on the shore of the small Lago di Alleghe in the province of Belluno, and straight above it rises the north-west wall of the Civetta, 3,220 m of grey limestone that climbers count among the great faces of the Alps. The cable car from the village lifts you to the Piani di Pezze, and from there the Ski Civetta domain unrolls 80 km of piste and 22 lifts across three slopes: down the Pian di Pezze side back into Alleghe, over the Col dei Baldi shoulder into Selva di Cadore and Pescul, and on into the Val di Zoldo at Pecol. It is one of the longer single ski circuits in the Dolomites, and because Alleghe is on the Dolomiti Superski pass you can also drive a few minutes to Arabba and connect onto the Sellaronda. The pistes are mostly blues and reds threading through larch forest, with a few demanding blacks under the Civetta wall, and the views from the Belvedere terrace down onto the lake are some of the best in the range. Alleghe is Veneto rather than South Tyrol, which means the village feel is Italian first: bell tower, lakeside passeggiata, a few good osterie. It is noticeably quieter and noticeably cheaper than Cortina an hour away, and that is the trade many regulars come for.