Choose your vacation in the Dolomites
Spectacular glacial landscapes, fossil records and geologic significance are cited as UNESCO names the Alpine range as the 44th World Heritage Site in Italy.
‘It features some of the most beautiful mountain landscapes anywhere, with vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys’, Unesco committee states in its citation that includes nine different areas within the northern Italian mountain range. Speaking also of the region’s diversity, the citation mentions landscapes marked by ‘steeples, pinnacles and rock walls” and furter remarks that the area “features one of the best examples of the preservation of Mesozoic carbonate platform systems, with fossil records’.
Enjoy the historic Alta Badia
Welcome in Alta Badia, in the heart of the Dolomites!
Alta Badia, an enchanted valley in the heart of the Dolomites, probably the most spectacular and dramatic mountain range in the world. An unspoilt paradise combined with the highest standard of accommodation, travel deals and mountain activities offered in the area is waiting to be discovered.
Origins of Dolomites
The name “Dolomites” derives from the French mineralogist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu who was the first to describe this particular type of carbonate rock responsible for the typical shapes and colour of these mountains.
The geological origins of the Dolomites date back to about 230 millions of years when the remains of nowadays extincted animals and plants were sinking to the seafloor of a low and open sea, the Tetide Ocean, creating a layer of fossilized remains that reached the height of hundreds of meters.
The Dolomites and the Alta Badia are therefore a natural result of deposits in form of marine sediments. The tectonic events that followed raised the seabed by thousands of meters giving birth to a mountain range so unique as the history created it.
The Ice Age contributed to the shaping about 2 million years ago when slowly retreating, sculpted out wide valleys, high vertical walls, created wave-like formations and gothic-looking rock spires. The Dolomites have something extra: maybe it is because every rock is a witness of a different stage of world creation or maybe it is because of their surreal, glowing colour.
The undisputed beauty and uniqueness of the landscape combined with the fragility and peculiarity of this ecosystem allows the Dolomites to be among the UNESCO nominees for consideration as a natural heritage site.