17. ITALIAN VOYAGE: CORTINA CHAPTER

The question is always the same: What is the best season in Ampezzo? Even without checking the local weather forecast, this question sparks long discussions, both in everyday life and in literature. Is it the winter, with its skiing? Or the endless summer of hikes that turn into climbs, as recounted by Emilio Comici and Antonio Berti? Or perhaps it’s the off-season? Giuseppe Berto (1914–1978), author of the masterpiece Incubus and a frequent visitor to Cortina, observed this ebb and flow, these recurring tides of tourism in the valley in 1967. Milena Milani (1917–2013) echoed him: “I know the solitude of Cortina, when everyone leaves and only a few remain. That is when the true face of Cortina appears, its secret people come out, the locals who in the height of summer and winter, during the peak season, you never see.” In the mid-1950s, Guido Piovene (1907–1974) dedicated a part of his remarkable reportage Viaggio in Italia to a stop in the Ampezzo valley. It was an opportunity to take stock of the local debate, with the changes linked to the 1956 Winter Olympics. “October, rain, cold – all the mountains covered, the hotels closed except for one, in Cortina. The mountaineers are complaining. The nature of Alpine huts has changed since the war – the romantic refuge of my youth, where I would lay down with my teeth chattering, waiting for the first light of morning on hard wooden boards, elbow to elbow with my climbing companions, has given way to the hut-turned-hotel, with rooms, beds and bathrooms. Gone are the days of Alpinism as a moderate endeavour, tied to moral discipline and contemplative pleasures. The people coming to the mountains these days are divided into two groups: the lazy ones, reliant on mechanical means, and the ‘acrobats’, with no appreciation of nature, drawn only to climbing as a feat of prowess.” Above all, however, Piovene notes that today’s tourism “tends to concentrate in towns like Cortina, with shops, entertainment, and constant social interaction. Regarding this trend, Italians are leading the way. The fear of solitude, the horror (actractio) vacui, seems to have especially gripped Italian society.”