FILE PHOTO: People walk along a shopping street in downtown Cortina d'Ampezzo ahead of Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games 2026, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, December 4, 2025. REUTERS/Claudia Greco/File Photo
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, ITALY, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Old women cradle miniature dogs in fur-trimmed sleeves, Prada, Dior and Louis Vuitton line the high street in a town of barely 5,500 peoplec and Christmas trees still glow in February as fresh snow settles softly on designer coats.
Welcome to Cortina d’Ampezzo, where the Dolomites meet a carefully curated idea of Italian lifestyle — and where the Winter Olympics are expected to turn heritage glamour into future business.
The resort’s reputation long predates the Milano Cortina 2026 Games.
Host of the 1956 Winter Olympics and a perennial stop on the Alpine skiing World Cup circuit, Cortina has cultivated an image between cinematic nostalgia and contemporary luxury, the sort of place where a 1970s James Bond might emerge from a corner cafe.
Yet local tourism officials insist the strategy is subtler than simple opulence in a town with a strong Ladin identity, giving it also a very traditional feel.
Ladins are a small Romance-language community living in parts of the Dolomite Alps in northern Italy.
“Cortina has a positioning in the tourism market that is premium or upscale,” said Josep Ejarque, Destination Manager at the official tourism board.
“The difference compared with other Italian, Swiss, French or Austrian resorts is really about lifestyle — the way people experience activities here, including shopping.”
That distinction matters. In an Alpine market crowded with elite ski domains and five-star chalets, Cortina is attempting to balance exclusivity with accessibility.
“We have a very clear idea,” Ejarque said. “We do not want Cortina to be an exclusive or ultra-luxury destination. That is not the positioning we are pursuing. It is a high-end, upscale or premium positioning — that is the approach.”
CORTINA DEVELOPED AS SOCIAL AND SPORTING DESTINATION
The nuance is visible on Corso Italia, the pedestrian artery where technical ski wear shares window space with couture and espresso bars fill with a mix of locals, regulars and foreign visitors drawn as much by atmosphere as altitude.
Unlike purpose-built mega-resorts, Cortina grew as a social destination as much as a sporting one.
Even today, conversation drifts easily from snow conditions to restaurants, galleries and evening aperitifs — a rhythm closer to an urban piazza than a remote mountain outpost.
That blend of sport and society is central to the Olympic gamble now under way.
Cortina’s first Games in 1956 propelled the town onto the international tourism map, transforming a regional mountain centre into a global winter symbol.
Nearly 70 years later, organisers hope history can repeat itself — this time in a far more competitive and climate-conscious travel landscape.
“Cortina is working with the idea of using the Olympics not only for the Games themselves but for the post-Games period,” Ejarque said. “The concept of legacy and the tourist growth of the destination are very important.”
The ambition reaches beyond Europe.
“One objective is that Milano Cortina 2026 helps Cortina grow and attract tourist flows, especially international ones, with particular attention to intercontinental visitors,” he added.
Such expectations arrive with pressure. Alpine resorts increasingly confront shrinking snow windows, rising costs and shifting travel habits. Prestige alone is no longer enough; destinations must convert image into year-round relevance.
Cortina’s response appears to lean on narrative as much as infrastructure: heritage Olympics, cinematic beauty, refined but not forbidding luxury.
Even the lingering Christmas lights feel less like oversight than atmosphere — a deliberate extension of winter’s magic for guests reluctant to let the season end.
Whether that formula succeeds will become clearer once the Olympic crowds depart and the spotlight moves on. For now, though, the town plays its role with practiced ease: elegant, self-aware and quietly commercial beneath the snow.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ken Ferris)
