The most sensible approach to the Alpine geological wonderland known as the Dolomites is also the most evocative one. Here’s how it’s done: After the three-hour drive from Venice Marco Polo Airport toward Austria, pull off the autostrada into the inviting city of Bolzano.
In the pedestrian zone on Piazza della Mostra you will encounter the town’s best restaurant, Zur Kaiserkron. The lunchtime flavors — smoke-cured ham known as speck, orange-infused ravioli, honey-glazed duck with beet sauce, an array of local mountain cheeses — inform you that you’ve arrived in a distinctive place with a robust Mitteleuropean sensibility that also has the capacity to surprise.
As you proceed northward, note how the city gives way to silky green meadowland. And then suddenly you see it: the asymmetrical limestone spires of the Dolomites erupting from the placid landscape like a gigantic prehistoric paw in gruff welcome.
An altogether different experience awaits a summer visitor. Prices are lower, rooms and tables at the best places are more accessible, the ski lifts are open to any and all sightseers, and its picturesque, if at times nerve-rackingly corkscrew, thoroughfares are far more easily negotiated. Shorn of its wintry curtain, the mountainous landscape leaves no doubt that — with apologies to Tuscany, Sicily and Campania, home of the Amalfi Coast — the Trentino-Alto Adige region bordering Austria and Switzerland features Italy’s most stunning topography.
The 18 peaks — some exceeding 9,000 feet — form the centerpiece of a national park as well as a Unesco World Heritage site. They loom over deep valleys, wildflower-speckled meadows and a multitude of glistening lakes. Encased in their flinty bulk is the fossilized narrative of a rich marine life that perished in the Triassic period over 200 million years ago.
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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