Iconic peaks are height of beauty

Summer in the Dolomites is like a different world, says Nick Dalton

‘Wherever you go there are pleasing walks – and you can take mountain lifts up to avoid the hard part’

THE mighty peak of Marmolada, at almost 11,000ft the highest mountain of the Dolomites, looms over the beautiful Val di Fassa. Charming Canazei and pretty Campitello are two of seven towns and villages that line the valley floor with rambling paths along the river and through meadows from one to the other.

Val di Fassa, a grand, meandering valley, is the perfect base for gentle walks with a backdrop of the red-rock Dolomites, ancient routes that wind through woodland and over mountain streams, a landscape where you’ll find churches and even trenches and lookout posts from the First World War.

This is just one of the beauty spots in Trentino, a region that stretches from the Dolomites and their standalone Gruppo Sella outcrop of rock in the east past Lake Garda and other beauty spots in the west, a place that sits between the balmy, fertile plains that slip down to Venice and the sea in the south and the snowcapped peaks and glaciers of the high Alps to the north.

One of the delights at the heart of Trentino is Lake Levico, a fjord-like body of water on which sits Levico Terme, a pretty spa town developed in the 19th century. It’s a two-hour walk around the lake – and you can always stop for a picnic lunch in a calm spot, even taking a swim. In the east is Madonna di Campiglio, one of Italy’s most stylish resorts, a chic place that enticed the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy a century ago. The town is surrounded by Italy’s first nature park, so is a nature lover’s paradise of waterfalls, lakes and rare flora and fauna. Ibex and alpine steinbock clamber the rocky slopes of remote side valleys and you can still glimpse bears.

Trentino is an area that is focused on by Thomson Lakes & Mountains, the expert in summer holidays to the Alps.

WHEREVER you go there are pleasing walks – take the mountain lifts to avoid the hard part, stroll on high plateaux and then wander down. There are plenty of mountain restaurants for a break.

But this isn’t simply an area for walking. There are 250 miles of easy cycling trails with extraordinary panoramas. To make it even easier, the e-bike rules here. Cycles with an electric motor are available to hire throughout the region allowing you to not only cruise through mellow vineyards but also to head off through the mountains without worry.

Trentino is also a place of fabulous food and drink. Here you’ll find a range of local cheeses, sausages, cold meats and even the local olive oil. The wines are wonderful and at the end of a day out in the fresh air, a grappa – a fiery drink made from grapes – is the perfect nightcap.

Thomson Lakes & Mountains (020 8234 6546/thomsonlakes.co.uk) offers holidays in Trentino starting from £557pp (two sharing) for seven nights, half-board, at Hotel Rododendro, Campitello, departing June 17.