SET-JETTING

This year sees the 40th anniversary of the release of the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only – which helped put a popular Italian ski resort in the spotlight.

Starring Roger Moore as 007, it features an iconic Bond ski chase, with our hero pursued down the slopes of Cortina d’ampezzo in the Dolomites.

Directed by John Glen, the movie showcases Cortina’s historic town centre and ice rink, as well as the Tofana mountain – but it is that ski chase that makes the most exciting use of the town’s attractions.

Bond takes a leap from the Olympic ski jump, then speeds down the runs and across a restaurant terrace, pursued by gunmen on motorbikes, before plunging onto the resort’s bobsleigh track.

Moore learnt to ski for the film, but the action sequences were performed by former ski racer Willy Bogner, who also filmed footage skiing both forwards and backwards down the bobsleigh track.

Bond’s hotel of choice for his mission (Moore stayed there too during filming) is the five-star Miramonti Majestic Grand Hotel, with one scene showing him looking out from his balcony (room 108 in real life).

It’s the same hotel used in the original Pink Panther (1963) with Peter Sellers.

The high-altitude Bar Cima Tofana and the town’s chic pedestrianised street Corso Italia provide more of the glamorous settings for encounters between spies.

Many of the locations from the film can still be visited and some will play a part in the 2026 Olympic Games, which Cortina is set to jointly host with Milan.

Skiers will be racing down the slopes in 2021 too, as the resort hosts the World Alpine Ski Championships on 8th February. dolomiti.org/en/cortina