Val di Fassa

Val di Fassa needs 2 days: hiking or riding the cable car through the Sella massif, with views of dolomitic rock towers declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on one, and skiing the Sellaronda, the circuit that loops around the massif across four valleys, on the other. July-September brings the best hiking weather; December-March is ski season. It's expensive, among Italy's priciest mountain areas. It's the valley with the strongest presence of Ladin speakers, a minority Romance language predating the arrival of Italian and German in the region, still used in local signage and education.