Ortisei Views from the Cavallino Bianco Garden

If you dropped onto this webcam by chance because you were searching for a scenic landscape to view, you’ve hit the jackpot. If you’ve been to the Cavallino Bianco Garden Hotel in Ortisei before and have dropped into the live feed to reminisce about the time you spent there, aren’t you the lucky one? Being able to look back on a stay in this beautiful location, the Val Gardena valley in the South Tyrol region of northern Italy, surrounded by the majestic Dolomite mountains, sigh, is enough to provoke a bout of envy in any seasoned traveller who hasn’t had the good fortune to go there – yet.

Ortisei is a magnet for hikers during the summer and for skiers during the winter. Who would want to laze by that sumptuous swimming pool when there are mountain trails to explore? Probably no-one is the answer to that question and the reason the pool area is deserted in the warmer months. In the colder months, it’s frozen over so unless you’re into skating on thin ice, which is not a good idea, the nearby slopes of the Dolomiti Superski Area are where you should be if you’re into winter sports.

As in many isolated rural mountain areas before tourism became the main source of income, the local folks turned their hands to a variety of things to earn an income. In Ortisei, not surprisingly with pine forests all around, it was, and still is, wood carving. Wood carving has been an important part of the culture of Ortisei for over four centuries and remains so today. And let’s face it, taking home a hand-carved souvenir is much better than going home with a broken leg so long may they continue to be chipping away with chisels at the old pine blocks.