will be flying in to Venice/MP and then thinking about taking a train up to the Dolomite region to stay for a couple of nights. Any advice on where to go? Would like to go snowshoeing or skiing and then get back to Venice, spend one night before flying out on an afternoon flight.

TTT

We just came back from a ski trip there. The two cities to get a train to are either Bolzano or Trento. Then it is a bus or taxi from there. There is also a bus directly from Venice but I think it may only go on Saturdays. We stayed in Campitello di Fassa. It is at the foot of the Col Rodello cable car providing easy access to all Sellaronda resorts - and that is a lot. We caught a train to Trento and then the bus to Campitello. Bus took 2.5 hrs but was cheap. It stopeed at lots of other villages also. Others staying in village took taxis back to either Bolzano or Trento. One person even took a taxi to Milan from Campitello but that seems a ridiculous expense to me. There are also private transfer services from Verona. We loved the skiiing. Not sure about snow shoeing - all skiing was on piste due to the snow conditions. That might change.

Hi Leah - I generally prefer the Val Gardena and Val Badia areas, - but if you are only going for a day or two Cortina might be more convenient.

If you are travelling at the weekend there is a direct bus service from Venice to Cortina.

Otherwise you can take the train as far as Calalzo - from where there is a connecting bus service up to Cortina.

http://www.dolomiti.org/dengl/Cortina/index.html

http://www.dolomitisuperski.com/home.athx?ccode=en-US


If you prefer to go to Val Gardena you can train to Bolzano as Aussie says, then bus up to Ortisei or Selva.

www.valgardena.it

Hope this helps ...

Steve

it was just a thought, I think we are going to save skiing in the Dolomites for a trip when we have more time and/or want to rent a car. thanks for your replies

Hi Leah!

We've been skiing in the Dolomites twice *without* a car. It's simply not needed. Once, we flew to VCE, took the train to Bolzano and a bus to Val Gardena. There's free, frequent public buses that move skiers from the different mountains to the different towns. Another time, we flew to MXP and took a shuttle directly to our hotel in Val di Fassa, but we could have taken the train to Trento, and a bus from there. Usually, the bus shuttle services from the airports operate only on the weekends. Besides the free public shuttle, our hotel in Val di Fassa had private door-to-door shuttle service to the closest 5 ski areas. We had a fantastic time in both trips. The scenery, the food, the general ambiance is wonderful. We would have gone again this year, except I got pregnant. Besides Venice, other nice overnight stops between VCE and the Dolomites are Verona and Trento. We've spent nights there and both are charming towns with great food.

We just don't have enough time to do this justice. Basically between trains and buses we wouldn't get anywhere until after 5pm and then have one full day and have to leave the a.m of the next day so we can stay near Venice for our flight out.

Oh, I totally glanced over the 'couple of nights' part of your post! Yes, you're correct, save it for another trip.