The Comelico and Sappada are the most eastern and tucked-away corner of the Dolomites, where the upper Piave valley runs into the borders with Carnia, the Cadore, and Austrian Carinthia. These are quiet valleys, off the main tourist routes, that have held on to a rare store of traditions, languages, and architecture. You breathe an older, unspoilt air here, where wild nature still has the upper hand.
What sets these lands apart is, above all, language and culture. The Comelico has kept a Ladin dialect alive, while Sappada holds on to an old Germanic tongue, the Plodarisch, brought in the Middle Ages by Austro-Bavarian settlers from the Tyrol. That double identity tells the story of old settlements in a border zone. Since 2017 Sappada has been part of Friuli-Venezia Giulia for administrative purposes, though it stays at the heart of the Dolomites.
The hamlets keep a rare architectural heritage of timber houses built with the Blockbau technique, horizontal beams locked together at the corners, still standing in the old settlements of Sappada Vecchia and Cima Sappada. All around, there are valleys to explore: the Val Sesis with the source of the Piave, the Acquatona waterfall, the wild Val Visdende, and the peaks of the Popera Group. In February the famous Sappada Carnival, with its traditional masks and the Rollate procession, is the most heartfelt event of the year.
When it is worth coming to Comelico e Sappada, month by month: When to Go to the Dolomites: A Month-by-Month Guide.
