The Comelico and Sappada are the most eastern and secluded corner of the Dolomites, where the upper Piave valley meets the borders with Carnia, the Cadore, and Austrian Carinthia. These are quiet valleys, far from the main tourist routes, that have preserved a rare heritage of traditions, languages, and architecture. Here you breathe the air of an ancient, unspoilt world, where pristine nature still holds sway.
The identity of these lands is above all linguistic and cultural. In the Comelico, a Ladin dialect has survived, while Sappada preserves an ancient Germanic idiom — the Plodarisch — brought in the Middle Ages by settlers of Austro-Bavarian origin from the Tyrol. This dual character tells the story of ancient settlements in a border zone; since 2017 Sappada has been administratively part of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, though it remains at the heart of the Dolomites.
The hamlets preserve a rare architectural heritage of timber houses built using the Blockbau technique — horizontal beams interlocked at the corners — still visible in the historic settlements of Sappada Vecchia and Cima Sappada. All around, valleys wait to be explored: 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 celebrated Sappada Carnival — with its traditional masks and the Rollate procession — is the most deeply felt event of the year.
