Department of Rocks: Dolomite Mountains, Italy

The Dolomite Mountains of northern Italy are the most beautiful mountains in the world. There, we said it. All due respect to the Canadian Rockies, the Himalaya, the Sierra Nevada, and the spires of Patagonia, but the pale limestone towers of the Dolos are clustered in massive rock islands known as gruppos, their sheer faces rising five thousand feet or more above surrounding valleys, while the slopes at their bases cascade like layers of petticoats, green with farmers’ fields and dotted with huts and cabins and meadows known as alms. It is a storybook setting, a fairytale land, and once you’ve been there, you will never not want to return.

The Dolomites, northern Italy. Photo by Mathias De Coensel What makes the Dolomites so special? Rather than a line of tilted blocks like the Sierra, the Dolomites rise in their gruppos like castles, the gruppos scattered like ancient strongholds or chess pieces deep in a match. The reason is they’re made of limestone and