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Ladin villages
Geographically Ladinia is situated at the point of connection between the two Italian regions Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto. The four valleys start out from the Sella Massif: Val di Fassa in the South-West, Val Gardena in the North-West, Val Badia in the North/North-East (with its lateral valley of Marebbe in the North-East) and in the South-East there is Livinallongo with Colle Santa Lucia. In addition to these valleys there is the hollow of Ampezzo.
On the whole, Ladinia consists of 18 municipalities: in the Trento Province (Trentino-Alto Adige) the seven municipalities of Val di Fassa (Moena, Soraga, Vigo, Pozza, Mazzin, Campitello and Canazei), in the Bolzano Province (Trentino- Alto Adige) the three municipalities of Val Gardena (Selva, Santa Cristina, Ortisei) and the five municipalities of Val Badia (Corvara, Badia, La Valle, San Martino in Badia and Marebbe) and in the Belluno Province (Veneto) the municipality of Livinallongo/Col di Lana, the municipality of Colle Santa Lucia and the one of Cortina d’Ampezzo.
The Alpine territory with its morphological features (with mountains between 2000 and 3000 metres and rather narrow and steep valleys) has strongly characterised the settlements as well as the local culture. This can be seen observing the formation of the villages between one mountain face and the other or the steep and winding roads of communication. The local vision of the world is very well characterised by the absence of words like “horizon” or “infinity” or by the specific presence of linguistic constructions which describe the paths, the passes, the altitude, the formation of the soil on which the people moved or the various definitions for snow which differ according to its consistency.
The single Ladin valleys are linked with each other over the passes (among the most important ones there are the four Dolomite passes: the Gardena Pass, the Sella Pass, the Pordoi Pass, the Campolongo Pass; the Falzarego Pass and the Giau Pass). The adjoining territories, the Italian and the German ones, can be reached on the roads at the bottom of the valleys which are wider and more comfortable. Only with the arrival of tourism real centres developed. As long as the population was active in the agricultural sector, the majority of the farms was dispersed halfway up the slopes. The famous viles were once inhabited by more families and were basically autonomous since they had all the necessary infrastructures they needed for their survival (in some there even was a small chapel or sometimes a school). Today the public infrastructures (especially schools and health services) are all in the centres of the villages unless they are not centralised in one village of the municipality. Also the people nowadays show the tendency of building their houses next to the centres.
The conformation of the five valleys is very different: Val Badia and Val di Fassa both stretch out to a length of approximately 40 km, the first is U-shaped in the upper parts and V-shaped in the lower parts, the second has a flatter and wider shape at the bottom of the valley and steep mountain faces on the sides; Livinallongo and the Val Gardena are shorter, the first is narrower and steeper, the second wider. Ampezzo is completely concentrated on a hollow surrounded by peaks and mountains.
The most important rivers are the Avisio in Val di Fassa, the Derjon in Val Gardena, the Gadera in Val Badia, the Cordevole in Livinallongo and the Boite in Ampezzo. Each of these rivers has different smaller or bigger tributaries which again form side valleys that are sometimes inhabited (as for example the Marebbe Valley near Val Badia), or only alpine summer pastures (as for example the San Nicolò Valley near Val di Fassa). The most famous centres of tourism are in proximity of the Sella Massif: the connection between Canazei, Selva, Corvara and Arabba over the four passes with a network of ski-lifts and cableways allows the tourists to freely move from one valley into the other. In the hearts of the valleys, on the other hand, there are villages which are famous for their typical handcrafts and big cultural centres: for example San Martino in Badia (with its museum and cultural institute), Vigo di Fassa (with its museum and cultural institute) or Colle Santa Lucia (with its cultural institute).