Century-old pine trees that line my path hunch over, their branches weighed down by a heavy dusting of snow. In front of me, the sun is piercing through an opening. Climbing this trail with chunky “snowshoes”, like tennis rackets, strapped to my feet is tough work, but the breathtaking views of Italy’s white-tipped Dolomites that await make the effort worthwhile.

From here you can see all the way down to the village of Andalo, where we’d hired our snow-trekking gear, and all across the vast rocky cliffs that wrap around us. As we make our way back down the mountain, we watch skiers whizz down the slopes below.