Dolomites / South Tyrol

[Aliciafaith]

Hi,

has anyone been to south tyrol or dolomites in early to mid march?

do you have any activity recommendations / food etc?

also if you drove from verona how was driving ? I know it is over 2 hours, is there still snow on the roads?

thank you!

Verona to Bruneck/Kronplatz takes over 2 1/2 hours, and to Cortina is almost 4 hours. These are journey times on a clear day, not on a wintery day with rain or snowfall, when the driving time might be substantially more. In the mountains it is impossible to predict so far in advance whether or not there will be snow on the roads, but in early to mid-March there is usually not much snow on the roads.

As for activities, all of the mountain resorts are geared towards skiing and other winter activities. There might be some snow-show hiking, but obviously the snow on the mountains determines what other activities are possible. Bolzano is a nice small town for a day or two.

Food is a mixture of traditional Austrian dishes - schnitzel, goulasch, "pork and potatoes" and cheezy stuff like Kasnocken (mmm...) - and Italian-influenced dishes.

Activities: all the winter ones, mainly skiing! We ski at Madonna, in the Brenda Dolomites. The roads are always well kept, with snow appearing only on the final run up the mountain to our hotel.

As PPs have said March is very much in the ski season so activities will be mainly snow focused. The Dolomites are a fairly big area so travel time will vary a lot depending on where you go to.
Road clearing is pretty efficient, a few years ago late March / April I stayed at Sulden, high and tight to the Austrian border. We had heavy snow on the last evening, several inches settled in the while eating dinner. It was still snowing for a 6am departure but the road to the valley was mostly clear and the ploughs were keeping it so.
Depending where you head to allow for significantly longer travel times than Google maps give for single carriageway roads more so in inclement weather.