You’re either a mountain person or a beach person, according to psychologists at the University of Virginia. A 2015 study, published in the Journal of Research in Personality, posits that those that prefer the mountains are typically more introverted and mindful, while those that choose the beach are the opposite. I’m an unabashed beach person, so I suppose it’s no surprise that I couldn’t profess to being very (or at all) mindful.
Which is why I’m in San Cassiano, one of the chocolate box villages that make up Italy’s Alta Badia, an upscale ski resort in the Dolomites. This province, South Tyrol, is a cross between Austria, Italy and something that is completely its own (the languages spoken here are German, Italian and local dialect Ladin, all interchangeably). Bakeries in this sweet little ski town are called both panetteria and backerai. Locals laugh that South Tyrol has all the Austrian efficiency and a deep appreciation of Italy’s dolce vita. Up here, even the mountains look more introverted. In the Alps, the peaks are more… obviously peak-like. Here in the Dolomites, they’re flat on top, brownish and sort of globbily cascade down.
