In the heart of the Dolomite Mountains of the Veneto region is the Ski Network of Civetta, with its unspoilt landscape, rich with impressive beauty. Alleghe, Zoldo, Selva di Cadore and Palafavera are the main resorts of the area, which has as its backdrop the beautiful panorama of the Dolomites, with Monte Civetta and Pelmo, which can be considered the heart of the Dolomites themselves. As early as the end of the 19th century, these mountains saw the arrival of many writers, poets and especially mountaineers and rock climbers, who were all enthusiastic about the spectacle of the rocks which turn pink at dawn and dusk, and fascinated by the unspoiled nature of these valleys. Monte Civetta is particularly attractive because it is so majestic and has such steep sides.
At the beginning of the last century, the tourists, the English explorers, and then the famous climbers from the Bavarian school, successfully pitted themselves against the walls of Monte Civetta. In August 1925, Emil Solleder and Gustav Lettembauer established the sixth (hardest) degree for the first time in the story of world mountaineering.

But Monte Civetta didn't only inspire climbers, as we said, but also writers, especially poets, who were inspired by that wall. Giosuè Carducci, frequent summer visitor to the area, wrote in 1866:
"I am here among the real Alps, at 1029 metres above sea level, at the foot of Civetta, which, in spite of being called "Little Owl" is grandiose with permanent snow and glaciers. In the evening, when the sun is already set in our world, it has its needles and pinnacles still illuminated with a pink light. The mountain seems like a great citadel of the Titans, lit up to receive the pacific gods.
When it doesn't snow, like last Sunday, or doesn't rain, like today, I sit in the shade of the fir trees reading Virgil. Otherwise among the rumble of the three big streams, I fall asleep reading Shakespeare. I eat wonderful meat or trout which tastes of nymphs, play cards and write poetry."
Another description of Civetta was given in 1873 by Amelia B. Edwards, an English writer and traveller, who was so attracted to the Dolomites that she wrote a book about them : "a sheer, magnificent wall of upright precipice, seamed from crown to foot with thousands of vertical fissures, and rising in a mighty arc towards the centre,… and filling in the end of the valley as a great organ-front fills in the end of a cathedral aisle."
We owe the actual origins of the name "Monte Civetta" to the research into the place names carried out firstly by Grohmann (1867) and then by the geologist W.Fuchs. They discovered that the original name "Civita" (possibly deriving from the Latin "civitas") should be written "Civetta", due to the similarity that the early inhabitants saw with a little owl that is about to take flight, with its wings still folded ("der Berg wegen seiner Gesalt, nach dem Käuzchen, benannt ist").
Here, then is a concrete, refined image of this mountain, unique in its genre, through the words of the famous mountaineer H. Kiene : "Civetta, mountain of desires, mountain of dreams! Your name means in German the little owl, and also the enchantress, the fascinating, bashful beauty, and you are both. With a bit of imagination, looking from Livinalongo, we can make out in you that fat bird with half-opened wings described in the book of fables of the Alps, which has been taken on as a symbol of wisdom and knowledge". But for many, we would add, it also represents that seductive flirt that, indifferent and disdainful, contemplates her beauty in the blue mirror of the lake of Alleghe. Meanwhile she silently looks for ardent admirers to overcome the caprices of her inaccessibility by the many dangerous paths that take them up to the superb heights of her summit.