Ladin is a Romance language of the Rhaeto-Romance subgroup, mainly spoken in the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy in the provinces of South Tyrol, Trentino, and Belluno, by the Ladin people. It exhibits similarities to Romansh, spoken in Switzerland, as well as Friulian, spoken in north-east Italy.
The Dolomites, also known as the Dolomite Mountains, Dolomite Alps or Dolomitic Alps, are a mountain range in northeastern Italy. They form part of the Southern Limestone Alps and extend from the River Adige in the west to the Piave Valley in the east. The northern and southern borders are defined by the Puster Valley and the Sugana Valley. The Dolomites are in the regions of Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, covering an area shared between the provinces of Belluno, Vicenza, Verona, Trentino, South Tyrol, Udine and Pordenone.
South Tyrol is an autonomous province in northern Italy. An English translation of the official German and Italian names could be the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol, reflecting the multilingualism and different naming conventions in the area. Together with the autonomous province of Trento, South Tyrol forms the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province is the northernmost of Italy, the second largest with an area of 7,400 square kilometres (2,857 sq mi), and has a total population of about 534,000 inhabitants as of 2021. Its capital and largest city is Bolzano.
The languages of Italy include Italian, which serves as the country's national language, in its standard and regional forms, as well as numerous local and regional languages, most of which, like Italian, belong to the broader Romance group. The majority of languages often labeled as regional are distributed in a continuum across the regions' administrative boundaries, with speakers from one locale within a single region being typically aware of the features distinguishing their own variety from one of the other places nearby.
La Val is a comune (municipality) in the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about 45 kilometres (28 mi) northeast of the city of Bolzano.
Val Gardena is a valley in the Dolomites of South Tyrol, Northern Italy. It is best known as a tourist skiing, rock climbing, and woodcarving area.
Badia is a comune (municipality) in South Tyrol, northern Italy. It is one of the five Ladin-speaking communities of the Val Badia which is part of the Ladinia region.
The Puster Valley is one of the largest longitudinal valleys in the Alps that runs in an east-west direction between Lienz in East Tyrol, Austria, and Mühlbach near Brixen in South Tyrol, Italy. The South Tyrolean municipalities of the Puster Valley constitute the Puster Valley district.
Corvara in Badia is a comune (municipality) and a village in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Bolzano.
San Martin de Tor is a comune (municipality) and a village in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about 45 kilometres (28 mi) northeast of the city of Bolzano.
Sëlva is a comune (municipality) and a village in the Val Gardena in South Tyrol, northern Italy, located about 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of the city of Bolzano. The Ladin and Italian place names derive from the Latin word silva ("wood").
Alta Badia is a ski resort in the Dolomites of northern Italy, in the upper part of the Val Badia in South Tyrol. It is part of the Dolomiti Superski ski area. It is included in the territories of the municipalities of Corvara, Badia, and La Val. Centered on Corvara, the extended area's lift-served summit elevation is 2,550 m (8,366 ft) on the Sella group, with an overall vertical drop of 1,226 m (4,022 ft) to Pedraces. The native language of the majority of the locals is Ladin.
The Istitut Ladin Micurà de Rü is a government-financed cultural institute in South Tyrol, Italy, tasked with preserving and promoting the Ladin language and culture.
The Maratona dles Dolomites, is an annual single-day road bicycle race covering seven mountain passes in the Dolomites. Open to amateur cyclists, the Maratona—with 9,000 riders chosen from 30,000 applicants, from over 70 nations—is one of the biggest Italian Granfondo bicycle races. National Geographic described it as "one of the biggest, most passionate, and most chaotic bike races on Earth."
Calfosch is a mountain village in South Tyrol, Northern Italy. A frazione of the comune (municipality) of Corvara, it is the highest village with permanent residents in the Val Badia at 1,645 metres (5,400 ft) AMSL.
The Ladins are an ethnolinguistic group in northern Italy. They are distributed in several valleys, collectively known as Ladinia. These include the valleys of Badia and Gherdëina in South Tyrol, of Fassa in the Trentino, and Livinallongo and Ampezzo in the Province of Belluno. Their native language is Ladin, a Rhaeto-Romance language related to the Swiss Romansh and Friulian languages. They are part of Tyrol, with which they share culture, history, traditions, environment, and architecture.
The Questione Ladina is a controversy over whether the Romance languages of Romansh, Ladin, and Friulian form a proper language subfamily or should rather be regarded as a part of a wider Northern Italian dialect continuum. Both the idea of a distinctive language sub-family and the denial of a Ladin unity still have strong proponents, the former especially among Swiss, German and Austrian, the latter among Italian linguists. The issue has political implications beyond the linguistic controversy, as the areas involved have been subjects of territorial disputes, especially during the first half of the 20th century.
Alta Valsugana e Bersntol is one of the sixteen districts of Trentino in the Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. Its administrative seat and major town is Pergine Valsugana.
Ladin Dolomitan or standard Ladin is the standard written constructed language (Dachsprache) based on the similarities of the five main dialect-groups of Ladin. It is the desired outcome of the project called SPELL under the initiative of The Union Generala di Ladins dles Dolomites and the Ladin cultural institutes Micurà de Rü,Majon di Fascegn and Istitut Pedagogich Ladin to create a unified standard written language.
Gran Risa is a World Cup giant slalom ski course in Italy at Alta Badia. On Piz La Ila mountain in the Dolomites, it hosted its first World Cup event in 1985.
