The Dolomite mountains, currently vying for inclusion in the United Nations World Heritage List, have been attracting illustrious visitors for centuries.
The long list of the famous and powerful who spent time in Italy's stunning northern mountain range includes Goethe, Freud, King Albert of Belgium, Empress Elizabeth of Austria, and Pope John Paul II.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the celebrated German author, saw the Dolomites as a sublime expression of landscape beauty. He was an expert on geology as well as the Duke of Weimar's minister for mining and in his Travels in Italy, written in 1786, Goethe described Bolzano's ''calcareous Alps''.
The name Dolomites was first coined in 1794 by the British mineralogist Richard Kirwan in honour of the French geologist Dieudonne Dolomieu.
British mountaineers Josiah Gilbert and C.G. Churchill extended the name to the entire range in their book, The Dolomite Mountains published in 1864.
Geological research and aesthetic beauty are not the Dolomites only draw.
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, vacationed in the Trentino and Alto Adige region and wrote Totem and Taboo, his first work on group psychology, while he was staying on the splendid Reno plateau.
Elizabeth, Empress of Austria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph II, was one of the monarchs who loved the pale mountains'. Popularly known as Sissi, the empress often made excursions in the Brenta Dolomites from Madonna di Campiglio.
King Albert of Belgium (1875-1934), a great mountaineer and an honorary member of the Italian Alpine Club, climbed many Dolomite peaks.
The list of Italian politicians who have spent their summer breaks in the Dolomites includes four presidents of the Republic of Italy.
Sandro Pertini loved walking in the Val Gardena and the Val Badia; Francesco Cossiga spent time in the Val Punteria; Oscar Luigi Scalfaro favoured the Val di Fassa; and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi chose Alpe di Siusi.
Former Prime Minister Romano Prodi loves to ski in the Val Badia with occasional visits to the Campolongo Pass and Cortina, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel often vacations in the Val Fiscalina, in the Sesto Dolomites.
Finally the popes: Pope John Paul II's favourite place for summer visits was Lorenzago di Cadore, in the Belluno Dolomites.
On August 26, 1979 the Polish pope climbed Punta Rocca (3,342 metres) in the Marmolada massif and gave the angelus service in a snow storm.
Last year Pope Benedict XVI, who often vacations in the Alto Adige region, visited Val Badia to pray in the church dedicated to St. Josef Freinademetz, a nineteenth century saint from the valley who died in China.
