In Italy, there is a stretch if you fly east from Bolzano where the Alps just grow in majesty, as you pass Cortina and approach the Austrian border.  This part of Italy is bilingual, much of it, with signs in German and Italian and the two cultures blend there in Tyrolean gaiety and humor, as I have often witnessed traveling thru the area.  I remember when two girls from Bolzano were flirting with me and my friend, a policeman, and asked us for a kiss--me a bit too shy to kiss them, thinking they were just teasing us but they actually meant it.  Being Italian I knew it best, lol, not to marry an Italian girl, I'd feel like I was marrying my sister, so I married out of that sorority, lol.  But I did marry myself to the beautiful scenery there, Cortina is shown well in the Bond movie "For Your Eyes Only". 

That area of Italy was home to partisans who fought the Axis occupiers, and you do not mess with mountain fighters, they are not just sheep footed, they are fierce as goats, lol.  So in addition to the alpine beauty the Alps, always a thorn in the side of anyone wanting to conquer the hearts of Europeans, they carry a long history of refuge and shelter, which is why they and other mountains look so heavenly to me, and are most wonderful for single engine, VFR flight well below the flight levels.

John

Wonderful impressions! I'm back from vacation in this area for just a week. Unfortunately, they did have a storm in winter which did severe harm to the forest your last picture shows, between the mountain massives of Rosengarten and Latemar. I hope the landscape will recover soon.