The Dolomites are one of the main places for winter sports in Italy. One of the most practised and followed is undoubtedly ice hockey. Most of the main teams participating in the national hockey championship are based here. We find ourselves in Renon, home to one of Italy's first and best known teams, in the company of Adolf Insam, coach of many successful teams including the Italian national team. Together with his son Marco, a current Renon player, and the young Alan Lobis, we witness the dialogue of three different generations who expound their personal vision of the sport.

The Dolomites are often referred to as the 'Pale Mountains' and have always been the source of myths and legends. An environment characterised by the imposing presence of the Dolomite rock, which seems to observe man from above in his daily activities, is in fact the ideal place for the creation of supernatural stories passed down orally. Our host Ulrike 'Ulli' Innerkofler guides us through the Fanes-Sennes-Braies nature park, which, as philologist Paul Videsott points out, is closely connected to the famous Fanes legends. Myth expert Ulrike Kindl reveals the mysterious mechanism by which these legends are passed down orally.

Mountain tourism as we know it today was born in the Alps. The subsequent discovery of skiing as a sport brought tourists to the mountains and created, starting in the 1960s, the custom of the 'skiing holiday' during the winter season.

Franco Gaspari, an alpine guide from Cortina d'Ampezzo, introduces us to the history of mountaineering in the Dolomites and its mythological characters such as Francesco Lacedelli and Paul Grohmann, while writer Ingrid Runggaldier tackles the subject of women in mountaineering, such as Beatrice Tomasson, in which rising is not only about conquering the peak, but also about finding one's own space in a hostile environment occupied only by men.

We continue our journey into the culture of the Dolomites to better understand the relationships over the centuries between the Ladin language and the neighbouring German and Italian language areas.

Margherita Menardi, Ladin-speaking host, is joined by a German-speaking host, Ulrike, 'Ulli', Innerkofler, a mid-mountain guide with a past in the Italian national Alpine skiing team. Together with Fabio Chiocchetti, former director of the Ladin Cultural Institute of Val di Fassa, with whom we talk about the struggle to keep a minority culture alive, and Paul Videsott, with whom we visit the collection of texts in the Ladin Museum Ciastel de Tor in San Martino in Badia, there is also Ingrid Runggaldier, writer and editor of the women's magazine Gana.

The Dolomites have always been a cultural and linguistic meeting point. 

Not everyone who visits this area knows that here Italian and German coexist with Ladin, an indigenous language and culture, which crosses the the Dolomite valleys of Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto. 

Our host Margherita Menardi "Diornista”, musician, mountain hut keeper and radio speaker, introduces us to Ladin culture together with Paul Videsott, professor of Romance Philology at the Free University of Bolzano, Fabio Chiocchetti, former director of the Ladin Cultural Institute of Vigo di Fassa, and Ulrike Kindl, Germanist and expert in Alpine mythology.

Visiting a new place is an experience that can be done in many different ways. You can do it as a tourist, or you can decide to be guided by those who, that place, know it well. Dolomiti Sound Stories is a podcast that helps you get to know the true soul of the Dolomites through the voices of its inhabitants.

We will travel across the Dolomite landscape to talk about traditions, history, the environment, language minorities, sport and land management together with those who live these experiences day by day.