Straddling Italy and Austria, the Dolomite Mountains blend three languages, two identities and one breathtaking landscape – but their delicate balance is being tested

In the shadow of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, the old military road from Rifugio Auronzo led me along a clifftop path marked by rockfalls. On an exposed curve was a lonely stone chapel, the Maria Ausiliatrice Madonna della Croda Church. Built in 1917, I read. A few metres away was a monument built by the Bersaglieri, Italy's elite infantry corps, to commemorate the fallen during World War One. It was imbued with a sense of loss, with fresh-cut flowers placed at the altar, and I ran my hands over the cold stone.

Among the rubble nearby was another monument. But this one was smaller and dedicated to Austrian mountaineer Paul Grohmann, who, 60 years before, had made the first ascent of Cima Grande, the battlement-like mountain I was standing below. It was a quiet celebration of bygone Austrian heroism.

Tragedy. Triumph. The complicated history of these borderland mountains was suddenly tangible in the rocks at my feet.

Once, the Tre Cime di Lavaredo (also known as the Drei Zinnen) and the Sexten Dolomites were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. For more than 550 years, until 1918, the regions that now form Trentino-Alto Adige/South Tyrol, Belluno in Veneto and part of Friuli-Venezia Giulia belonged to the Habsburgs. Since their transfer in 1919 as part of territorial gains following the end of WW1, they have been ruled by Italy.

It has been said that the Dolomites have a curiously dual personality. It's Austria, but Italy. Italy, but Austria. Then, this heritage is interwoven with a third cultural and linguistic identity: Ladin, the Dolomites’ unique ethnolinguistic group that speaks an ancient form of Latin, or Rhaeto-Romance. Hiking is largely a pursuit to quiet the mind, but in the Dolomites it is different. A short walk can sometimes feel like walking through three countries at once.

"Our mountains have a split personality – particularly in the South Tyrolean part of the Dolomites," said Agustina Lagos Marmol, founder of specialist tour operator Dolomite Mountains. "But that suggests division. Our three languages have equal status [under the region's Autonomy Statute (1972)], and everyday life reflects these overlapping influences, from architecture to dialects to cultural attitudes. Our cuisine, for instance, seamlessly blends Italian flair with Tyrolean heartiness and Ladin traditions. That sets it apart from the more uniform, traditionally Germanic Alpine fare found just across the border [in Austria]."

If you join the hikers in the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, you'll notice that too. When I arrived at Refugio Lavaredo, there was a sense of shared purpose and communality with hikers of all ages and languages sharing food, beer, wine and aperitifs across long tables, both inside and out. They were connected to the landscape – the steepled ridges, the furious clouds, the mountains watching up there – but, more importantly, to each other. It was more social than functional; the polar opposite of my experiences exploring quieter mountain refuges in Austria.

The flipside is the

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