Dolomites hut draws hundreds of tourists after its krapfen go viral

Herz — World Desk · 19 August 2026 at 04:56 · 30s summary · 2 min read

What we know

Hundreds of tourists have crowded the Friedrich August mountain hut in Val di Fassa, between Col Rodella and Passo Sella in the Italian Dolomites. According to The Guardian, the attraction at 2,300 metres above sea level is not the panorama but the hut’s krapfen: traditional doughnuts sold for up to €4 each.

Some visitors rise before dawn to reach the front of the queue. Others camp at the site overnight to secure the pastries before they sell out.

Food bloggers and influencers triggered the surge by posting videos of themselves tasting krapfen against a backdrop of Dolomite peaks. Images of the long queues were then widely shared online, attracting more visitors rather than discouraging them.

An employee who asked to remain anonymous said the hut had made the pastries for 30 years without any problems. The employee described the situation created by influencers as “chaotic” and said the staff were unhappy with it.

Mountain organisations respond

The mountains are not a playground.

— Marco Bussone, president of Uncem

Marco Bussone, president of Uncem, Italy’s national union of mountain communities, criticised algorithms for concentrating crowds at natural sites. He said the mountains were not a playground.

Francesco Abbruscato, president of the Veneto branch of the Italian Alpine Club, said image-driven tourism was eroding the spirit of the mountains. He dated the emergence of concentrated overtourism in the Dolomites to “five or six years ago”. The Italian Alpine Club is an association of mountaineers and mountain enthusiasts founded in Turin in 1863.

A recent precedent

This is not the first such episode in Italy. In January 2025, the ski resort of Roccaraso in the Abruzzo region experienced a mass influx of visitors after a TikTok star posted skiing videos from the area.