Italian
Ski Resorts
Italian Delight
by Richard J. Muello
Skiers constantly yearn for new and exciting experiences. They can be unbearable name-droppers, eager to talk about European resorts they have visited and their challenging mountain adventures.
Many Americans used to think the Alps were only Swiss and Austrian with fascinating, yet quite difficult to pronounce Germanic sounding names. Skiers who want to stay ahead of the curve, and are seeking new names to lay on their neighbors should consider Italy, on the sunny side of the Alps.
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Italy is Big in skiing. It has some of the best terrain on the continent, as well as marvelous après-ski activities. And, the resorts have romantic, melodically sounding names that roll off the tongue, such as Cortina d’Ampezzo, Madonna di Campiglio, and Sestriere.
More than 100 major resorts in Italy offer terrific skiing, incredible ambiance and a touch of history with a different accent. Three of the more popular resorts for many U.S. skiers and The Blue Book editors, are Bormio, Cervinia, and Courmayeur.
The last two are close to national borders, where a passport tucked in your parka is advisable. Border guards are gone, but you may still need the document for identification or to cash traveler’s checks.
From Cervinia it is possible, make that desirable, to ski into Zermatt, Switzerland, swinging on a glacier past the Matterhorn, the world’s most photogenic rock. Courmayeur is on the south side of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in western Europe. It is a starting point for a memorable ski journey down another glacier into Chamonix, France.
In these resorts the skiers are mostly Italian, but other nationalities are found in every lift line. They are a mixed bag of budget-minded skiers and elegant shoppers who double park their Maseratis in front of fur and leather shops.
BORMIO
In the Rhaetian Alps, 35 miles due east of the Swiss glamour spot of St. Moritz, is the popular Italian resort of Bormio. It is about a four-hour drive from Malpensa airport above Milan; part of the drive is along semi-tropical Lake Como.
The 4,000-plus inhabitants of this old Roman village are proud of their history. The scholar Pliny wrote in the first century about the therapeutic mineral baths. The town was politically and militarily important in the Middle Ages. Napoleon slept here. World War I battles described by Ernest Hemingway were fought in surrounding mountains.
Skiing is as challenging as skiers care to make it. . . . on wide-open snowfields draped on 10,000-feet-high Monte Vallecetta. Experts can stay in the fall line and yet run miles at a time. Novices and intermediates use easier slopes and wider traverses to log 50 miles of downhill a day. The 5,500-foot vertical drop is higher than that of any resort in North America.
For après-ski adventure there is an indoor thermal pool, with a coed sauna, massage room and mud baths. Shops stay open late in the old part of town with bargains in leather, clothing and ski equipment. A medieval tower helps as a reference point in locating restaurants and discos.
Accommodations range from rooms in modest pensions to suites in regal hotels. A typical three-star hotel will offer lodging, breakfast and dinner for reasonable prices, but more important will be the treatment. Skiers become part of the family. At dinner the owner may personally uncork a chilled local wine to temper the piping-hot pasta. Later he may join the group in the disco. Often there is a hiss of steam in the lounge as cappuccino and espresso are prepared for guests coming in from a moonlight walk along the Roman walls.
CERVINIA
Northwest of Milan, 110 miles away in another part of the Alps, is Cervinia, the Italian village that shares the Matterhorn with Switzerland’s Zermatt. From the Swiss side the mountain is a sharp jagged pyramid. From the Italian side, where it is known as Monte Cervino, it is rounded and less dramatic. But ski instructors who are mountain guides in summer insist this is the more challenging side to climb.
Cervinia does not have the charm of Bormio; it is still young, born in the 20th century. But no one can fault the skiing. From the village up to the top of lift-served terrain are billowing expanses of snow, looking like endless formations of cumulus clouds. The slopes are south facing and in the sun all day.
For a description of how much fun they can be, see “The run to Cervinia” account in the Swiss section, which talks about a day trip from Zermatt to Cervinia. Skiers who have Cervinia as home base can reverse the procedure and drop into Switzerland for lunch and a bit of sightseeing.
Cervinia, like most modern ski resorts, has miles of cross country trails woven into the landscape.
COURMAYEUR
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This popular resort is in northwest Italy, just below the Mont Blanc tunnel, on the main road to Chamonix, France.
Like Cervinia, it is less than an hour’s drive from Aosta, the major city in the province of Valle d’Aosta. The city of Aosta traces its origins back to Roman times; its ruins are worthy of mention in any guidebook. The massive Arch of Augustus predates Columbus by 1517 years.
Throughout the Aosta valley dozens of medieval castles stand on hilltops like sentinels guarding the old Roman road. Visiting some of them is a good way to spend a day off the slopes when the weather is bad.
Courmayeur itself is a colorful town in which you will hear a lot of Italian and French, but also much English. The village has long been a favorite with folks from the British Isles and they are everywhere in the lively après-ski scene.
Courmayeur offers skiing for everybody, including some daring, off-piste stuff on several mountains that surround the town. But on a sunny day in late winter, adventurous skiers leave their chalets to ski the Vallee Blanche from the hip of the Mont Blanc massif down into France. One of the world’s most scenic runs, it is not reserved for experts. Intermediate skiers can handle it, if they heed their guide.
(Refer to the account in the French section of the exciting access to the Vallee Blanche that causes goose-bumps for skiers starting the trip in Chamonix, France.)
On the Italian side, skiers meet their guide at the La Palud cable car station for the first of two trams up to Pont Heilbronner. After coffee and a final rest stop in the mountain restaurant, skiers saddle up for the trip through massive canyons. It will take four or five hours, depending on how often skiers stop to take pictures, and how long they linger over the picnic lunch in the snow. The guide carries the hotel-packed snacks in his rucksack.
The guide leads the way and tells his group when it is O.K. to leave the track and venture into untouched powder. But there will be stretches where he sternly forbids anyone to ski. He does not want to be embarrassed by having lost someone on the mountain. He stops for a demonstration and pokes his pole around a small hole in the snow. The hole grows with each stab, until it becomes a wide crevasse with an invisible bottom. It makes believers of skiers. They follow him, very carefully, around other fissures and through strange new formations. It is a fairyland, but not the place to spend eternity.
As they come down the valley, skiers sometimes find the snow changing from powder to corn snow. Suddenly they are upon the Mer de Glace, a sea of ice. Huge, blue-grey blocks of ice, shifting with the glacier throughout thousands of years, look like capsized destroyers. As skiers work their way through them, there are frequent pauses to look back in disbelief: “Did we really come through that?”
The last hour is in an evergreen forest on a narrow trail that may be the most difficult part of the journey. And then the group is in Chamonix, sitting in a sidewalk cafe’ and babbling about their day. The guide smiles and sips his Pernod.
The group hails a couple of taxis for the return to Courmayeur through the seven-mile-long Mont Blanc tunnel. Usually, a tunnel ride seems long and dark. But no one notices; the cabs glow with shared memories.
CORTINA AND VAL GARDENA
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Any article spotlighting Italian skiing certainly should include Cortina d’Ampezzo and Val Gardena as among the finest resorts in the world. Both resorts are located in the beautiful, rugged, jagged Dolomite mountains, and are annual hosts for World Cup events.
Cortina lies nestled in the Ampezzo valley, surrounded by the jutting mountain peaks of: Tofana, Pomagagnon, Cristallo, Sorapis and Croda. It is located 110 miles north of Venice in the Eastern Dolomites, and only 25 miles from the Austrian border.
These mountains, with their vast snowfields, provide skiers and riders with more than 70 miles of runs on diverse, challenging terrain. From the highest skiable point, at 10,640 feet, skiers enjoy a 6,624 foot vertical drop to the base area. Vistas are superb and the skiing is phenomenal.
Alberto Tomba, the flamboyant, former Olympic and World Cup champion had his initial ski lessons at the famous Cortina Ski School.
Cortina is renowned for its latest amenities, excellent accommodations, variety of fine restaurants, a lively après-ski atmosphere, numerous sporting events and entertainment facilities, as well as many cultural opportunities. The pedestrian shopping mall in the center of town includes hundreds of specialty shops and stylish boutiques.
Cortina is an upscale, elegant resort that attracts a wealthy clientele including many celebrities. It is a great place to view fabulous fashions, furs, glamorous people and of course, to ski.
Val Gardena, in South Tyrol, is one of the most popular ski areas in the magnificent Dolomites. It is about 75 miles from Innsbruck, in the Sella mountain range, and reflects its Austrian culture and traditions.
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The valley offers a network of 110 miles of runs on a variety of spectacular terrain, with breathtaking scenery, and many off-mountain activities and options. Gardena is an important part of the “Dolomite Superski” pass, and offers the “Sella Ronda” pass, a 16 mile ski tour around the impressive Sella Massif.
Val Gardena is composed of three village resorts: Ortisei, S. Cristina and Selva Gardena.
Ortisel is the largest village and the main resort in the valley. It is the cultural center, has the most amenities, and the widest selection of non-ski activities. A lively town pedestrian center has many shops displaying traditional handcrafts specializing in local woodcarving.
Several cable cars connect Ortisei with the skiing areas, including the Alpe di Siusi, a real sunny paradise.
S. Cristina lies between Selva Gardena and Ortisei. It provides the most challenging terrain in the valley and is in the mainstream of the Sella Ronda. This is the location of the famous valley-based World Cup downhill races. It is the preferred family resort with a quiet, comfortable, relaxed atmosphere.
Selva Gardena may be the best known of the three valley resorts, and is one of the leading ski resorts in the Alps, It is located at the east end of the valley, at an altitude of 5126 feet, at the foot of the Sella Massif. It offers some of Europe’s finest skiing terrain and is convenient to lifts and cable cars.
Selva Gardena enjoys a fun atmosphere, plenty of aprè-ski activities, and a reputation for the best nightlife in the valley.
THE DOLOMITÉS
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Other recommendations—Trentino
The province of Trentino bordered by the majestic Dolomite mountain range contains more than 40 ski resorts and ski centers offering a variety of ski experiences and excellent accommadations.
Among them are: Valle Di Fassa, Valle Di Fiemme, and Madonna di Campiglio.
Trentino, a winter wonderland, has more than 300 lifts, capable of moving 310,000 skiers per hour. They include cable cars, gondolas, chair lifts, and surface lifts. The uphill system accesses 373 miles of downhill runs, with non-stop skiing from valley to valley. An electronic “ski-pass,” which is now in use at 22 of the leading ski areas in Trentino, gives skiers a quick, comfortable entry system. No delays or fumbling for a card. The skier simply tucks the pass into an outside pocket of his or her ski clothes and forgets about it. Within a couple of yards of the checkpoint, an electronic beam approves the skier’s credential and he or she is cleared to pass through.
Trentino has 1,741 hotels that can accommodate 88,900 guests, with many of them offering attractive packages. In the major resort of Madonna di Campiglio, a week’s vacation in a four-star hotel with two meals daily costs approximately $750 per person in high season and $500 in low. A six day ski-pass costs approximately $144 in high season and $132 in low. A three-star or two-star hotel costs 30 to 40 percent less.
We encourage readers to visit the Internet at skiitaly.com for current lodging information and resort photos.
As Blue Book editor, Ted Heck, says “My feeling about Italian skiing is that you can throw a dart or a boccie ball and go where it lands. It’s that good! Plus, Renaissance palaces, stunning cathedrals and museums are along the way. Few countries can match the art, architecture and colorful history of Italy.”
Have fun—while schussing great slopes in sunny Italy.
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