Sci Italia

As most of you probably know already we recently went skiing in Italy, our first visit to the home of the pizza, with the exception of the small incident mentioned in the Slovenia blog. Although the activity was the same, the facilities were a world away from what we had experienced in Bulgaria . There were 400km of pistes at our disposal, and enough lifts to move 110,000 people an hour. As it was both slopes and lifts were relatively quiet most of the time, and with the weather being perfect and the snow exceptional, we had a great time.



A number of events had taken place on the Via Lattea (which you can probably work out means 'Milky Way'), during the 2006 Winter Olympics. We were based in San Sicario, which was a very small resort with only one hotel (ours), situated at the bottom of the womens downhill skiing course.

Unlike most people who would start late, stop for lunch, and finish early; most days we would be at the lifts when they opened and kept skiing until three o'clock, when we would stop for half an hour. We'd then keep going until the lifts closed at five-thirty. Half way down the womens downhill course there was a great restaurant which was well situated for sun, and it quickly became our favourite stop for our afternoon break.



The only thing we needed to say was 'Un medzo litro vino-rosso per favore'. Unusually the red wine was cold and fizzy, but only half the price of the beer.



As mentioned above the weather was amazing, with barely a cloud in the sky most days. On one occasion it snowed in the morning, which combined with some very strong winds meant the slopes were practically deserted. We were determined though - we'd paid our money and we were going to ski. Click here to see what the weather is like in San Sicario today



AS a result of the strong winds the high chairlifts and tows were closed, so no-one fom the other resorts could make it into San Sicario. This meant the occupants of our hotel had the run of the place. We headed down the gondola and over to another ski field, but it was so windy there we decided to come back again. On the way back up the gondola kept cutting out as it was so windy, and we later learned that the gusts had been over 90km per hour!

Chris' cousin Pat (resident of Winter Park for many years, and the family ski expert) loaned us some snow goggles, knowing more than we did that we would need them. They were great when the piste was a bit shady or the sky was a bit grey, and when we wore then everything was nice and sunny.



San Sicario is located near the centre of the Via Lattea, and so we were easily able to ski to the other ski fields that also constitute parts of it. One section is actually in France, which complicates things as the colour coding of the runs (which indicates difficulty), and language on the signs changes as you are skiing along.



We'd booked this holiday over a year ago, and we made a bit of a killing on the exchange rate changes as the hotel is essentially a 4 star, which isn't the kind of accomodation we normally stay in. All the Italians staying there were relatively wealthy, dressed in designer clothes for dinner, and conducted themselves in a more cultured way than the residents who'd come from Britain. One man from the midlands actually turned up to every evening meal with a bottle of brown sauce in his shirt pocket. It was embarassing, given the amazing food that was on offer. Mind you, our skiing outfits weren't exactly off the catwalks of Milano.



The days passed and the routine seemed an almost hypnotic repetition of lift-ski-lift-ski. Suprisingly after the first few days we didn't tend to repeat many runs, except the ones we would start and finish the days with.



It was great though. The weather, the snow, the runs, the hotel; everything was as good as we had hoped. This was supposed to be the last time we went skiing in Europe, but we're already considering the possibility of another trip. We've got the ski bug.



Our flight home, like the flight there, was unpleasantly early but afforded us fantastic views of the alps in winter. Chris managed to spot Interlaken in Switzerland from the plane, which was a timely reminder of our plans for the coming year. These include two further trips to Italy, one of which will be part of a cycling trip from Baden Baden near Strasbourg, through the Black Forest, and down across Switzerland to Milan. We're also planning to do a bit of via ferrata in the Dolomites near Austria.
We're having to think hard to come up with new European adventures these days, and the fact we're repeatedly referencing our own blog in this post makes us wonder if maybe we've done enough travelling in Europe to make it blasé.