Skiing in Italy Dec '08-Jan '09 - his version

This was our first ski trip outside Romania borders, and our expectations were very high due to this reason. We went in the Dolomites Alps in a resort called Colle Isarco ( Italy ), situated at about 20 km from Innsbruck.

The resort is quite small, having only 3 restaurants, no pubs or any kind of “party places”. In a few words, there is absolutely nothing to do in this at resort at night :) so if you want to go there, take with you some friends and a lot of booze to make your own “pub” at the hotel lobby! I will not write anything about the nightlife, the New Years Eve party or some other type of parties, because I usually don’t talk about things that never existed.

I didn't needed a 14 days treatment of no party ... It was worse than quitting smoking ( from what I've herd ).

We stayed at a nice & clean family pension - Alpenhof Pension - paying 28 EUR/person/day with breakfast. For HB you will pay an extra 14 EUR/person/day, and you are able to choose before when you want to have the dinner at the hotel.

The closest ski area is in Vipiteno, Monte Cavalo, with 3 chair lifts and about 6 to 8 different slopes. You can go for ski in this area for 3 days maximum. Afterwards, it might be a little bit boring skiing here, although you will never get bored of the panoramic view!

The ski pass is around 32 EUR\day, but the price gets cheaper if you are lazy and arrive late at the gondola.

There are 3 restaurants on the slope, and 1 apres-ski bar. One of the restaurants, situated in the left side of the slope ( when going down off the mountain ) and has a great panoramic view and great food ( we recommend Nuddelsuppe, Knuddelsuppe and Eier mit Speck ).

With the help of 2 friends, we’ve checked also some other two great ski areas. One is called Racines, and the slopes are better/longer/faster than in Vipiteno.

On the slope there is a Fun Park where you can practice and improve your jumps in order to get closer to the sky.

The last, but definitely not the least area were we’ve been to ski, is really something to remember. My advise is to go there, if you really … but really, really enjoy to ski, and you don’t get tired very easily. The slope is called Sella Ronda. This slope can be reached from many villages like Selva or Colfosco. The idea is to surround the whole mountain only by skiing, and arrive back from to the departure town, if possible. This whole round has 110 km of slope. And, yes … you are guessing right! You have to cover this distance from 9 AM till 4 PM. If you will not do that, you will get stuck in one of the villages ( like Colfosco … ) and expect the carabinieri to rescue you or hope to find some kind of transportation back to the village were you left your car :)

The highest point of the ski area is at Marmolada ( 3265 m ) and you will take 3 telecabines to arrive to the top.

The view is amazing!