Skiing in the Dolomites

The next stage of our travels took us to The Alto Adige region of Northern Italy in the Italian Dolomites (also known as SüdTirol in German). This passage is written by Dad as this was a 'not to be missed' part of our holidays in Europe because of the skiing. Our friend Benta (who has two girls) kindly invited us to share her chalet accommodation for two nights in Valdaora (Olang in German). The following two nights were spent in the next village called Rasen, as the week of 6th January (Epiphany) is very busy.


Rasen

Even though we had been warned that we would have to brush up on our German before travelling to this part of Italy, the prevalence of the language was surprising. Penny appreciated the authentic Gulasch and Strüdel. We also tried traditional dishes such as Speck (salt-and-cold-smoked cured ham) and Knödel (bread or potato dumplings).


Only the best skiers wear jeans!


You may be wondering why there are no photos of daddy skiing, well daddy was so keen to get down the slopes there wasn't much time for tourism.




The skiing at Plan de Corones (Kronplatz) in the Dolomites was by far the best skiing I have done, the shameless number of runs, the oversupply of restaurants scattered over the mountainside and the quality and efficiency of the lifts was incredible.

Our friend Benta helped fast track the process of hiring skis and organising ski lift passes maximising my skiing time!


Lily tasting some snow


One of the most delicious runs was a black run called Sylvester a mid range black run with a restrained amount of danger. The Hernnegg run however was a nail biting descent even for someone who leaned how to ski at the age of seven :)

We always knew that daddy would hijack this stage of the holiday, and I can understand why Penny exclaimed that after a while, a non skier feels like they are at a club they do not belong to. Penny enjoyed the trip up to the top of the mountain in the gondola, but there is not much to do if you are a non skier who has to take care of a toddler who is not particularly interested in snow!



So far, for me, this has been the highlight of the trip. The two full days of skiing I managed to squeeze in were magic. Even though I have not skied regularly since the age of thrirteen, regular running and rollerblading in Australia paid off and allowed my legs to survive the punishing (exquisite) ordeal of skiing one the most picturesque locations on Earth - the Italian Dolomites.


Plan de Corones


Our last day at the convent of St Thomas on Lake Garda

The weather is very foggy and cold we decided to follow a random little mountain road which ended in a very serendipitous event - the inauguration of a small church called Madonna Di Supina by the Bishop of Brescia - Giulio Sanguineti . A very modest mountain church that had taken seven years to restore.