THE first thing that struck me about the Italian ski resort of Selva Val Gardena is that it doesn’t feel completely Italian. I found myself eating dumplings and pasta on the same plate during a six-course lunch half way up a mountain. All the signposts in the town are bilingual and the pretty south Tyrolean houses that dot the town are not what you expect to find in an Italian resort.
But all this can be explained. Selva was actually Austrian until 1918 when the Italians claimed it as their own after the First World War. This gives the resort a distinctive Germanic feel.
The bolt back to reality that you are in Italy, however, comes with the ski lift queues. The Italians are certainly not known for their orderly queuing. It’s a case of shoving and pushing until you squeeze yourself into the gondola. Fortunately, that’s where the similarity with London Underground ends.
Selva is one of the lesser known resorts in the Italian Dolomites. It is more expensive than the beer swilling, Brits-abroad style of Sauze d’Oulx. There are no high-rise hotels, just picturesque south Tyrolean hotels and catered chalets. It is all distinctly more refined.
And the skiing isn’t bad either. There is a huge ski area on offer – more than 737 miles of piste and 464 lifts – all accessible using one lift pass. And all this can be explored against a backdrop of very distinctive, rather square-shaped mountains – the Dolomites which go a lovely pink colour as the sun sets.
And after a hard day’s skiing the aprés ski starts early in Selva. Half way down the mountain, in fact.
As we wearily skied down our final run of the day we passed many skiers having a few swift drinks in a mountain hut bar before they made their descent, probably somewhat unsteadily down the last slopes of the day.
The alcohol also had an impact on their feet. As we skied past, we would catch people doing the sort of dancing not seen since the school disco – a sort of shifting of your feet and a bit of gentle bouncing up and down. It was probably something to do with the gluhwein.
The nightlife and aprés ski is there if you want it. We came across a bar full of German men singing songs that will never reach the UK charts, thank goodness. The restaurants are fabulous, combining the best of Italian food with some nice stodgy Austrian fare. Just what you need after a hard day’s skiing.
Selva val gardena
Skiing: there are 109 miles of local piste but the resort is part of the world’s largest ski area, Dolomiti Superski, which offers 737 miles of skiable piste with 464 lifts. Most of the skiable terrain is suitable for intermediate skiers with 30% rated as easy and 10% difficult. All this can be accessed using the one ski lift pass.
Longest run: five miles.
Cross country: 61 miles.
Mountain restaurants: 10.
Sample price: Thomson Ski and Snowboarding offers a week’s holiday in a catered chalet Brigitte from £405 for departures on January 6 2001.
Lift pass: from £99 for six days in low season to £114 in high season.
Ski hire: £40 adult, £29 children.
Boot hire: £20 adult, £17 children.
Other resort activities: skating, sleigh rides, helicopter rides, indoor tennis, squash, swimming and tobogganing.
THOMSON Ski and Snowboarding is planning to fly clients skiing in the Dolomites into Verona rather than Innsbruck Airport for winter 2000/2001.
Product manager James Little said the move would benefit both operationally and from the customer’s point of view because Verona was a less busy airport than Innsbruck, one of the major gateways for ski charters into Austria.
However, he admitted transfer time will be slightly longer than Innsbruck, up to 3hrs to resorts such as Selva and Canazei compared to the current 2-2hrs and 30mins.
Meanwhile, Little said the operator was looking at expanding its Dolomites programme with the addition of another resort.
He declined to reveal the name of the destination which will make its debut in the main edition brochure.