Is it worth going skiing in Italy?
Hello Everyone,
today I'd like to talk about one of the most-wanted winter holidays in Italy: going in the mountains for skiing.
Apart from being one of the most popular destination during winter time, it is also one of the most expensive ones, so it's extremely important that you go for the best quality-price location.
We are a family of four and out two children are still young and when we decided to organize our Christmas week they had never even worn skis, which made our choice a little bit narrower, as we wanted to teach them without risks.
So we started searching online until we came across a website advertising a ski area that seemed perfect for us.
The location is called Brentonico and it includes two main areas: San Valentino and Polsa in the province of Trento.
If you want to check yourselves, this is their website: https://www.brentonicoski.com/ . There's a live webcam too, so people are kept updated.
This is usually the most expensive week of the year, being all Italians on holiday on those dates. Unfortunately our job doesn't allow us to have a break in less crowded periods, therefor we've become experts in saving money on high season peaks.
Nevertheless, we started to schedule our sport adventure in the mountains quite in time, so we had the possibility to choose which location we would book for a one-week stay including Sylvester's night.
After searching Booking, Airbnb, google maps and subito.it (an Italian website where you can also find touristic apartments to rent) we finally found the ideal place. It's a farmhouse called Mortigola with a B&B and a restaurant, all owned by the Bongiovanni family.
The hotel has got few rooms and the one we booked was just perfect for our family, being made up of two separate rooms still communicating, each with an ensuite bathroom and a balcony.
The price paid for one week was below 100€ a day for the four of us and it included a typical country breakfast with freshly baked cakes, eggs, ham, cheese, bread, yogurt, cereals, fruit and home made jams and juices.
The village is extremely small and the location isn't that touristic, even if there are a few hotels and a campsite (Hotel San Giacomo, a fancy relais with spa and other treatments, really good for couples; Hotel Bucaneve, cheap and common, but has the advantage of being in front of the ski slopes and offering a self service with warm dishes and sandwiches). The majority of the tourists prefer staying in apartments, which we usually do, but this time we wanted to have a relaxing experience with nothing to think about and the restaurant next door made our decision foolproof to us.
When we arrived we had no idea whether we would see a snowy panorama, due to the global increase of temperatures, a winter holiday in the mountains is becoming extremely challenging.
As I said, this hotel is located in the same courtyard of the restaurant, where you can taste home made dishes prepared with the products of their landwork. The menu was traditional but served in a quite elegant way, without being too pretensive. The environment is warm and welcoming and looks charming, cozy and Tyrolean. In my opinion, to remember a holiday, you have to live as the people of the area do, and it will make your experience unforgettable and unique, so I'm happy we went for it.
Here the guests of the B&B who want to have dinner there every night can have their table reserved with a half board treatment, which in 2019-20 included two main courses and sweet at the cost of 16,00€ per adult and 11,50€ per child under 12yrs. We eventually decided to show up for lunch before confirming the rest of the week, as we are kinda snob sometimes and want to check if it's worth it ;-)
The restaurant was a nice surprise and I can absolutely confirm you that we didn't even need to book the half board as we don't eat that much and our bill never exceeded 58,00€ in four, drinks included.
We even stayed there on Sylvester's night because it was pretty convenient. The bench did its job hosting our two sleeping girls who weren't able to keep their eyes open after 9 pm… And we had a pleasant night eating well and chatting. The cost of the special candle light dinner was €65,00 per adult and €35,00 per child. The menu had been abounding of dishes, as it included so many courses!
And now let's talk about the ski area! We had booked one month in advance, which allowed us to buy the seasonal ticket on sale, almost at the same price of a weekly subscription. This way we're going to exploit it the whole season. The ski slopes aren't many, but this has its advantages because it is never crowded and it is very suitable for those who want to learn how to ski without risking of being overwhelmed by a mad skier or snowboarder. I have been skiing since the age of six, but my husband and my children weren't experienced and needed a quiet environment. Moreover, as the hotel owner told us, the slopes aren't even too easy, so who learns here will be able to ski everywhere. According to me here's everythig one may need. Baby area, baby slopes, blue and red ones. There are a few black ones too but due to little snow weren't open.
The good thing is that unexperienced children (and adults!!) can use the tapis roulants to try the first descents with the ski teacher. After a couple of days, our girls were already able to go down the hill and get in the chairlift, so i guess the instructors are good! When we were alone we could go anywhere safely as the ski teachers took care of our daughters and then we could even go skiing altogether and have a couple of descents on a red slope too!
On this week we really wanted to relax and do absolutely nothing else, so we didn't visit much, but we had an afternoon in Rovereto, in an amazing Christmas setting. There we walked among the Cristmas huts and market, we couldn't do without a delicious Prague speciality called TRDLO which costed us 20,00€ but honestly worth it! Downtown there was an ice rink too and the kids were enthusiastic. Moreover, we treated ourselves to a warm pizza, incredibly good and not too heavy, that we ate at the pizzeria Celeste rated about 4 in Tripadvisor. It was nothing special in terms of location and there must have been certainly something better around, but I bet that was one of the few opened on the 1st January and we were satisfied with it.
Last but not least, we organized a little night experience walking in the snow up a mountain and reached a high chalet which had been opened just for us. We used head torches and the children had fun pretending to be little thumb and left orange peels on the trail to find the way back home. The panorama we had on the top of the mountain was fabulous as it had been a clear starry night and the silence surrounded us.
Here is a photo of the Costapelada chalet (http://www.baitacostapelada.com/):
The atmosphere is what you expect from a chalet: wooden furniture, a fireplace warming up the room and simple food. I was very lucky as they served nettle dumplings, a speciality that is hard to find nowadays.
So if you were asking yourselves where you could go next time, I'd just say… here!
today I'd like to talk about one of the most-wanted winter holidays in Italy: going in the mountains for skiing.
Apart from being one of the most popular destination during winter time, it is also one of the most expensive ones, so it's extremely important that you go for the best quality-price location.
We are a family of four and out two children are still young and when we decided to organize our Christmas week they had never even worn skis, which made our choice a little bit narrower, as we wanted to teach them without risks.
So we started searching online until we came across a website advertising a ski area that seemed perfect for us.
The location is called Brentonico and it includes two main areas: San Valentino and Polsa in the province of Trento.
If you want to check yourselves, this is their website: https://www.brentonicoski.com/ . There's a live webcam too, so people are kept updated.
This is usually the most expensive week of the year, being all Italians on holiday on those dates. Unfortunately our job doesn't allow us to have a break in less crowded periods, therefor we've become experts in saving money on high season peaks.
Nevertheless, we started to schedule our sport adventure in the mountains quite in time, so we had the possibility to choose which location we would book for a one-week stay including Sylvester's night.
After searching Booking, Airbnb, google maps and subito.it (an Italian website where you can also find touristic apartments to rent) we finally found the ideal place. It's a farmhouse called Mortigola with a B&B and a restaurant, all owned by the Bongiovanni family.
The hotel has got few rooms and the one we booked was just perfect for our family, being made up of two separate rooms still communicating, each with an ensuite bathroom and a balcony.
 |
| Agritur El Casel |
The price paid for one week was below 100€ a day for the four of us and it included a typical country breakfast with freshly baked cakes, eggs, ham, cheese, bread, yogurt, cereals, fruit and home made jams and juices.
The village is extremely small and the location isn't that touristic, even if there are a few hotels and a campsite (Hotel San Giacomo, a fancy relais with spa and other treatments, really good for couples; Hotel Bucaneve, cheap and common, but has the advantage of being in front of the ski slopes and offering a self service with warm dishes and sandwiches). The majority of the tourists prefer staying in apartments, which we usually do, but this time we wanted to have a relaxing experience with nothing to think about and the restaurant next door made our decision foolproof to us.
When we arrived we had no idea whether we would see a snowy panorama, due to the global increase of temperatures, a winter holiday in the mountains is becoming extremely challenging.
To our great surprise, we found out that we had been lucky. This is the panoramic view from our room:
As I said, this hotel is located in the same courtyard of the restaurant, where you can taste home made dishes prepared with the products of their landwork. The menu was traditional but served in a quite elegant way, without being too pretensive. The environment is warm and welcoming and looks charming, cozy and Tyrolean. In my opinion, to remember a holiday, you have to live as the people of the area do, and it will make your experience unforgettable and unique, so I'm happy we went for it.
 |
| Restaurant La Mortigola |
Here the guests of the B&B who want to have dinner there every night can have their table reserved with a half board treatment, which in 2019-20 included two main courses and sweet at the cost of 16,00€ per adult and 11,50€ per child under 12yrs. We eventually decided to show up for lunch before confirming the rest of the week, as we are kinda snob sometimes and want to check if it's worth it ;-)
The restaurant was a nice surprise and I can absolutely confirm you that we didn't even need to book the half board as we don't eat that much and our bill never exceeded 58,00€ in four, drinks included.
We even stayed there on Sylvester's night because it was pretty convenient. The bench did its job hosting our two sleeping girls who weren't able to keep their eyes open after 9 pm… And we had a pleasant night eating well and chatting. The cost of the special candle light dinner was €65,00 per adult and €35,00 per child. The menu had been abounding of dishes, as it included so many courses!
 |
| Menu restaurant la Mortigola |
The good thing is that unexperienced children (and adults!!) can use the tapis roulants to try the first descents with the ski teacher. After a couple of days, our girls were already able to go down the hill and get in the chairlift, so i guess the instructors are good! When we were alone we could go anywhere safely as the ski teachers took care of our daughters and then we could even go skiing altogether and have a couple of descents on a red slope too!
 |
| Ski area Brentonico |
On this week we really wanted to relax and do absolutely nothing else, so we didn't visit much, but we had an afternoon in Rovereto, in an amazing Christmas setting. There we walked among the Cristmas huts and market, we couldn't do without a delicious Prague speciality called TRDLO which costed us 20,00€ but honestly worth it! Downtown there was an ice rink too and the kids were enthusiastic. Moreover, we treated ourselves to a warm pizza, incredibly good and not too heavy, that we ate at the pizzeria Celeste rated about 4 in Tripadvisor. It was nothing special in terms of location and there must have been certainly something better around, but I bet that was one of the few opened on the 1st January and we were satisfied with it.
 |
| Rovereto |
Here is a photo of the Costapelada chalet (http://www.baitacostapelada.com/):
The atmosphere is what you expect from a chalet: wooden furniture, a fireplace warming up the room and simple food. I was very lucky as they served nettle dumplings, a speciality that is hard to find nowadays.
So if you were asking yourselves where you could go next time, I'd just say… here!
