Italy

Italy ’98

SFO -> EWR

EWR -> MXP

MXP -> VCE

VCE -> Cortina

Cortina d'Ampezzo

Hotel Royal

breakfast

stadia

around town

Carnival

Mangia!

Tavernetta

Faloria

Refugio d' Faloria

Freccia Nel Cielo

Lagazuoi

Monte Cristallo

Socrepes

Socrepes skiing

Venezia

The Faloria cable car is a five minute walk from the center of Cortina, so it was our first choice for skiing. We'll take the bus to other resorts later. Of course, it was snowing during our first day of skiing, which was just fantastic.

From the Italian Tourist Guide:

Cortina d'Ampezzo is a centre of considerable size made up a various villages (or viles) which has managed to preserve essential Alpine elements in its building policy.

Situated in a wide sunny valley through which the river Boite runs, it is encircled by the superb Dolomite massif of the Tondi di Faloria, the Croda del Lago, Mount Tofane, the Cinque Torri and Mount Cristallo. Nowadays it is the most important tourist centre in the Dolomites and one of the best known and best equipped winter sports resorts in the world. The valley’s skiing complex, divided between Mount Tofane and Mount Faloria, was definitively shown off to best advantage during the Winter Olympics held in Cortina in 1956.

The fast, modern ski-lifts which climb to the Lagazuoi peak and the Bus di Tafana reach a height of almost 3000 m. Numerous pistes of varying length and difficulty run down from this altitude with a total length of 140 km. Runs particularly worth mentioning are the “Lagazuoi-Armentarola”, the “Forcella Rossa”, the “Freccia nel Cielo”, the “Canalone Tofana” the “Creste Bianche” and the “Olimpica”. There are also excellent opportunities for cross-country enthusiasts with various tracks totalling about 74 km.

As if that weren’t enough, Cortina is also on the “Dolomite Superski” circuit, which means that a season ticket allows you to ski in twelve different complexes over a total of 180 km of piste, 50 km of which can be covered with artificial snow.

There are also plenty of après-ski possibilities - skating rinks, bob runs, indoor swimming pool and tennis courts, snow riding and sleigh rides, as well as shops, modern art galleries, museums, cinemas, bars, pubs, restaurants and discos. You can also visit the parish Church of Santi Filippo e Giacomo, the Ra Regoles museum and the Mario Rimaldi picture gallery.

Well said. Here are some photos from our adventures in the snow that day. Rose stands infront of the frozen water fountain. Emil, Adam, and Felicia are getting ready for a run. Rose is worried about skiing the Alps; I might have not have mentioned that the bunny slope is vertical :-)

1998/02/23.