A Powder Virgin - No more!

Back from Livigno, in one piece!

Here’s my “just-back-from-week-long-holiday-and-here’s-what-I-think” report.

Livigno is a brilliant place. It’s a duty-free zone in the north of Italy, bordering Swiss Alps on three sides, it’s virtually the other side of Swiss Alps, and it is much bigger than the brochure would make you believe. The Livigno valley between the Motellini and Coresello peaks, where 5000 or so of its inhabitants live and around 15000 or so tourists stay, is about 14 kilometres long.

Getting there

We flew into Bergamo airport, which is 5 hours away by road from Livigno. I am not sure if there are any other airports nearby, but at least half the crowd in Bergamo are there to visit Bormio, which is only an hour and half away from Bergamo. However, skiing in Bormio is limited to a few perfect and technically challenging intermediate runs (where the 2005 skiing championship is to be held in a few weeks).

Accommodation

Livigno is rapidly growing and has 15000 or so beds to accommodate tourists in two of its seasons, winter and the summer, where hikers and mountain bikers move-in. There are many hotels, chalets, half-boards and self-catering apartments to go by, but booking in advance is desirable for busy season.

Snow

Livigno is so high up in the Alps, snow is guaranteed even when rest of the Italian resorts are closed. When we were there, it hadn’t snowed for two weeks, and half the Italian resorts where closed, and others planning to, there was plenty of powder in Livigno (albeit hard). Later in the week, snow blizzards swept the valley, depositing six inches of fresh snow every night!

Learning to Ski

Almost everyone I met in Livigno have been there before, loved it and back for more. Yet, there are a good few ski schools with very good instructors, with good language (English) skills (even if its with an accent, it was not difficult to understand). They are an extremely helpful bunch too, and the race at the end of the week was the highlight of the week-long-training.

However, we found booking learn-to-ski thru our travel agent about 60% more expensive than booking it while we are there. It was a bit sad to see the travel rep selling the same training for 100 quid less with in the coach to Livigno!


PS: Finished third in the beginners group. Not bad for someone from the tropics, well, thats my excuse anyway!

Eating out

Italians knows how to eat. One look at the menu will give you an idea - they expect you to order drinks, starter, a first main dish, a second main dish, extra side dishes and a dessert!!! Well, not quite, but you can if you wish to!

In general, if you like Italian cuisine, you are in for a treat. There are hundreds of places to eat out, and every one we tried is better than the other. Hotel Astoria's pizzeria for example, I couldn't finish the most delicious pizza they served, it was huge! The complimentary grappa shot was small, but it was the strongest I have ever tasted - in comparison, tequila is more lemonade!

A litre of house wine, comes in a jug and costs less than a tenner are better than most of the wine I have ever bought! A very filling eat out in a classy place would set you back only about 30 euros!

Night life

Plenty of places to party - Marco's, Homelywood, Gaffney’s etc to name a few, all packed with British and Irish crowd of all age group!

Keep in mind, hotels and restaurants are not designed keeping the beer drinkers in mind, but for the wine drinkers. They usually have two or three common toilets for both men and women, and with the British and Irish crowd and their taste for beer, long queues in front of the loo are more or less inevitable!

Shopping

Duty-free and excellent choices. Shops seems to stock all popular brands, after all, Italians does know their Armani’s from Joe's!

Cost of alcohol would make you want to move to Livigno for good! A litre of Smirnoff Premium Vodka is 6 euros, instead of the 29.99 that I used to pay here in Dublin. Litre of Baileys Irish cream is 8 euros, instead of 31.00 and a litre of Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey is 9 euros - and I meant to buy that if I win lotto here in Dublin!

Clinics and other facilities

Folks at Trauma Clinic were very helpful when my partner fell down on the hard snow and injured herself. Well equipped, their ambulance team were quick to get her to the clinic, and they were more than helpful in arranging the insurance related paperwork, and new flight arrangements etc!

Conclusion

Overall, brilliant holiday and brilliant introduction to skiing. Slightly on the expensive side, but will do it again, back to Livigno next year, may arrange the trip on my own without a travel agency in between, but definitely back to Livigno! :)