 Poster: A snowHead
|
Had my first turns of the season yesterday at a very small Italian resort about 90 min from Rome.
I had a choice of about 8or 9 of these resorts but had narrowed it down to 3 from a lack of info on the others. The other 2 resorts I considered were Rocarasso, about 2hrs 20 from Rome and Campo Felice again about 90min.
I opted for Ovindoli in the end as its website said it had more runs open.
Left home about 7:15 and got there about 8:45 after a very nice drive (Italian driving excepted)up through the hills. Pretty quickly once you are through the Roma Est toll you are in the mountains, it still suprises me how mountainous a country Italy is. The Auto Strada is 2 lane and windy all the way,who said the Romans built straight roads.
The ski area is a little from the main town, which is a living town not a resort. I did not get any time to explore it though.
At the bottom of the lifts there are about 6 or 7 hire shops, nothing too flash and they all tend to only stock one manufacturer so you get the Head shop, the Rossignol shop etc. Ski and boot Hire was E25 for the day. The skis were ok but the boots were not the best.
Lift ticket was E21 plus E3 for the hands free card.
On to the hill, well its a pretty small area of about 40 kms of marked trails. One 6 man Gondella , 3 x 3 man and 1 x 2 man fixed chairs. There are also a couple of button lifts for beginners and one at the snow park(which they were building). They also had a 200m magic carpet lift for begginers which was covered.
Like the Alps the Abruzzo resorts have had a good start to the season reporting 1M of snow on the upper slopes, the lower ones yesterday had a couple of stones creaping through.
Spent most of the morning skiing from top to bottom using the Gondella with the Anfiteatro and CappanaBrinn chairs. The pistes were well groomed but did have a little bit of ice arround. Because most of the sking is in a narrow valley a lot was in the shade due to the height of the sun at this time of year.
Had hoped to have some fun in the bumps but there were none to be found, off piste is not my thing yet but most of the slope side was already tracked. Did see a couple of Ski tourers about as well.
In the afternoon the 2 man Montefrredo chair opened but only to acess the panoramica red, The long Pistone black run was kept closed, I guess to keep it in good condition for the week end.
The run grading was on the generous side, the reds were not that challenging and neither was the one black I skied.
Overall Id skied out what was open(about 2/3rds) by the end of the morning. The lifts were slow and the runs short but I had great time. I would go back and am planing to take the kids for a day early next year. For a main holiday its not reccomended. If you are in Rome and have a day spare, and snow report is ok then hire a car and get up there, not the most challenging resort ever but its still skiing.
Finally Id better mention the food. A little disapointing only one of the two mountain restauraunts was open plus a self service cafe at the base.Id promised myself a good lunch but sad to say didnt get it. The Staff were all very friendly and surprised to see a Scot in their little resort.
So next up Campo Felice or Rocarasso
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Gilberts Fridge, great report - there are so many of these little places around, and so hard to find any information. I'm interested that your experience reflected my conclusion that although people tend to equate "anywhere in Italy" with "great food" it ain't necessarily so. Plenty of poor food everywhere! Still, sounds a good day out at reasonable cost. I suppose our favourite cheap Italian red wine is from somewhere around - Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
Nice write-up. I've had a day at each of Campo Felice and Rocarasso. Definitely worth a look if you're in Rome or its environs. The Abruzzi area is a really interesting place IMO - well worth a visit at any time of year and nothing like as crowded with northern Europeans as Tuscany
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
pam w, Have to say that in general we do get good food in Italy but the big exception for me is Steak / beef. I have not had a good steak since I have arrived, really miss France from a meat eaters point of view. I am now at the point where I just dont bother ordering it anymore. I am siting here dreaming about Fillet de Beouf with a sliver of Fois Gras on top, mmmmmmmmmmmm.
Forgot to give a websit in the report so here it is
http://www.ovindolimagnola.it/
I took the camera to with recharged batteries but when I got there they were flat so looks like I need another set. It was a real shame as it was a beautiful blue sky day as well. Will try harder next time folks.
Arno, Would love to here more of your views on Campo Felice, to me it looks really good from the website but one of my work collegues is really anti to it. All the info I have found seams to say it and Rocarasso are the pick of the bunch. Will be a real hardship making my own mind up though.
Ill stress again all the locals I know say you have to watch the conditions, last year was very bad and one of the resort could only open for about 10 days. They do all have good snowmaking but you need the temps to go with that.
Still they are less than 2 hours away so who am I to complain
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Gilberts Fridge, I'd find it difficult to choose between the two actually. Probably just check conditions as close to the day as possible and decide based on that. They're both pretty small but fine for a day's skiing. The runs at CF are pretty short generally but quite interesting. There's a nice bowl you can get to on the left of the area which gets lots of wind blown snow in there for some nice powder turns if that's your thing.
We didn't get quite such a good look around Rocaraso because we were touring and the conditions were truly awful (high winds; sleet; cr@p visibility). Seemed to be more skiing above the tree line and slightly longer runs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Thanks Arno, I seem to recall a picture you may have posted about that time.
I just looked on the map and Ovindoli and Campo Felice are not that far apart as the crow flies, I wonder if there are touring routes between them, TBH touring is not something I knew much about before finding snowheads.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Unfortunately the weather sucked the whole time so we didn't get to do as much touring as I would have liked. Would be nice to go back sometime though
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ