 Poster: A snowHead
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I reckon in order (considering overall skiing and apres):
Excellent:
sauze d'oulx - the bees knees if you know where and when to go in resort to avoid the english!
madonna di campiglio - pure italien chic and Ferrari!
passo tonale - crazy horse is a great pub/club
Average:
Livigno - the village is too long and skiing hard to get to
champoluc - great vibe, full of sweds but no real apres ski
canazei - not bad but full of Danes - and they are worst than the english
corvara -average
Must try harder:
cervinia - a bit broing - more swiss than italien
bardonecchia - brown pants with yellow trim.
Sestieire - rough as a badgers back bottom
Or you could think differently?
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Mon 15-11-04 0:42; edited 2 times in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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?
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| kezzy1966 wrote: |
I reckon in order (considering overall skiing and apres):
Excellant:
passo tonale - crazy horse is a great pub/club
Average:
canazei - not bad but full of Danes - and they are worst than the english
corvara -average
Must try harder:
cervinia - a bit broing - more swiss than italien
Sestieire - rough as a badgers back bottom
Or you could think differently? |
The caveat that applies to many Italian resorts is snow conditions.
I would agree that when snow is good Sauze is great. You do not have to go to Andy Capp's bar or whatever the latest equivalent is.
Passo Tonale is a bit small scale. It is really a learners resort for school parties and the like. Excellent ? Not in my book. There used to be a nice little bar called Nico's that gave us all key rings in the shape of Italy. Our hotel was a 1970s monstrosity with orange walls. They used to let us in to the dining room before the kids. I can imagine what it must feel like to be a school teacher on a school trip.
Canazei is on the super ski dolimiti circuit which is magnificent when snow is good. No Danes when I was there and the sheer scale of the place and scenery means I would rate it as excellent. I did not stay in Corvara but the links will be as good as Canazei and that is good enough for me.
Cervinia links in to Zermatt if the weather is right. Snow is top notch and the mountain restaurants are pretty good too.
Sestriere has better snow than Sauze and you can cover the same area. I would have thought the apres would be more to your taste if you thought Sauze too ' English' which I take as code for full of p**s artists.
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Dan, re 'avoid the english' : the english are great (being an Irish/Brit-South Londoner myself)
...as long as they are:
1) teaching the world to queue
2) apologising when accidently bumping into people on a high street
3) making real ales
4) running pubs
...but they/we (generally) have issues with:
1) wanting to fight the world after a few lagers
2) not attempting to speak a foreign language
3) not trying the local cuisine
4) not interested in the local culture
But don't take my word for it, next time your in Sauze just trying asking the local English workers what the english are like!
The right strategy for Sauze?
o forget chasing women, none go there!
o sauze does not even think about starting until 11pm!
1) after skiing all day, go to bed for 2-3 hours sleep
2) wake up, have dinner around 7/8pm with lashing of good quality local wine
3) 10pm s**t/shower/shave
4) 11pm cotton club/darby bar
5) 11.30pm check out the irish bar (paddy somethings?) because it would be rude not to
6) mignight+ goto vagga bondi's and get treated like royality as you are 'english' that have found the right bar at the right time. Enjoy their quality live bands and really fast bar staff
7) 3pm start drinking large bottles of water
6) go home at around 4 pm after a great chat with locals and ex-pats workers
7) unless the pizza restaurant is still open
 up again at 8am ready for the slopes.
THE ABOVE STRATEGY WORKS FOR AT LEAST 6 WEEKS !
Also:
If you are with the big tour companies, and you have to collect your ski pass from their introduction meeting, make sure you put the ski pass in your trouser pocket immediately. I knew workers who would nick passes out of peoples ski jackets(left on floors/ behind chairs) on the sunday night and sell them on!
LAST POINT: Have a great laugh.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Courmayeur's quite nice, but I found the mountain restaurants disappointing.
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can you expand a little on Bardonecchia? I'm off there in eight weeks time for a week.
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| no_snow_in_swindon wrote: |
| can you expand a little on Bardonecchia? I'm off there in eight weeks time for a week. |
me too
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I thought there was absolutely no 'real' night life in Bardoneccia. I found one bar (at the top end of the high street?) which had potiential (right bar layout, nice staff etc...) but even that did not get going. I think the problem is that it is a real working town and not just a tourist village.
Suggest one night you get a cab to Sauze (at say 8pm) and get it to pick you up again at say 3am. It is about 15-20 mins away if I remember rightly. I think it was about £15'ish return ???
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I thought there was absolutely no 'real' night life in Bardoneccia. I found one bar (at the top end of the high street?) which had potiential (right bar layout, nice staff etc...) but even that did not get going. I think the problem is that it is a real working town and not just a tourist village.
Suggest one night you get a cab to Sauze (at say 8pm) and get it to pick you up again at say 3am. It is about 15-20 mins away if I remember rightly. I think it was about £15'ish return ???
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Observations:
Sauze's lift system is sh*te, Sestriere's is way better.
Canazei and nightlife are virtually mutually exclusive.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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laundryman, best two (IMHO) are the ones at the top and bottom of the Zerotta chair. They are a mix though - not surprising when there's so many there for the size of the resort. There's a few I've not been to for a while though.
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Spelling Police here. Reading the way you spell Italien I thought you were German, certainly not English/Irish. Are you sure? 
And, it's Bardonecchia not Bardoneccia. (if you want to have an idea how cch is pronounced, well, something like kk.
.
As for the "top list" well, everyone it's entitled to have personal opinions...
I personally rate higher what you have rated lower...I spend one week each yeatr in Colfosco...and have friends in Champoluc, plus I am close enough to Passo del Tonale to afford it for a day trip.
One suggestion, which is coming too late anyway, since the draft has been suspended and Italy has now a professional army too.
When in Passo del Tonale, try to make friends with the Alpini (soldiers, mountain troops) quartered there...
Some of them will be more than happy to take you skiing along and show you the secrets of the place, you only need a nice girl to volunteer as sacrifice (or bait)
Of course you and her will need to master the Italian language and many of its Northern dialect, maybe some German too.
Ahr Ahr.
As for Apres ski, I don't care about that. In bed by 22.00, I need rest.
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You know it makes sense.
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Matteo, although Passo del Tonale is correct, in England the resort is known as Passo Tonale, without the "del". Count yourself lucky that much is used. I have one friend who despite years of being corrected still refers to it as "Passo", he can't get his head round the idea of the words being in a different order....
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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skanky, thanks for the tip!
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Poster: A snowHead
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laundryman, there's two at the bottom of the chair, the one with the big terrace is best when it's sunny, but you struggle for a table. Check out the photgraphs inside though. The one at the top (where you can go one down to Zerotta or the other way down to Chercroit) is great if the weather's a tad inclement (the deserts are superb, if the first course a little snack-ish). Go there enough times though and you may start getting the odd gratuitous digestif after the meal. Incidentally, there's an outdoor swimming pool here in the summer, which is nice.
The one at the top of the left-hand chair from Chercroit (it's a bit of a walk) has views of Cervinia/Matterhorn from its balcony. It's reasonable food-wise though I didn't go last time I went there (and haven't been for two-three years), so can't remember exactly how reasonable (there's sometimes an outisde snack-bar or the restaurant inside).
Hmm, got carried away there and some of the info. may be out of date now. But We've generally settled on those three now when we go.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Matteo, "Bed by 22:00" What the hell is that all about? Tucked up nicely with your horlicks and teddy bear?
(...fuse lit, retreat to some where safe and wait for the explosion  )
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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?
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Matt, is colfoso (or as we say we say in souuuth London: 'Colf', on the sella rhonda circuit.
(...and Sella Rhonda is that is not in wales!!!)
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matt, and I should add 'val gardena' as a top skiing resort...
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Quote: |
...I spend one week each yeatr in Colfosco...
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Lucky devil 
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As for Apres ski, I don't care about that. In bed by 22.00, I need rest.
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Are we related?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| kezzy1966 wrote: |
Matteo, "Bed by 22:00" What the hell is that all about? Tucked up nicely with your horlicks and teddy bear?
(...fuse lit, retreat to some where safe and wait for the explosion ) |
Eheh Kezzy1966; an auld proverb goeth: "Good family girls (and boys I'll add just to be PC) go to bed early to be home before midnight"
And yes, Colfosco is the small village just above Corvara (in fact it's part of the same town council) on the way to Passo Gardena after which lies
Selva. As such it's part of the Sella Ronda. Selva it's a nice town in summer too, the scenery is breathtaking with all the flowers...I prefer smaller, quieter
villages (as Colfosco is) but hey, to each its own, as said! The important thing is that we all enjoy ourselves.
Chris B I don't know, but given that my family name starts with a "b" too...
and the fact that I have (as 97 % of Italians, Irish, and others migrant peoples) family here and there aorund the world..it may well be
nbt your friend may be right after all, local people all around do call
their "own" mountain pass "Passo", the problems start when there's more than one!!!
Also, Passo Tonale and Passo del Tonale are both useable, I was just being a bit too picky, playing devil's advocate for the fun of it.
Cheers!
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FAQ
Loved it so much and the company we went with were going back and taking 10+ mates with us...............any hints and tips for "secret" areas 
) and wanted to know about the team etc, after eventually explaining in French (my Italian is very basic, but I 
