La Villa, Dolomites

A snowHead

luigi, Nope not that one altho that may be the one freddie p mentioned....

I was thinkinh of one in direction of selva, dropping down belvedere as coming from arabba, on r side of bowl....old school kind of place.

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DoubleBombardino, yes Fredarola was the one I was talking bout.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Thanks luigi, I remember having a bit of navigation trouble around the Corvara area all right Smile

Cortina sounds like a great day trip. What's the skiing like on the Marmolada? I've seen a lot of comment on the length of queues if you don't get there early, but am wondering how challenging it is.

Have to say I can't wait to get to the Dolomites again.

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dippdydoodogg, The three stage gondola can have queues but if you go up the chairlifts at Passo Fedaia you can avoid them! Then ski down towards the gondolas at Malga Ciapela! Enjoy the area!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

dippdydoodogg, Well, if you want a challenge you cld always ski it non stop from top to bottom - more or less 2,000m vertical and god knows how many kms....it is mostly typical red gradient but with great snow is fine for all bar beginners or the totally feeble. Can be bloody cold up there and grappa fuelled hipflask essential equipment.

Not sure i get that passo f shortcut recommendation. Perhaps Roy was on the bushmills when he was last there!

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Roy Hockley, The chair at Passo Fedaia only takes you part of the way up the Marmolada . Also many times when i have been on the Marmolada the chair has not been working.

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After all it is free

Thanks Roy Hockley, DoubleBombardino, luigi, you've sold it well. Can't wait now - but can guarantee I won't be managing top to bottom in one go! I was worried it would over challenge me not under!!
luigi, great map, I like that.

DoubleBombardino has asked me to report back on on-slope restaurants from our trip to Canazei last week.
First, I should make it clear that I could easily "become" obese skiing in the Sella Ronda despite the possibility of skiing vast mileages (49km on our longest day).
Secondly, the hotel food (la Croce Bianca) was so good that it seemed rude to eat at lunch-time as well.
However, we did manage:
Rifugio Friedrich August, Campitello (x3) and I had Goulash Soup twice and barley soup once (plus the left-overs of others' huge fresh-made pizzas) - food excellent, service not necessarily with a smile.
Rifugio Panorama, Selva (approaching from Colfosco direction) - food good, main highlight was the owner singing loudly to the guests (and his wig).
Rifugio Buffaure (above Pozza) - self-serve but perfectly adequate.
Rifugio Luigi Gorza (at the top of the cable car from Arabba) - self serve but perfectly adequate.

Didn't try this year:
Rifugio Baita Fredarola (Just below the Canazei Belvedere area on the way to Arabba) which last year was serving the most fantastic pizzas.

If you come down the gondola into Canazei, turn right towards the town and drop into Pete's bar (first on the right) for the most fantastic cakes and pastries.

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Freddie Paellahead, sounds like a good time had by all. Am off to San Cassiano in mid-March - anyone got any tips on top notch mountain restaurants in that area btwn Corvara/San Cass/La Villa and Arabba. Skied there a fair bit but rarely lunched there...suspect it is the usual story of it being nigh on impossible to eat badly there but recommendations on stand-out places wld be nice.

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Anyone been to Bar Las Vegas, above La Villa, for the apres ski? Trying to find somewhere for a group of us and this seems the best bet for apres in the Alta Badia??

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dippdydoodogg, would love to hear how you got on in both La Villa and hotel Al Pigher as heading to the same location and hotel in a week or so. Any tips on the village/ski area/hotel would be most appreciated. Hope you had a good time!

5RED, we had a great week. We found La Villa a bit peripheral -really handy for the lovely Santa Croce runs and for the Hidden Valley but a bit of a trek through the 'blue maze' to get to other places. For that reason, we probably wouldn't stay in that particular location again. The town is quite small, much smaller than Selva. It is a bit long and drawn out, sort of difficult to say where the real centre is. A few nice pubs and restaurants though and one great sports shop - Sport Tony.

The snow was OK, not as good as we've had in the last 3 seasons at pretty much the same time, but other people who generally ski later in other countries thought it was great. It did get a bit icy in the afternoons but was helped a lot by light snow midweek. There were very few lift queues, really only for the gondola in the mornings and although that was a bit 'push and shove' it was only about 5-10 mins. About 10am seemed to be peak time.

We didn't make it to the Marmolada (cloudy days) but did do plenty of skiing including the Sella Ronda and the Hidden Valley including the hilarious horse tow.

Al Pigher is very new. It's a slightly odd design and the bar in particular is really poorly put together with a bottleneck at the entrance. It's about 5 mins walk from the nearest chair and about 5 mins from the nearest ski rental (3 mins from a bar). Our room was perfectly adequate, warm and OK sizewise. There's a nice sauna upstairs and a kind of common room area with kiddie stuff in it. The let down for me was the food. It's all English food, and the wine is all French (it is free which was nice, but you couldn't even buy Italian wine in the bar). The food is just about adequate - though there is plenty of it. We've always stayed in hotels which serve local food before and this was a disappointment - let's say lunch on the slopes became very important Smile

. The staff take Wednesday off and we ate out at La Bercia (5 mins away, behind the petrol station) which was absolutely fantastic. Lovely local wine, fabulous starters and good pizza. Nice staff too (one fluent in English just in case you have no Italian).

We flew from Belfast and arrived quite late in the resort, about 10.30 or so I think.

Do you know the area at all? Let me know what else you want to know and I'll be glad to drone on about it for hours - I just want to be back there instead of here at myy desk Very Happy

You know it makes sense.

dippdydoodogg, thanks for the info and glad you had a great week! It's our first time in the Dolomites, we're going as a couple and so don't mind taking it easy on this trip. We generally do lots of reds and blues, no blacks yet, so hope to be okay with the Alta Badia ski area. We're going with Inghams (you too?) from Belfast also, we're based in Dublin. Out of interest, since you've been there before, which town in the general area would you say is the best base?

Hotel Al Pigher sounds well located and comfortable. Disappointed to hear about the food though Sad

as it's usually a major part of our ski trips. Stayed half-board at a Bardonecchia hotel before and got lots of Piedmont specialities. Going to Italy to ski should involve Italian food methinks! Glad to hear about the free wine, I'll suffer French wine anytime:) Did you feel disappointed simply because the food wasn't Italian, or was it bad quality? Oh, dear, have promised the Other Half food treats...!

Thanks for the restaurant tip and Sport Tony shop - did you hire gear from there, and if so did you do it instore or online?

Again, really appreciate the info!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

5RED, Yes we went with Inghams too - we're in Westport. The only other place we've stayed is Selva (3 times) and it probably is a better base, you get straight onto the Sella Ronda which takes 1-1.5 hours from La Villa. Having said that, at your stage (which sounds not a lot different than ours) you'll have plenty to keep you occupied for the week. The difference is that from Selva you can immediately head off in several different directions whereas from La Villa you just have the 2 areas mentioned down the road and everything else is a bit of a trek. There is a bit of a maze of runs from the gondola which can be very confusing - don't go anywhere without your piste map!

I would go to Santa Croce on your first day, there was lovely 'real' snow there, it's not busy and all the runs there and back are red and blue. You start from the closest chair lift to the hotel (Gardenaccia) and go on from there - no poling on this excursion either. We ate in the small restaurant near the bottom of the 2 man Santa Croce lift (not the one beside it, the one across the way) and it was really lovely. It's an easy day, nice to remember how to ski again.

Definitely do the Hidden Valley, you will be offered a trip, but it's easy to do on your own either. €5 for the bus ride and €2 for the horse tow. Again all red and blue. The Sella Ronda is a longer day out (because it takes up to an hour and a half to get on the route). It's also got more challenging skiing, especially around the Arabba area. Great day out though, just keep an eye to the clock.

The top of the gondola (Piz la Ila) can be a bit confusing. Note especially that to do the Red 17 you don't have to do the first part of the black 17 which starts beside the gondola stop. You can pole on for 100m or so and swing to the right which is the actual start of Red 17. Actually there's a bit too much poling going on at the top of that gondola, I could have done without it.

The food was a real disappointment. It's not good, it's bland (burnt bread and butter pudding anyone?). The wine is vin de plonk I'm afraid. Choose anything with pastry in it - someone in the kitchen can cook pasty - but avoid white fish! We developed a pattern of having an early lunch 12-12.30, skiing on lovely empty slopes over normal lunchtime and then having a hot chocolate with rum or similar half way through the afternoon. Unless the temps have changed prepare for cold weather. It was very very cold and lots of people were wearing those neoprene facemasks. I'd have worn one if I had one!

We hired skis through Inghams (because there was a 2 for 1 offer!). It was from a place called Renato 5 mins from the hotel. It was fine. Do take a photo of the gear though because they don't seem to take a record of who hired what and there was an issue with skis getting mixed up amongst the other guests. The rep Glyn is very helpful and we got our ski passes through him for convenience (he came to the hotel at 11pm to meet us and turned up again at 8.15 with the passes).

I'm sure you'll have a great week. The Dolomites are just gorgeous, really breathtaking scenery. I'm very jealous!

A snowHead

Great tips dippdydoodogg, will need to keep an eye on the map by the sounds of it. Jeez, looks like Inghams have fallen down on the food - our first trip with them too. Would rather know in advance anyway so thanks!

Definitely getting a neoprene mask after freezing my ass off last week in the 3V! Believe Snow & Rock do them.

I'll let you know how we get on in the Dolomites!

A snowHead

I suppose you gets what you pays for - great food previously in pricier trips wih Inghams.

Aforementioned Sport Tony has bewildering array of face warming stuff and any prices we saw looked good. Shops all open at 8.30..

Have a ball. Look forward to your report.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

5RED, You probably know this already but 3 languages are spoken in La Villa: Italian, Ladin and German. Each one is officially recognised. And in German, la Villa is called Stern ( star) which confused the hell out of me first time as I thought it was a different place. Almost all of the locals speak Ladin as their first language. Enjoy. Was in the Alta Badia a couple of weeks ago and pistes were in good nick. The 10cm plus from last night will have freshened things up nicely with more due Tomorrow evening.

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pjd, Thanks for that. I speak a bit of both Italian and German, but no doubt the accent/dialect will be quite a bit different here. Which would you suggest goes down better with the locals, Italian or German?
Must look up Ladin, presume it's nothing like Latin!?
Can't wait to visit the Dolomites, my first time.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

5RED, I found German went down fine (and anyway my Italian is limited to ordering a beer!) . The accent sounded pretty Austrian to me but is certainly very understandable, and they make the effort to speak in Hochdeutsch. Ladin looks a bit like Italian but is I understand incomprehensible to most Italians! I think the language is heavily Latin based and was spoken widely in middle Europe at one time but died out and is now confined to remote valleys - Romansch, spoken in parts of Switzerland is similar. I found that one of the real attractions of the region , that was a part of Austria till 1919, is the blend of Austro-Italian -Ladin cultures.

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5RED, When are you going to the Al Pigher? We are going this Saturday. Been to Dolomites several times before (selva, corvara, alpe di suisi, canazei) but this is first time staying in La Villa
dippdydoodogg, sorry to hear about the food as this is normally a highlight for us - hope someone has given the chef either a kick up the **** or the boot by this weekend!
PS I think Italian is best as they don't seem to like to Germans as much!

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tessaventer, we are going Saturday after this, so looks like we will just miss you! Hope you have a great time!

After all it is free

We are back in Selva on Saturday, were there at Christmas, and found the conditions in that corner were the best in the area, did loads of skiing around La Villa, San Cassiano, Covara. Seceda is worth a run out as well, brilliant runs all over Sella Ronda

Hi dippdydoodogg, another question re La Villa, hope you don't mind. I've been trying to orient myself with the piste map and Googlemaps in advance of our trip there next Saturday. You mentioned the Gardenazza chair being the closest to the hotel Al Pigher, which is good to know. Are the other lifts leaving La Villa connectable, i.e. once you're on one can you get to a position to be able to ski to another one?

How far away are the other lifts from the hotel, e.g. what's the walking distance to the Piz la Lila bubble? Did you walk carrying skis and store skis/boots in the hotel, or did you leave skis overnights in a hire shop/locker? Just trying to get an idea of distances and whether it's all walkable / a bit of a slog / need to use a ski bus?

Thanks so much!

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Snowhead newbie, but very glad I have found you guys. Off to Selva week before Easter hols and can't wait. Will be the first time in the Dolomites and it looks gorgeous. Has anyone done the long toboggan run - think this is in Ortesei? Any recommended ski hire shops in Selva?
Thanks

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SGM393, Welcome to snowHeads. Can't help with either of your questions, but I hope you enjoy the Dolomites as much as I do. Going back there for the fourth time in March.

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5RED, The Gardenazza (confusingly sometimes called Gardenaccia) chair is the link to everything. At the top if you go to the right (looking at the piste map), you're heading for Sponata and then on to the Santa Croce area. If you go left, you ski down to a 'flat' chair which brings you to the car park of the Piz la Ila bubble. That connects you to everywhere else - Hidden Valley, Sella Ronda etc.

I'd say it's a good 15/20 mins walk to the bubble from the hotel whereas it's just 5 mins to the chair. It's an easy walk, the hardest part is the vicious slope into the boot room itself! You turn right out of the hotel, walk up the road, straight across the 'main' road, up a stairs and the chair is 100 yards in front of you a bit to the left. There's also another 'baby' chair further to the left which will also link you to the bubble, but less walking to the Gardenazza so that's what we always did. We did end up doing a lot of walking one evening having missed the last lift but that's another story rolling eyes

We used the boot room (heated) in the hotel. Al Pigher is really well located in terms of ski lifts. I am a complete wuss and hate walking in ski boots so if I didn't mind it then pretty much nobody will!

We didn't use ski buses but there did seem to be plenty of them. I never bothered to find out where they were going to/from.

BTW I used my rudimentary Italian which went down well but we found a lot of people had good English so with 3 languages you won't have any problems at all! I always think it's polite to start in the language (a language?) of the country you are in rather than assuming everyone speaks English.

Maybe tessaventer, will have sorted out the food by the time you get there Smile

dippdydoodogg, thanks, that sounds great. I hate walking in ski boots as much as you, the only thing I hate more is ski buses!

And if tessaventer can find wifi in the hotel (doubt it somehow) then perhaps she could let us know if she had indigestion!

You know it makes sense.

5RED, Would you believe there was wifi - well in certain areas anyway though I couldn't get it to work properly. There's a notice stuck up somewhere around the lobby with a HUGE password.

Enjoying answering the questions - it's sort of like reliving the holiday (combined with quite a lot of green eyed monster too!). PM me if you want more specific info. And of course, have a fabulous holiday and tell us all about it when you come back.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

Hi folks, back yesterday from La Villa. On piste snow conditions were wonderful, probably best ever despite lack of deep snow, the kids had a great time in ski school (first timers, nice lady instructor spoke reasonable english).

Sad to say I wasn't able to sort out the chef who clearly needs to either be replaced or go on another cookery course. Food not a highlight (tough meat cut too thick, bland flavours, strangely porridge came with cinnamon (lots) in it as well as lumps).

Also there was a virus going round the hotel while we were there (similar to novovirus - 24 hr thing) and about 10 out of 40 guests went down with it. Fortunately none in our group!

However the hotel was lovely, in a good position for everything (except for the slope from the boot room to the road!) and the staff were great. Overall a great week and I would go back - as long as the chef has left!

A snowHead

SGM393 We have just returned from Selva and used Olga's ski hire on the main road just past Goalies Irish bar, new this season kit, and very accommodating ski tech called Claus.

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tessaventer, glad you had a good week. I think the chef is beyond redemption though. Maybe we should start an Snowheads awards scheme for poor catering!

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dippdydoodogg, and tessaventer, I have survived the food at Al Pigher! Only because we ate out every second night, and other nights made do with mostly cheese and chocolate. I would wager anyone off the street could cook better than their chef. The only edible thing was breakfast and the chef in question didn't even bother to turn up on our last morning, leaving our hungry departing group without breakfast. I guess he knew he wasn't going to receive a tip... Apart from that I thought the hotel was weirdly stingy with things like bathroom soap and loo roll, and even morning coffee. Suffice to stay I will never be staying there again and would think long and hard before using Inghams again.

On the plus side what a beautiful area, and a great holiday was had!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

5RED, what was the nightlife like? any 1 or 2 half decent bars? and if ye ate out a few nights what were the food and drink prices like.

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5RED, Did you venture over to Pedraces and/or take the ski bus to Kronplatz?

After all it is free

5RED, Shame about your bus aversion - we were based near Kronplatz last week and took the bus a couple of times from Piculin to Pedraces. Kronplatz is worth the effort for a day or two, some nice long reds and blacks, not as busy as the main Sella Ronda area either and some good lunch spots.

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5RED, CONGRATULATIONS! Just read your trip report and gathered the food was similarly miserable for you! Just as well the fare on the slopes is delicious.

Strangely we were oversupplied with loo roll - the Scottish girl even went so far as to leave several rolls outside all the doors the night before their day off. Bizarre but better than undersupply. The sauna was the best bit in the hotel.

Help!!

La Villa, Dolomites

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