Snowy Ski Day in Val Gardena
Val Gardena is not a town but an area comprised of 3 municipalities: Ortisei, Selva, and Santa Cristina. These three towns are all in the same valley. We are staying in Santa Cristina. Most of the people who live here speak German, because this area used to be part of German-speaking Austria. During World War 1 they lost the war, the boundaries were redrawn, and they became a part of northern Italy then. The hotel we're staying at caters to German and Italian speakers mostly. Most people are shocked when they find out that we're from the United States. Apparently visitors from the United States are not that common here.
The people we know from Nashville who have been skiing here came with the Nashville Ski Club as a part of a large group, so that's probably how most Americans visit this area.
When we awoke today we realized that it was snowing lightly in town. We had a casual (as opposed to hard-charging) ski day, so no Sellaronda today. We were on our own, no guide. As we went higher on the mountain, it was snowing harder, and it appeared there was about an inch of accumulation, enough to freshen things up a bit.
Here is a nice view of the town of Selva from up above:
The Sella mountains were not visible today, so we are super glad that we skied the Sellaronda on Friday when it was beautiful, sunny, and warm.
One of the highlights for us today was skiing a steeper slope up high from a tram. There were some powdery moguls up there that were fun to turn in.
Another highlight was lunch! We stopped at a hut called "Piz Seteur" on the mountain. The lower part of the hut had a super busy cafeteria, but upstairs was a calmer sit-down restaurant. We went upstairs.
We ordered two different types of pasta that were incredible! (The carbonara pasta I had when we had lunch with Melissa at an on-mountain hut was also amazing!) So, good choice to go upstairs!
Another highlight of the day was trying to find our way around by ourselves without getting lost, then making it back to our starting location. It wasn't easy, but we managed to do it, so we are proud of ourselves!
We have a more ambitious goal for tomorrow, so we'll see how we do tomorrow.
Our statistics for today: we covered 8 miles, 8,114 vertical feet, used 10 lifts, and stayed in 1 area (Val Gardena). So, a pretty light day of skiing.
We are enjoying the hotel's sauna and the massage jets in our magnificent roof-top infinity pool very much!
Today is the NFL Pro Bowl, so we are proud of the 4 Titans who are playing in it: Derrick Henry, Brett Kern, Jurrell Casey, and Ryan Tannehill! It's doubtful that we will get to watch any of the game. The NFL is not on most people's radar around here.
Tonight we will enjoy live music during dinner time at our hotel. We are eating most of our dinners at the hotel.
Everything's going great. We miss all of our family and friends, though! Hold down the fort for us!