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Bill Pollock's Tour Review
Bormio, Italy and Valtellina region for Northern California Skiiers
Area Destinations & Transportation
There are four major ski resorts in the same end of the Valtellina
valley: Bormio, S. Caterina, Le Motte, and Livino. Bormio is
accessible from within town by way of the local shuttle which can be
litterally picked up anywhere with a wave, though they prefer one of
the frequent recognized stops. Shuttle is free with your "Welcome
Card", given to you by your hotel but is generally not checked.
All other destinations can be reached via the Perego station which is located nearly dead-center in town along the Via Milano. Americans will immediately recognize the Greyhound-style setup. Skis typically ride on busses busses not equipped with racks in the back. Your driver may or may not be of service. Perego busses to the resorts are free with the SuperSki pass, though we got some guff from one driver who'd wanted us to pick up vouchers at the ticket window when going to Le Motte. The Perego busses also operate as local transit, picking up and dropping off passengers along the route -- your transit time may correspondingly vary, though busses were usually within 10-15 minutes of timely. I understand one can take the bus as far as Sondrio, but there is generally no need to take it further than Tirano where one can pick up trains to Lake Como and San Moritz fairly easily. The San Moritz train is quite charming, so I hear tell. General Resort Info
The number of runs
at area resorts is suprisingly few, though they are genreally quite
wide and amazingly long by California standards. Missing generally is
some of the variety that NorCal skiiers pretend to enjoy such as
moguls and ungroomed powder, but small areas of each were rumored to
exist if one kndew where to look.
With the exception of S. Moritz, the incidence of "knucklehead" skiiers was suprisingly slim, though some of this may have done with the time of year I was there. Also the number of snowboarders was coincidentally smaller. People are amazingly friendly, even when you burn a chair. It is possible to ski out of several area resorts and into completely different towns or areas unserviced by lifts. While not a roaring concern as most of the trails are marked and the rational person would find themselves avoiding such mayhem, our group did have a few members have to taxi it in from the wrong part of S. Moritz to make the bus. Additional resorts that this is an issue: Le Motte (Valdidentro), S. Caterina, Livigno. Italian, or your lack thereof
As with many places in Italy the locals who deal with tourists in the
critical areas of food and lodging generally are multi-lingual.
Italian, German and English are all reasonably understood here, though
there is a fair amount of Italian spoken in response. Unlike
some areas of Italy, the Valtelline are pretty nice about pointing,
gesturing and grunting to get through an exchange, especially if one's
wallet is open.
REFERENCE
Weather.com outlook: 10 day (short format)
Weather as of
05 Dec 2008 10:36
Bormio-local time)
State of the Dollar vs. Euro: Last update: 30 April 2008 01:02:59
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