January 5, 2019

Skiing in the Apennine Mountains

Our family cannot sit still for very long, so less than 24 hours after having returned from London we were heading towards the Apeninne Mountains in Southern Italy to spend New Year's Eve with family.

I had been told one can ski in the Aquila region. I have been led to believe this for decades and have always smirked at the idea... after all I grew up on the Swiss slopes. Never the one to resist a challenge Expat Girl and I packed all our ski gear and headed South following Expat hubby's lead.

We woke the first day in Rivisondoli to some glorious sunshine. Off we went, both of us feeling quite excited at the prospect of exploring a new skiing area. Despite very little snow we ventured out to try all open ski lifts, deciding the gondola leading up to 2000m at Toppe del Tesoro was the best option.

What we were NOT bargaining for are all the Neapolitans and Romans who ski the same way they drive!

It was chaos all around. Expat Girl and I realized how accustomed we had become to Swiss skiing etiquette. On Apennine slopes skiers were coming at you from all sides, many of them were going too fast for their own good and - naturally - they'd stop in the middle of the slopes to have a chat or look around searching for their friends, then carry on without checking if anybody was arriving from above. Ski school classes formed endless lines zig-zagging from one side of the slope to the other and having come to a halt the children scattered all over blocking everyone.

The icing on the cake, however, was the Italian music blaring out of the loudspeakers at every restaurant. Come to think of it there were probably more people sitting on the terrasses catching the sun than skiing on the slopes... but hey, that's why they call it LA DOLCE VITA!


Glorious day at Toppe del Tesoro


The resemblance with Ticino is uncanny


Let's face the crowds!


Slightly worrying perspective 


A well deserved Hot Chocolate at the end of the day: 32 flavours!

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