Skiing in Cortina D'Ampezzo

Kitzbuhel and Salzburg have made preparations (see my previous article) we went to Italy, Cortina D'Ampezzo for skiing! :))) The reason is that there is no snow in Kitzbuhel, even if they make artificial snow, the air temperature is around 10 degrees! Whereas in the Southern Alps, italy had so much snow that they were moving more snow elsewhere in trucks in the town we were going to!

As a result, since we had our plane ticket ingenues from Ankara to Munich before, we made the same flight again and arranged our transfer for the town to Cortina instead of Kitzbuhel. It took us four and a half to five hours to get to town. If there were no changes to the plans at the last minute, it would have made more sense to fly to Venice, but this time we should have had two flights to Istanbul. Our flight would have cost more in price and time, but this time the transfer would be shortened and cheap. Unlike our previous ski holidays, this time we were just two families, so the town transfer kept a little more than usual.

For the last week before the trip, I did an intensive research on towns, restaurants and ski schools. There are a few ski schools in Cortina. As a result of my research, I learned that one of them (Happy Ski School) specializes in teaching skiing, especially to young children, and is ambitious. Before I left, I booked a private lesson for the little traveler and his 5-year-old friend, who is now 4 years old, for the morning of our first day.

The Little Traveller went to Kitzbuhel in Austria at the age of 1 (his writing here) and at the age of 2, he went on a ski holiday to Val Gardena (yadan here) in Italy, but of course he couldn't ski at the time. So this trip was the first real ski holiday! Ski school, especially ours, the newly learner juniors initially recommended that we take private lessons and take private lessons for one person. It made sense to us, and in the days that followed, we saw that we made the right decision. In the first classes, teachers hired children with rope or small hoops, and the pace of progress of the children was very different. Little Traveller language problem (our friends' daughter knew English) and age difference, depending on the difference in the 5th. The day began to slip completely alone.

On the first day, they only took an hour of lessons on the school's advice. Little Wanderer started crying just as he was going to get the skis on his feet and going on the track, but when we didn't make concessions, he went with his teacher (:) had to go). After all, he turned very happy. We all watched the first lesson with great excitement, so much so that little traveler loved skiing like us and started skiing as soon as possible!

At the end of the course, one of our friends stayed with the children in the children's park right next to the children's track, so we explored the tracks in this area called Miestre. The runways were easy and literally empty! The ski was very enjoyable when it was sunny, but the infrastructure was not very developed because Miestre stayed around the corner a little bit. Lifts were slow in a way we haven't seen much abroad. We spent the rest of our first day with lunch, learning about town and solving access to lifts.

Transportation has had so many problems for the first time since our other ski holidays because the taxi was too expensive; Because the ski areas were disconnected from each other, one of them could not be used to leave the skiskis, and the ski tank could not find it anyway; The ski bus was not going to the Miestre area, where the ski school is; There were not many buses where he went. In short, this place was designed for Italians who came on holiday in their cars. As a result, with the help of our hotel, we arranged for someone to do the transfer job and we made our in-town transportation by calling him by phone 2-3 times a day. It got a lot cheaper than a cab, but it was still an extra charge.

Since we prioritize children's skiing, we went to ski school in Miestre in the morning, the kids took lessons for 1.5-2 hours, and we sat in Miestre while they were in class. Then, if the weather was very snowy, we either went back to town or went to other ski areas like Socrapes, Faloria, and skied first at our lunch, then stood by the children in turn. Although he was literally typed for two days and the children were fired, we never stopped the children's class.

Runways…

As I said, Cortina is partly disconnected, some of them are composed of several ski areas: Mietres, Cristallo, Faloria, Cinque Torri, Tofana, Col Druscie and Socrapes.

There's a connection between Cristtallo and Faloria. I couldn't ski here, and my wife and friend loved the tracks here. They've already recommended this place from the hotel. Tofana, Col Druscie and Socrapes are like a separate interconnected area. There are also very long and beautiful pistes in various difficulty degrees, as well as a baby runway in Socrapes. Unfortunately, I can't comment on this place because we don't have the opportunity to slip in Cinque Torri on this trip. The last district I mentioned earlier is Miestres, where the children's schools are. If you don't go to Happy Ski School, I'd say it's not worth spending time here.

Hotel…

I wrote all this, and I realized I still haven't mentioned our hotel! Our hotel, i.e. Hotel Regina, was a very comfortable hotel in the town, perfectly located, not luxurious but decorated in a style unique to the Alpine mountains, where all kinds of comforts were considered. Our rooms were quite large suites. The spacious room is really a big need for a ski holiday with the child and ski items. They were also incredibly helpful and interested in the hotel personli. They've made an effort to find solutions to any of our problems.

Town…

Cortina D'Ampezzo's headquarters is a pedestrian main street and tiny streets attached to it. The boundaries of this region, which forms a rectangle on the map, determine 4 streets that handle one-way traffic. Restaurants and stylish shops adorn the main street of this pedestrian area, which makes the town more enjoyable. The town is generally very cute, a typical Alpine Mountains town.

Restaurants…

I left it especially to the last one to talk about the restaurants that had a great palate feast with the freshest and best malzems in the region. First evening and then we had two more dinners at Ra Stua under our hotel. It wasn't because we chose this place was definitely close! All the materials used in Ra Stua were organically grown/produced on their farms. When the ingredients are so attentive, the food is delicious. We had the opportunity to taste both pasta and meat here and we loved everything we ate. We've already heard that his meat is famous in particular. I think it's one of the special creams they produce, the panna cotta was the best Panna Cotta I've ever had.

Another restaurant we often went to during our stay was 5 Torri, located in the pedestrian area of the center. This was the first restaurant to open in Cortina and it was an incredibly popular place. We ate more pizza here and loved all their pizzas, but I also tried a dish of spinach dumplings to try something different, and I found it really successful. Besides, the prices here were very affordable.

One evening, we went to a pizzeria ariston pizzeria ariston, where I read that the Cortinas usually go. The prices and pizzas were very good here again, but we didn't choose again because we found 5 Torri better at pizza.

Another evening, we went to beppe sello restaurant, risking walking in the cold with children for about 15 minutes. This place had a lovely atmosphere that resembled a house. It was a slightly higher-class place than any other restaurant we went to. We also tasted both pasta and meat here, but the truth is, we didn't like their meat very much, and the pastas were very successful.

In addition, while skiing, we also had delicious lunches at the Rifugio Col Druscie at the top of the Col Druscie gondolu and El Faral at the bottom of the pistes in Locadel. As a result, these were the places where we came in as a result of coincidence, and even they were very good. Located in the 2200 metres, Col Druscie also had a very nice terrace with spectacular views. The day we went was sunny, so we sat outside in the open air and we got exactly what we recognized here. Even Little Traveler sat for a while in short-sleeved tshirt!

In fact, Cortina has many very praised restaurants, including Michelin stars. But many of them are scattered across the mountain, and you need a car to get here. Like I said, those who come in Cortina cars are designed for Italians. I chose restaurants within the distance where we were able to reach them both for us, not too expensive, and to learn good advice about them, and we were pleased with them all.

Notes to the parents of the Little Travellers:

– No need to take strollers in small ski towns from the age of 4

– If you are at the age of skiing, be sure to locate the ski school in advance and explore hotel-school transportation

– Ski rental is very economical, so you have no need to carry skiing

– If your child is small, it makes sense to take private lessons

A Little Traveler