ski / tour Italy
 

We would like to combine a ski vacation with a site seeing vacation. The thought was to fly into Rome -- spend 3 days in Rome -- take the train up to Milan or Tourin -- 3 days skiing -- 3 days in Venice -- maybe 3 more days skiing and home. We love to ski -- but have reached a point in time when we are not interested in skiing 6 or 7 days in a row. Is this possible?

Almost anything is possible. There might be some long train rides there, so you might want to look into flying, rearranging your schedule a bit, or consider renting a car, esp if you will be lugging ski equipment. Rome to Turin is about 7 hours by train, then you have about another hour to get up into the ski areas. If you fly, it would be about an hour (plus time getting to a Rome airport and then up to the ski area, etc but I think still faster than the train.) Rome to Milan is about 5 hours, then you need to get up to the ski areas from there, so you are looking at about the same time if not longer. Driving might save you 1-2 hours, but might be easier if you have ski equipment with you.

You might want to ski first, then sight see, then ski, then sight see. Say fly the US to Turin, do some skiing, train to Venice (4.5 hours from Turin), then train to somewhere the Dolomites (you can get to the Belluno and Bolazno areas in 2 - 3 hours), then either train or fly to Rome (7 hours, flights may be possible depending on where you are in the Dolomites) or Milan (3 -4 hours), then sightsee in Rome or Milan and then fly home. Milan in the winter for 3 days would be great, IMO, the season at La Scala is on and there is lots to see and do beyond the Last Supper and excellent shopping and restaurants. Of course, if you have never been to Italy, then Rome is hard to skip.

If you go to Venice in January or February, remember that there will be Carnivale in one of those months, so hotels could also be quite expensive there as well.

Thanks Cicerone,
It appears that it is difficult to reserve a hotel in the ski areas for less than a week. Do you recommend a good B&B site we might research? Is it reasonable to stay outside the ski area and commute in for the day?

Try:

http://www.valgardena.it/

Steve

If you contact hotels in ski towns directly you might have a better chance of finding a two- or three-night stay.

If you haven't skied Zermatt, you can book Cervinia and have better food.

For the second half, the Dolomites are lovely: Cortina or Val Gardena. Madonna di Campiglio is another lesser known (at least to most U.S. skiers) option.

Skiitaly - If you want to stay in Val Gardena I can recommend:

www.hotelvillapark.com
www.snaltnerhof.it

Steve

Thanks for all the tips -- now what about transportation? Are there trains from Turin or Milan to the ski areas? How about the train Rome to Milan or Turin -- should I take the night train or the high speed train?

From either Turin or Milan you can take trains close to the Milky Way areas by stopping in Oulx or Bardonecchia. To Cervinia, there are buses from Turin or Milan -- there are also buses from Milan and Turin to Courmayer.

http://www.sadem.it/orari_tariffe_orario.htm

http://www.savda.it/orari_tariffe.htm