When: 24/01/2013 Where: Madonna di Campiglio, Italy Stayed: Cristal Palace Hotel
Two hours north of Verona lies Italy’s most famous resort – Madonna di Campiglio. Often cited as the jewel of the Dolomites, Madonna di Campiglio is a charming town sitting at 1500m altitude. With around 150km of ski runs and 57 lifts in the area not to mention an impeccable ski bus set up, the resort provides an ideal playground for the budding intermediate skier – aka us.
Despite being in one of the most beautiful and friendly ski resorts in the world with amazing food and awe inspiring ski access – our trip to Italy was fraught with mishaps and mini crises that seemed to snowball. (pun intended!)
It’s so ridiculous that it’s probably easier to sum it up in bullet point form – in sequential order, here’s the low down:
1. Gatwick Express packed it in leaving us sprinting for a train we had around 50% hope of going in the right direction. Oh how I love unhelpful staff at the train station. Luckily we were on the right side of the equation and made our flight with 5mins to spare. Really relaxing start to the trip.
2. You know that sick feeling you get in your stomach when all the bags have been collected off the carousel and everyone has made their way towards customs – but you’re still standing there waiting?…yep, that was me. Gotta love a missing bag that contains all your ski gear…on a ski trip…in a foreign country.
3. It’s one thing to have a bag go missing but it’s another to receive abysmal service and incorrect information. 8 phone calls to British Airways ‘help’ desk (aka ‘let’s make it up’ desk), four episodes of being hung up on and 2.5 days later my bag showed up. Having been told 6 different stories about my bag and having absolutely no idea when it would be delivered I moved into a mantra state of ‘I will not let BA ruin my trip, I will not let BA ruin my trip…’
4. With no ski gear to speak of, and in fact no clothes or toiletries full stop we urgently sought out the nearest shopping centre to the airport. ‘Thank god we bought Tommy (our Sat Nav) with us’ Justin and I remarked to each other on the way out to the car. After rummaging around in our hand luggage for 10minutes and pulling the entire contents of Justin’s bag out on the ground we declared Tommy was missing. Oh joy no navigation system in a foreign country…
5.Several hours later including at least an hour in the town where we turned the map in circles trying to find our hotel, we finally arrived. Being told ‘you’ve received an upgrade’ was music to our ears and we finally started to relax despite being minus 1 bag. The relief was short lived unfortunately as we quickly discovered our so called ‘upgrade’ was directly above the bar with fantastic acoustics for the music and moving of chairs on the floor boards. We were regaled with this noise until around 1am. Say no more.
6. Good news!! The skiing was sensational and with me kitted out in some of Justin’s thermals, some hired attire and some purchased clothing we clocked up the miles on the slopes in no time. Some of the most beautiful backdrops we’ve seen were splashed across the resort with long trails sweeping through the trees simply mind blowing. On countless occasions we stopped mid way down a run to take in the sights and commit it to memory. Amazing stuff. We covered each of the main ski areas we could access from Madonna di Campiglio including Pradalago, Pinzolo and Cinque Laghi.
7.More good news!! Eating and Apres ski in Madonna Di Campiglio was some of the best we’ve experienced. Chalet Fiat mountainside had an impressive range of food while Bar Suisse served up so many tapas it almost amounted to a full meal. Antico Focolare was packed to the rafters and for good reason – homemade pasta in a festive atmosphere with great service. Big tick! Le Roi also delivered simple pizzas in true Italian form – just what the doctor ordered after a big day on the slopes.
8. Sleep deprived, exhausted from 3 solid days of skiing and wrung out from stressing about the whereabouts of my bag, we embarked on the journey back to the airport during a serious dumping of snow. Just what you need when you’re driving on the opposite side of the road in a foreign country without a Sat Nav system when you’re feeling weary. Actually what I think you need even more is to be pulled over by the Italian police to partake in a game of ‘guess the question’…15mins later, ‘no male’ was dished out and we drove away wondering about the next installment of our trip.
9. We didn’t have to wait long – a delayed flight was on the cards. In all honesty we would’ve been surprised if the plane had been on time. Par for the course really. The icing on the cake however was some extreme turbulence which had us holding hands and whispering words of love and affection. You know there’s a problem when you’re practically sitting on the person next to you as the plane gets thrown across air shafts and the air stewards run for their seats… not an overly comforting sign. Especially when it lasts for the majority of the trip!
Fortunately we made it back home in one piece – completely exhausted and relieved to be on home turf with both bags in our grasp. The trip had all the signs of an absolute debacle but fortunately we didn’t ‘let the bastards grind us down’ and we came away with a very strong resolve to return to Madonna di Campiglio which rocketed to the top of our favorite ski resort list. Brava!
Cathy & Justin Abroad 