As you might have seen on IG, I was skiing in Italy in February. We were in Pinzolo, which is a village close to Madonna di Campiglio to be precise. Our trip was from 12 until 16 February, therefore, we were almost a week on the road. You might ask yourself, why you should go there for skiing when Austria also has a lot of incredible skiing areas to offer? I’m going tell you a few reasons why I think it’s awesome to go there.
But first I would like to tell you why we decided to go there. You need to know, that we already went to exact same place in winter 2017, so one year before. Last winter we were looking for a skiing area in Austria, but we did not really find a suitable accommodation to stay, which was not super expensive. All the hotels being offered back then were simply too pricy for us. Moreover, not a lot of Airbnb were offered in Austria last year as well. Then we were looking for Airbnbs in Italy and we found a really nice one in Pinzolo,being close to Madonna di Campiglio. We thought, why not go there?! Now I would like to give you some reasons why you might wanna consider it.
Huge skiing area
As already mentioned we went to Pinzolo, which is located in the Val Rendena and surrounded by the Brenta group. Pinzolo itself also offers a nice skiing resort, being not that crouded but still really enjoyable. But the best thing about this skiing area is, that there is a connection gondola to the skiing area in Madonna di Campiglio. Madonna boasts a spacious skiing resorts. On their website they even say, it is the largest connected skiing area in Trentino.
One downside of such a big area is that you need to plan enough time to get from A to B. Especially when you still need to go back to Pinzolo. We once missed the last connection ride from Madonna to Pinzolo. But luckily there is a bus going between those two villages. However, the bus ride wasn’t that much fun because it was extremely crowded. In addition, the route had a lot of curves. You can imagine how that bus ride felt like. Therefore, keep in mind your timing.
Driving through a breath-taking mountain scenery
We went to Italy by car. Since we started our journey in Upper Austria, we needed to cross a lot of mountains in Tyrol and South Tyrol. After the highway, you still need to drive around one hour through the Dolomites. This journey is really nice and we stopped several times to shoot some photos as you can see. Even just looking out of the window and seeing the mountains pass by is really nice as well.
Short trip to Innsbruck
We stopped two times in Innsbruck for having something to eat. Once we went to Raschhofer’s Rössbräu (belongs to Soulkitchen Innsbruck). This one is located directly next to the highway, which is convenient if you don’t have that much time. On our home journey we went to Ludwig the Burger Restaurant. This one is located directly in the city centre, but you obviously need to calculate in more time. I would also recommend to just park somewhere in the city centre. Even though you need to pay for it, it still saves you a lot of time. The year before we went to Olive, which is also located in the centre. This restaurant is specialised in vegan/vegetarian menus and I can also recommend this one if you fancy having a meat-free meal.
Food, food, food
Yes I love food, as you can tell. In my opinion, the combination between skiing and having Italian food is simply amazing. We had Pizza twice once in this restaurant and we once bought some pizza in a bakery in the middle of Pinzolo. We also bought almost every morning some fresh bread and focaccia (you really need to try this one, it’s so amazing!). During skiing, I can totally recommend you to go for a coffee to one of the skiing huts. The coffee tastes excellent in Italy and is not expensive at all! If you are more into having some drinks you can still buy a bombardino (look at the picture) or some spritzer. It’s just really nice having a drink while enjoying an awesome mountain view.
Perfect (and enough) snow
Due to the high location of the skiing area, the snow is usually really good for skiing. I would even recommend to get up as early as possible in the morning to enjoy the fresh slopes. I know it’s not always easy getting up early especially during travelling, but it’s definitely worth it! The good snow conditions have one downside, it can get really cold. So be sure to wear enough layers of cloths, even though the sun is shining.
Visit Madonna di Campiglio
Madonna is not only a gorgeous skiing area, also the village itself is worth a visit. I don’t think you need more than an afternoon/evening though. It’s not that big. Madonna offers some nice shops and café and we had for example dinner at the Hungry Wolf. The burger is really awesome there. Since space in this mountain village is limited , I would suggest parking outside the centre. We parked in parcheggio colarin, which is the south of the village and it is even for free.
Different “culture”
Not a lot of people associate Italy when with skiing. Therefore, for many people it is a new experience to ski and get in touch with the Italian lifestyle at the same time. Especially if you come from the German-speaking-area, it is surely interesting to see how the Italians do it. You should not only expect Italians, a lot of other Nations enjoy their skiing holidays in the ski area of Madonna too. We saw lots Polish, Dutch, British or German people. But this of course is only my subjective point of view! Please keep that in mind. I just wanna say, it’s different to Austria. Maybe it is good or bad for you, it depends on what you are looking for during a ski holiday.
That is it and if you have any more reasons why you should go skiing in Italy, please feel free to leave them down in the comments.
Hi, I’m Lisa