DESTINATIONS

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Left: Canazei just a kilometre from Campitello and another accommodation base. Right: Campitello, in the heart of the Dolomites. Below right: Campitello and its main cable car. Bottom: Some of the local ski instructors and guides enjoying lunch on the mountain.

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Scale is an interesting thing and nowhere does it come in such variety as in the mountains.

Skiing
Every main groomed trail is covered with snowmaking it starts in November and you can watch them laying down the cover on the webcams, then you get the natural falls on top, so the cover is really reliable. And what would you pay for a ticket to cover that ground? The weekly lift ticket price for the Dolomites is around $A300; another aspect of scale. Mario Longhitano has been running Dolomites Ski Tours from a base around Campitello for 25 years ski weeks where

Italian style
he packages up accommodation, some transfers and guided skiing. Campitello is a mountain village with cobbled streets hundreds of years old and a church that dates all the way back to the 1200s. Theres around 3000 holiday beds and a variety of accommodation. Apartments come in one, two, three and four bedroom configurations, where people have the choice of preparing a meal at home or eating out if they want to a lot of families go for this option.

THINK OF THE DOLOMITES and on the one hand you have ancient, intimate villages like Campitello and on the other hand, look at the skiing Campitello is in the Sella Ronda area, the central part of the Dolomites and that gives it 200 interconnected lifts and 500 kilometres of runs spread over five valleys. That isnt even the total for the Dolomites network there are actually 450 lifts and 1200 kilometres of runs that connect about 40 ski resorts.

Another style is the pension bed and breakfast where you have a room with an ensuite and breakfast in the lodge. Above that are three and four star hotels which offer bed, breakfast and dinner this is very popular in Europe. Around town there are several familyfriendly restaurants pizzerias and that sort of thing where for 15 euros ($A22) youd get a pizza, a drink and a coffee, Mario said. Then there are some really good a la carte restaurants serving modern Italian cuisine, but even up at those high levels, youd probably pay 30 to 40 euros ($A45 to $A60) for a meal; not crazy prices. Campitello has a main supermarket for the grocery-type items, including fresh fruit and vegetables, cheeses and hams as well as wine and beer. But this is Italy so there are also specialty shops selling the local produce: bakeries, pastry shops, fruit and veg shops. Its one of the real pleasures go out and get a piece of parmesan, some local cheese, some prosciutto, some salami. Campitello even has a little dairy that makes its own cheeses, Mario said. The area is within reach of the AldoAdige wine growing region, so up in the resort theres a wine shop that only sells wines of the region. The owner is really passionate about the regional wine and you can taste the wines in there.

DESTINATIONS
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Alpine Style

The skiing
Guided skiing is an essential part of the Dolomites Ski Tours ski weeks; where groups are formed according to ability and skiing preferences and different itineraries pursued each day, in the European style. As an example, one day might involve skiing to Val Gardena, where the World Cup downhill is held each year, so that would involve a whole day skiing new runs and new lifts all day long. We may redo a run here or there, but basically we spend the day not catching the same lift twice and skiing through three or four villages, Mario said.

something for everyone: long cruisy runs, some challenging black terrain and some very easy terrain. We really cater to the group; if Ive got a group that wants a series of fast challenging trails then well go and do that sort of thing, Mario said. After skiing, theres a very nice routine where gear is dropped at the cable car station (lockers there come complete with boot heaters so theres no need even for walking around the village in ski boots) then around 6pm the skiers gather for drinks at the Tobia, a central hotel.

Getting there
Coming straight from Australia, the easiest access to the Dolomites is via Venice Emirates have a regular one-stop service via Dubai. If people arrive on a Saturday, DST offers road transfers from Venice about 2 to 3 hours from Campitello. If theyre already travelling around, I really recommend Bolzano, Longhitano said. Its an Italian town but its in the Tyrol region, so it was part of Austria before World War 1. Its only an hour away from Campitello and its on the

Theres one run thats 10 kilometres long with 1300 metres vertical thats the sort of itinerary-type skiing well do. The main thing is to ski groomed trails, but if there is fresh snow, its easy to just peel off the edge of the piste and ski the powder people have that choice of they want to. Being in Europe, skiing in Europe, means lunch is very important and that might take place at a mountain restaurant or in a mountain village. We usually have a morning break out on the mountain for a cappuccino or a hot chocolate and thats generally in one of the mountain rifugios they are literally everywhere, but we have our favourites, Mario said. Then for lunch we might call ahead to a restaurant so they hold a seat for us, that might be in a village with waiter service at the table. Depending on the day and where we are, we might be on the mountain and again, its inexpensive youre paying 8 or 9 euros ($A11 or $A13) for a beautiful plate of pasta, handmade ravioli that sort of thing. The Dolomites terrain is best-known for its spectacular mountains, recognised by UNSECO as a world heritage natural wonder. The skiing in this terrain provides

Above left: This is a run in the Fassa Valley: We just spent hours skiing out this slope all on our own, it was a really sensational day, Mario said. Above right: A rifugio above Campitello, this one has some accommodation and is sometimes used for groups who ski across from Cortina. Right: Desert at the Post Hotel in Corvara. This is a four star hotel on the Sella Ronda ski tour where guests wander in wearing ski boots and enjoy a beautiful silver service lunch.

There are a couple of late-night venues in Campitello that go through to three or four in the morning, but generally our clientele arent into that. In January some of our younger guides and the younger clientele will go out a bit but Im beyond that now, Mario said. The legal drinking age in Italy is 16, but theres no problem with binge drinking or anything like that, its a cultural thing when young Italian people go out its very social, they might just sit on a couple of cokes for the whole night.

main train line that runs from Innsbruck, over the Brenner Pass into Italy from the north or from Rome or Florence in the south. Bolzano is where they have the museum where the ice man is, the 5000-year-old guy they found up on the glacier, and theres a fantastic exhibition about him. Everyone I recommend it to, then ends up staying a night in Bolzano is really pleasantly surprised about how beautiful it is. AS