ARABBA, ITALY

What a fantastic village this is. It's the smallest place I've ever been that has three big ski lifts servicing it, how did that happen? There's one gondola for the local slopes, mostly red and black runs, another gondola right next to it for getting access to the valey servicing the Marmolada glacier and a chairlift to get you access to the Sella Ronda circuit. This is the place to be if you want to do the Sella and Marmolada. There's some fantastic blacks that all take you back down to Arabba. This is the only place in the four valleys of the Sella Ronda that has the runs correctly graded, the rest are all over stated, so beware. Arabba, small, cosy, friendly, quiet, noisy, racous, peacefull, in fact whatever you want it will accomodate. There's only really one bar and that's Bar Peter. This bar is ledgendary, Peter is a ledgend, as are the staff. If you want Frank Sinatra they'll play Frank Sinatra, but if you want to rock your socks off every night to Rammstein, AC/DC, Killswitch Engage, Bon Jovi, The Sweet, Iron Maiden, Metallica, then this is the place to be. Just hand over your wallets at the start of the week and they'll sort the rest, and give you the change :-) awesome, just awesome... We stayed at the Portevescovo, which is in a very good position, right in the village and near to the chairlift. The hotel is ski-in, but not ski-out, in spite of the proclamation that it is both! It's a very nice hotel, clean confortable, good food and nice staff, if a little slow at times. We've skied just about everywhere else around the Sella Ronda area and Arabba is definately our No:1.

Apres Ski: 5/5

G-Money

We took a late deal because the snow was so good. We were not disappointed. The chalet had everything we needed, a great shower and lovely log fire and there was plenty of food. Arabba is quite quiet with a couple of lovely apres ski bars, so we could get a good night's sleep. The lifts were only a short walk from the chalet, just enough to warm up the legs! The whole Sella Ronda was easily accessible so we could make the most of the lift pass. The pistes were in excellent conditions and, due to their orientation, there is plenty of choice skiing south facing in the morning and north in the afternoon. Although it was early April we managed to find something to ski until the last lifts. Due to this season's snowfall pattern there wasn't really any off-piste skiing available but we still had a great time and the on-line skipass readout was easy to check out lifts used and distances travelled on our return.

Apres Ski: 3/5

Carol Chambers-Workman