An American Monster Geek in London: Skiing the Dolomites - Part 4

We woke to a crystal bluebird sky, sun, and a light dusting of fresh snow everywhere. It is the type of day that skiers dream about. AMAZING!

We wandered down to breakfast and today sat at our proper table. We still got stinky looks from the people whose table we'd accidentally used the previous day. Some yogurt with granola and fruit, croissants and nutella, and two espressos later, and we were ready to tackle the mountain.

We'd seen a whole other area on the map that we hadn't touched. It didn't look that big, so I figured we hit it for the morning, then come back to the awesome slopes by the hotel and hang out for the afternoon. Little did I know.

We skied out to a great valley called Colfosco. It was here that a nice German explained that we were off our normal map, and needed to look at the larger Dolomite map we had.

It turns out that the Dolomites are a series of resort towns all gathered around this giant central mountain.

Our Dolomites SuperSki pass is good for all of them, and they are all connected by a series of lifts and runs that makeup a giant loop trail called the Sella Ronda. There were vast runs and resorts that lay far beyond that area of Val Gardena where we are staying.

We decided to take a break for Hot Cioccolates and a piece of Apfel Studel at this cute lodge called the Refugio Edelweiss Hutte (a blending of Italian and German words). The view was to die for. In fact all the views were astounding. I've skied a lot of resorts, and this is the most gigantic amazing beautiful place ever!

We decided that we'd come this far, so we might as well go for the Sella Ronda.

We took numerous chair lifts, gondolas, and trams that carried us untold vertical feet, and gave us one of the greatest skiing days I've ever had.

One of the great things about skiing Italy is, as you would expect, the food. We stopped for lunch in this cute little town called Arabba, where we had Hofbrau House Weissbier. I had a plate of Spaghetti Carbonara, and Tony had a Barley and Smoked Bacon soup. Both were fantastic. It is also fortunate that at the base and top of every lift there is a conveniently placed lodge where one can stop for a snack or an espresso for energy. And the views are enticing enough to make you want to stop just to enjoy them.

We made our way around the mountain, and eventually the welcome site of our hotel came into view. We were both quite spent and had more than earned our apres-ski Bombardino.