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Bormio, Italy
Charming medieval
town center, unlike any other resort.
If you like cobbled
medieval Italian towns and don't mind a lack of Alpine resort atmosphere,
you'll find the center of Bormio very appealing - though you're unlikely
to be staying there. The slopes, too, suit a rather specific and perhaps
rather uncommon breed of visitor: you need to enjoy red runs and very
little else, but you need to be happy with a limited range of them - unless,
that is, you're prepared to take the free bus out to the Val di Dentro-San
Colombano area or make longer outings, to Santa Caterina or (further still)
Livigno.
Bormio attracts some boarders, but it
has no special appeal. The slopes are too steep to make first-time boarding
enjoyable, and apart from some good long carving runs, there's little
to attract experienced boarders either: no park or pipe; limited off-piste
potential, little enthusiasm from the ski schools to teach boarding; and
a mainly skier orientation on the slopes. At least the main area's lifts
are mostly chairs, gondolas or cable-cars - though there are some drags.
Nightlife is sedate and really gets going only at the weekend.
Bormio was to host the Alpine skiing
World Championship in 2005, 20 years after it first staged them.
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Trail
map
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Town map
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click
on images for full-size view
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What's
Great
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What's
Not-So-Great
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Good mix of high, snowsure pistes and woodland
runs with artificial snow, giving some excellent long runs when
conditions are right
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Worthwhile neighboring resorts on the Valtellina
lift pass
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Attractive medieval town center - quite unlike
any other winter resort
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Good mountain restaurants
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Slopes all of
medium steepness
Rather
confined main mountain, with second area some way distant
Still
many slow old lifts on the mountain
Long
airport transfers
Crowds and liftlines on Sundays
Central
hotels inconvenient for the lifts and slopes
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Content
on this page by permission from
"Where to Ski and Snowboard Worldwide"
©Chris Gill & Dave Watts |
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