Travel
23 March 2010
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| Italian ski resort of Sauze D’Olux. |
IF YOU want to avoid the British eggfest known as Easter, why not burn off calories on a snowy Milky Way, rather than gorging yourself on chocolate at home.
The Via Lattea offers 400km (250 miles) of superb skiing, making it Italy's largest lift-linked ski area. High-altitude skiing (there are several peaks over 2,500m) combined with late season deals and free ski passes make the Milky Way an ideal choice for an Easter ski trip.
And while the skiing may not be intergalactic, it's certainly international. The Milky Way's 200 pistes are accessible from the five Italian resorts of Sestriere, Sauze D'Oulx, Sansicario, Cesana and Claviere, as well as from Montgènevre, on the French side of the border.
Sauze D'Oulx, (pronounced Sow-zee as in cow) and the second-largest resort after Sestriere, has long been popular with Brits, and not just as visitors. Several hotels and restaurants are run by British entrepreneurs who went for the skiing and "somehow just ended up staying", as Liverpudlian Vince Herbert recalls.
Vince and his wife Annette run the very successful Del Falco restaurant in Sauze's cobbled old town. "We opened in 1991," he said, "and it's been non stop. We've never looked back."
Ease of access is another plus point. From Turin airport the journey takes less than 90 minutes. The cheapest minibus transfer costs €35 but runs at fixed times and depends on passenger numbers.
We rented a car and the friendly Avis man even threw in some free snow chains. But hiring a car is only recommended if you know where you are going. Arriving in Sauze at around 7pm, the road signs were as unfathomable in the dark as the piste signs would turn out to be in daylight.
Spotting a group of Neilson holiday reps standing outside the (now closed) tourist office, I stopped to ask for directions.
One promptly jumped in, volunteering to guide us personally to our hotel, even leaping out again to push the car up a slight incline when we got stuck in one of the narrow, slush-covered streets of the old town.
Close to a 16th-century church, we found the Gran Trun. Charmingly renovated and managed by Sarah (another Brit) and Anna, it turned out to be a cross between a hotel and a rustic wine bar, and one of the friendliest places I've ever stayed in.
Not only did Sarah make sure that sugared croissants were always kept back for us whatever time we came down for breakfast. On our last day, she corralled a group of Italian ragazzi (boys) into providing yet more help with the hire car. Six hunky local teenagers helped dig us out of a snowdrift, the international camaraderie of the mountains coming to our rescue once more.
Out on the pistes, mainly reds and blues, the idiosyncratic nature of the signage proved frustrating. Two chairlifts proclaimed that they were only for 'expert skiers', signs we had no choice but to ignore. It was also too easy, in poor visibility, to ski by mistake into cul de sacs evidently left by piste-bashing machines. Sidestepping painstakingly back up on to the main slope was the only way out. But when the sun shone, and the distant peaks twinkled like the stars of the Milky Way, all such irritations were forgotten.
At least the prices in Sauze were competitive. Adopting a "just ask" strategy netted us five per cent off a ski pass, 20 per cent off buffet dinners in the four-star hotel where our friends were staying, 10 per cent off goggles in one shop and 10 per cent off equipment hire in another. Overnight ski and boot storage, plus a ski-carrying strap, were thrown in for free, as well as vouchers for coffees in Sportinia, Sauze's ski hub, where most ski lessons start or finish.
To woo late skiers, there are free ski passes for anyone staying more than three nights from Easter Monday.
Linda Lewis
Getting there: Flights from Gatwick, Luton and Stansted with BA, easyJet and Ryanair. Transfers from Turin airport to Sauze D'Oulx: www.airporthoppers.com. Two-four shuttles a day, €35 each way, minimum numbers apply. The green option: Eurostar to Paris, change to TGV to Oulx, 15 mins by taxi from Sauze.
Where to stay: Sauze's Fortur consortium of hotels has three-star accommodation with half board for €65 euros per person per night (based on two sharing) until April 11, including a free ski pass.
Find out more: www.comune.sauzedoulx.to.it, www.turismotorino.org.
For last-minute local deals, contact consorzio.fortur@libero.it +390122858009.