San Cassiano

Last year Cortina, this year San Cassiano, we do have a good life. San Cassiano is in the Dolomites, an area called Alto Badia, different to Cortina in many ways. One it has many runs (pistes) , so you don't have to drive 30 minutes to a area to ski, just up the mountain to Piz Sorega, from there you ski or lift your way to the many slopes and towns like La Villa, Badia, Corvara, Colfosco. These towns linked make the Sellaronda, which is a circle trip that takes most of the day. We did this with our great friends Andrea and Berenice, and it was terrific fun as well as an amazing view(s). Like Cortina, there are many refuges to stop and have some lunch or a warm drink, Andrea's and my favourite was a yellow drink called Bombadino, basically has rum, brandy, vodka and the yellow egg mix with cream on top, gets the motor going!! The other lovely thing about San Casssiano is there are no "Beasts" walking around, as you might remember the women of Cortina walk around in long old furs with orange skin, scaring small children. San Cassiano is more down to earth, the slopes are a bit easier in general, and the level of skiing maybe less as well. The boys along with Andrea's and Berenice son Thiere had lessons all week we were there. Hunter could not stay off any bump or jump he saw, even if it meant travelling into the woods, and Ewan still enjoys the speed. I could not catch them if l tried which sometimes was a worry, as their snow sense is like their road sense.
We stayed in a terrific apartment, much smaller than we had for the month in Cortina, but it was fine, as we ate out most nights, it was called Residensa Vally, and had a sauna, steam room downstairs that we used every night. The room was well decorated and had lounge chairs to relax in with a cup of herbal tea in front of a fire after a sauna. The other great thing was a small shuttle bus picked you up right outside the front door, delivering you to the lift up the mountain, the driver Pietro was such a terrific person always with a big smile. Every morning  we had fresh bread in a bag hanging on the front door of the apartment, and with some cheese and salami along with the yogurt got us going till we had our coffee on the top of the slope.
The apartment was about 3 km from the centre of town, which did mean you had to drive to get food or dinner, but nothing is too far, and thanks to Andrea and Berenice we went to some delicious restaurants. One night we caught this caterpillar transport vehicle to to a refuge called Las Vegas, the kids loved it, sitting in the front as we crawled our way up the mountain. Sadly the food was terrible and way too expensive, more like mensa food, but the boys loved the transport, and we had a great time laughing about strange things, like nudist camps, and camper-vans in Rome, along with Andrea's business team building adventures, but that is something you had to be there to hear.
The day we did the Sellaronda was rather amusing, we dropped the kids off for a full day lesson till 4pm. Then setting of at 10am, we spent much of the day getting slightly lost, catching lots of lifts, and having to carry our ski's through the towns, after coming down the wrong runs. Because of this we swallowed our very very quick lunch, no time for a Bombadino that day, and hurried back. Somehow the girls did not seem as hurried as us, and spent much time talking and slowly putting on their gloves and ski's, l must say at this point Andrea is far more patient than me. We finally decided we were going to be late so sent the girls down to the bottom, where they might take the kids if we did not turn up, we also thought maybe we were meant to meet them there at 4pm, this would be our line if the instructor got angry. Then Andrea and l went to the top to get them, after a quick look around and some phone calls we found they were on the way down the hill, so we shot down, arriving a couple of minutes later, and no one seemed fussed.
We had christmas dinner in the apartment as we could not get a booking anywhere decent, thankfully the girls organized the local butcher to cook up a roast and potatoes for us ( as we did not have ovens in the apartments) and so with some greens along with the local meat balls in broda we had a fun and delightful christmas dinner.
All our skiing was great and got better, Andrea is very good and Berenice knows her way around, we all did a black run, though as usual we did not know we were going to, it was my fault, l said left and should have said right.
The boys built a igloo near the apartment, which one afternoon l noticed some other kids and the boys all working away at it and having snow ball fights. It was often the topic of their conversation, especially how to put the roof on, and what they could put inside (tv, fridge?, chairs and a fire?)
We would definitely go back there, and though it takes 4 hours as compared to 2.5 hours to Cortina it is better for the kids.

Janye and Berenice

Hunty

Alto Badia

Caterpillar transport to Las Vegas

the boys and their igloo

Andrea, Berenice, Therrie, the boys and Jayne

professional skiers