Buongiorno Class -
We just visited the Trentino province of Italy, all the way up in the northeast corner of the country. The local government invited us so we could learn more about Trentino. Trento is the main city of Trentino.
Years ago this area of Italy was part of the Austrian Empire and only became part of Italy in 1919. We visited the ski resort of Madonna di Campiglio to learn about the area, hotels and other parts of the resort.
The village is in a valley with mountains all around, the Adamello Glacier on one side and on the other side the Brenta Dolomites The Italians pronounce it DOLOWMEETEES.
The village is very busy with skiers in the winter and in the summer with hikers and mountain bikers.
In the winter people ski, parasail; snowshoe on the glacier and in the woods and ice skate on the lake in the middle of the village.
It is well known for having a world cup ski race at night.
In the summer people visit the large Adamello national park where they bike and hike in the mountains.
The national park has bears and the bear is the symbol of the park and the village. We did not see any bears as they are all still hibernating. The park also has waterfalls, lakes and trees; mountain goats, marmots, eagles and deer.
The hotel were we stayed is very old and was visited during the winter often by Franz Josef the Emperor of Austria and his wife, Princess Sissi.
Back then and even now you can ski right up to the hotel.
There would be dances and balls for the royalty and today they still dress up once a year to dance in the main hall.
One evening we all got in a big snow cat and were taken over the snow up the mountain to a refuge for dinner.
We had dinner of local food, cheese from goats, stew, polenta and local desserts.
One afternoon we visited some of the hotels in the village. Many of them have swimming pools, spas and nice views of the mountains. One of the hotels is all biologic/organic and has a Michelin starred restaurant. This hotel is a favorite of ours.
The ski school took some of us to ski all around the village and mountains and took others to snowshoe on the Adamello Glacier, the largest in Italy.
During the winter the Ferrari race team visits the village and they have go kart races on the frozen lake in the middle of the village.
After we finished our visit we left the village of Madonna di Campiglio, driving down the Adige Valley along the Adige River toward Verona and then home to Cormayeur. Next blog is about our village of Courmayeur.
A presto, Nonno
What would you like to do best in the winter?
In the summer?
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