After nearly two years of being restricted to watching snow accumulate on distant mountains, Italian skiers are finally returning to the slopes that have been off-limits since the first pandemic lockdown in March 2020.
Dreaming of better days, James Callery looks forward to Italy’s ski season in 2021. When I told my family of lifelong skiers I was off on a trip to the 3 Zinnen Dolomites (also known as the 3 Peaks Dolomites), none of them had ever heard of it. Yet, it is only a couple of hours’ drive from South Tyrol favourite Val Gardena, where I remember completing the 26km Sellaronda ski circuit with them when I was seven. The skiing area I was about to visit, named because of its trio of distinctive neighbouring battlement-like peaks, is not one of the better known resorts in the UK. Everyone loves the Dolomites, though – with its dramatic scenery and plentiful sunshine – so this resort, a stone’s throw from the Austrian border, had a lot to live up to.