Last minute package: vacation travel in Europe
Would you like to go skiing on the most beautiful slopes surrounded by impressive mountains? Then your ideal destination cannot be but Val Gardena, one of the most spectacular valleys of Dolomiti, with its pearls, Ortisei and Selva di Val Gardena, dominated by the mythical Sassolungo and Sella Group.
The Ladin Gardena Valley (Grödner Tal) is set in the heart of Dolomites and it has no comparisons as for colours and natural beauties. Although here snow plays the lord and master with 175 kilometers of slopes and 81 lifts, Val Gardena can also offer interesting excursions and detours: discovering the typical local art of wood sculpture or looking for the rests of ancient castles and Medieval farms.
Ortisei (St. Ulrich) is a famous international tourist resort at 1236 meters, it is the main centre of Val Gardena and lays in a large valley bottom, on the sunny slope of Rasciesa and under the mountains hiding the Siusi Alp. But it is also the capital of wooden sculptures, from artistical cribs to games, a tradition originated in the XVII century, when people carved the wood to spend time in the long winter months, and developped until today when we can see in each corner of the village wood carving laboratories often indicated by wooden statues outside the shops.
The Siusi Alp belongs to the Val Gardena department and can be reached by cable car. It is a wide ondulatory tableland with prairies and woods, a real paradise for "langlauf" ski. Here, at 2.000 meters, there is the "largest grassland in Europe". The other mountainside is occupied by Siusi and from there starts the Sciliar tableland (Schlern Gebiet), a veritable natural terrace at the beginning of Val d'Isarco that boasts 350 kilometers of precisely signalised lanes, and the Sciliar Natural Park (6.386 hectares characterized by a rare flora richness). One of the places worthy of a detour is the nice Fiè allo Sciliar, one of the tableland pearls with marvellous farms and ancient places that people believed to be ihabited by witches.
Santa Cristina Valgardena, in front of Sassolungo, grew beside the prehistorical route Troi Paian and is the oldest centre of the valley. On your way to Selva Gardena you should not lose a visit at Castel Gardena, hunting castle and Summer residence in Renaissance style that hides behind its dimentions a Medieval feeling towards weapons. A curiosity: in Imam you may visit the biggest crib in the world, built by local carvers with 2 meters and a half high wooden personages.
Selva di Val Gardena (Wolkenstein) is one of the most renowned holiday resorts both in Winter and in the Summer and is as well the centre of Ladin culture. Extending on four kilometers along a valley of the High Val Gardena between S. Cristina and Plan, it offers a striking Dolomitic landscape on the sides of Puez, Sella and Sassolungo. The Selva area is one of the best equiped as for hotels and sporting structures and can host up to a million tourist each year. There is a reason if since 30 years one of the most engaging contests of the Ski World Cup is held here!
Here lovers of ski and snow can enjoy the best slopes, the ones on which each year the big ski champions defy each other. Saslong is the "black" hosting two straight race contests: over 2.000 meters with ditches and curves, it is one of the five most beautiful slopes in the world and was included in the Club5 circuit. Extremely famous also the Ciampinoi, one of the most interesting slopes of Dolomites. But if you really wish to exagerate, you may go all over the Sellaronda, the carousel of the four passes, famous and praised excursion bringing you around in the Sella Group with the skis at your feet: 26 kilometers plunged in the marvel of these mountais (required time: 6 hours).
Dolomiti and Gardena Valley: vacations on the skis, snow, sport and amusement