We're contemplating Pila for next year - anyone been there? Reason for
tentative choice: we are missing Italy (for the food, and the language);
but we *really* like ski-in ski-out convenience, which is hard to find in
Italy; we'll have to book a long time in advance, so snow-sure-ness is
important.

Any comments would be welcome, but in particular I'm wondering:

- what's it like for a child in ski school? He'll be 5 and this will be his
first year in ski school (though he's been on skis with us, and tentatively
enjoyed it, this year).

- we gather there are crowds at weekends; does that mean it would be a
really bad place to be at New Year? We could either go in the week that
includes New Year, or in son's school half-term which is around Feb 9th. I
have the impression that half-term isn't a big deal in Italy: right, or
not?

- the two most likely hotels seem to be Chalet des Alpes and Etoile de
Neige : any views?

- the runs are practically all graded red, and we've read that this covers
a variety. Given that at Val Thorens this year I finally reached the stage
of being confident I could get down anything red, but still preferred to
spend most of the day on blues and didn't actually *enjoy* many of the
reds, how am I going to find Pila? I remember Italian "red" being generally
much easier than French "red" (skiied some La Thuile reds years before I
could do any Val Thorens reds), but it's hard to get a handle on how much.

- anywhere else in Italy we should consider?

- or is restricting to Italy just silly, and would anyone like to nominate
other favourites? We do want a change from France, but considered Oberlech,
for example...

Thanks for any comments!

Perdita