Skiing near Venice

I'm going to Venice for the month of December and was hoping to get in some
cross skiing. Any suggestions for where to go for weekend trips. I will
also need to rent equipment, just too much stuff to bring!

Thanks for any suggestions

I was in Venice a few years ago for Christmas and I remember that we
drove to Val di Fiemme from there and it took about 3-4 hours. They
had nordic worlds there a few years back and have a worldloppet event
each year there (I think). So they ski, but December might be pushing
it. We didn't find any skiing there (no snow yet) and continued on to
a place called "Alta Badia" (again, I am doing this from memory).
They had pretty good snow there. If you can't find VDF on the map I
think it is close to Bolzano (Bolzano is in a valley, you climb up to
VDF). If the skiing isn't very good remember that Bolzano is home to
the world-famous "Utzi the Iceman", some missing-link caveman guy they
dug out of the ice a while back - worth a look!

Not sure about rentals, but I imagine if there is an intersport or
something like that in the town where you ski, they will have
something.

Bryant

On 18 Nov, 20:11, "Frank" wrote:
I'm going to Venice for the month of December and was hoping to get in some
cross skiing. Any suggestions for where to go for weekend trips. I will
also need to rent equipment, just too much stuff to bring!

Thanks for any suggestions

You could try Toblach/Dobbiaco and the area round there. It is about
20k north of Cortina. The skiing is OK and there was a good choice of
places to stay. There were two shops hiring good quality track skiing
equipment. Very pretty scenery. I went there for Xmas and they had
the race tracks open from about the third week in December. The
recreational tracks didn't really get opened until just before Xmas.
They were skiable before, but only partially prepared. Once the
resort was fully open, the track prep was very good.

There are some other cross-country resorts in the same area - I think
it is the Alta Pusteria area. Some of them may be open a bit sooner.

Toblach/Dobbiaco has a huge amount of skiing and a wide choice of
villages to stay in. I have no idea how its early snow is. Some of the
villages and tracks are quite a bit higher than Toblach itself.
Accommodation is easy - there are good places to stay and eat
throughout the valley.
Obertilliach is about 40' drive further past Toblach, and is
notoriously good for early-season snow - though you may therefore find
that the tracks are very crowded if there is not much snow elsewhere.
The tracks are constrained in a narrow valley. Not many hotels there
but plenty of apartments.
The road down from Toblach and Cortina to Venice is horrendously slow
and long on a Sunday afternoon - allow many hours for the drive.
Hugh

I forgot to say one of the pluses about Toblach is that you might bump
into a certain famous Norwegian biathlete and his Belgian/Italian
partner. And in Obertillliach, you find it difficult not to bump into
lots of household names. Hopefully not too literally.

In article ,
Frank wrote:
I'm going to Venice for the month of December and was hoping to get in some
cross skiing.

December can be a bit early.
Rental isn't a problem.

--

In article ,
Frank wrote:
I'm going to Venice for the month of December and was hoping to get in some
cross skiing.

The closest areas are around Cortina.
December can be a bit early.
Rental isn't a problem.

--

On Nov 18, 2:11 pm, "Frank" wrote:
I'm going to Venice for the month of December and was hoping to get in some
cross skiing. Any suggestions for where to go for weekend trips. I will
also need to rent equipment, just too much stuff to bring!

Thanks for any suggestions

As others have said, Cortina is good. Old rail grade, 208 Pista
Ciclabile, used for marathons right behind ski hotel I stayed at. Goes
to S. Biago and beyond to Dobbiaco, through tunnels and across
bridges. Cross-Country Ski Centre at Fiames. Also Alta Badia has
Centro Fondo Langlaufzentrum.