It was so last minute we ended up booking on Friday afternoon at 4pm to fly to next day at 6am. If that's not last minute I don't know what is. We booked through SkiLine.com and spoke to Elaine, who was extremely helpful and managed to work within our limited budget. We booked to go to Gressoney in Italy, which has just enough skiing and the smallest village known to man. The area is also known as the '3 valleys' of Italy.
We were lucky that my amazing brother was able to give us a lift to Gatwick at silly o'clock so we didn't have to fork out all our life savings for a taxi! Sleep was almost non-existent as both of us had friend's birthdays so we only actually got home after midnight and we still had to pack. We live a pretty fast-paced lifestyle! So we arrived at the airport a little worse for wear and craving bed. We checked in, grabbed breakfast, boarded our flight and proceeded to zonk out. Next thing we knew we had arrived in Turin and our skiing adventure had began!
We were lucky and only had a short transfer of an hour and a half but we also found out that the company we were going with Espirit, specialised in childcare, so we were panicking our chalet hotel would be jam-packed with screaming children. However it appeared we were in luck again and there were only 4 young 'uns booked on. Winning! Back to the journey to Gressoney, we only actually first saw snow 25 mins before arrival yet our resort had plenty of the stuff, this always surprises me!
After checking into Val Verde and sampling their chocolate chilli torte (not for the faint hearted) - we decided to explore the delights of Gressoney.
Gressoney is tiny, literally the smallest resort I have been to by far. It takes 10 minutes max. to walk around. We spotted 2 bars, maybe 2 restaurants, 2 ski hire shops, a pharmacey (which we later discovered wasn't actually open ever - super practical when you have a splitting headache and no paracetamol) and a 'supermarket'. I say 'supermarket' like this, because it was so small it was more of a corner shop which very little inside (also no paracetamol). I sound judgmental but it was in fact lovely, a massive change to the skiing resorts I have previously encountered which has masses of overpriced shops, restaurants and bars to choose from but not in a bad way. There were barely any people that we passed on our explore, I could probably count them on one hand. We took this as a sign of what was to come, no roudy groups looking to party and cause trouble, no annoying children, no tourists and empty slopes! Anyway I'll let you know that this was the case and it was perfect.
We had the best week skiing with wide empty slopes, perfect for Nath as it was only his second time skiing. So he had no issues with congested slopes and forcing for space to practice turns. He even managed to learn to ski backwards and do 180 turns, and he kept up with me so I was able to practice my technique too so both of us were winning.
We also had the best weather we could have dreamed of and it's first year ever that I haven't worn thermal bottoms at all and a few times not even a jacket. And this guy clearly thought it was appropriate to test out his swimwear.
The hotel was superb and I think it's safe to say, one-of-a-kind! The staff were amazing, always on hand to help and nothing was ever too much hassle, they just couldn't do enough for us. The food was all great, each evening we were given a choice of 3 starters, 3 mains and 3 deserts to choose from and everything was cooked to perfection. We also got canapés and pre-dinner cocktails and post-dinner we got a selection of cheese and truffles. And then in the afternoon we got afternoon tea, which was incredible; sandwiches, soup, pizza, pasties, cookies, cakes you name it. We didn't hold back and all our hard work on eating healthy and masses of exercise (New Year's resolutions) for the majority of January went down the drain. But it was worth it!
We just had an incredible time, so I guess there's not much more to say on the matter but just to leave you with some photos!
Next destination: (at the moment) Valencia.
Until next time folks
Xoxo
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