J and C from UNITED KINGDOM writes:
We are back from our ski weekend in Italy and in short â¦â¦.never to return again!!
We arrived at the Turin Airport ½ hour late, due to massive snow falls in the UK, to quite a warm Italy. my husband and I made our way to the closest toilet in the terminal and were pretty grossed out at how dirty they were. Outside the guy from our hotel was waiting with his blue jersey, to take us to our so called âhotelâ. This guy, we still do not know his name, wore the same jersey from Friday when we arrived until Sunday when we left. The cab stunk of wet smelly stinking socks so we had to endure this for 1 hr. When we got to the place, we realized we were not in Sauze DâOulx where our friends were staying but rather the town way below it called Jouvenceaux. There were just mountains everywhere and we could see this coming, the mountains we would be climbing to get to ski lifts and back to our âhotelâ. The guy showed us to the closest ski hire shop which we could not believe. The skiâs were from 1800âs with tie bindings, not even click ones (like we were used to) so we asked for another shop which was now not in our village but Sauze instead. We eventually got our blue jersey man to drive us up the hill to try and get some skis before the shop closed in 15 mins. We soon realized most things closed btw 1230 and 1530 even the ski lift near to our town. We managed to get some skis and once again persuaded our man in the blue jersey to take us up to Sauze so we could ski on Friday afternoon from the Sauze lift system. But before skiing we got shown to our room which we were horrified at. This was also from the 1800âs. The beds were camper beds and if you sat in the middle of them, you got folded inside them. The mattresses were an entire 5cm thick with springs sticking out everywhere. The bathroom had no shower and there was so much junk all around the room, we could not believe our eyes. To top it all, it was the most we have ever paid for accommodation when skiing and it was def the worst. We then proceeded to the slopes which were probably the highlight of the w/end. The snow was great, there were no moguls and the slopes were strangely empty maybe it was because most of the lifts took about 45 mins to get anywhere at all not to mention uncomfortable at all â they all seemed to stick into the middle of your back. The lifts are in sure need of a major revamp and soon at that. They are supposed to be having the 2006 Olympics at this place and as far as we were concerned, they need to break down the entire of the village, ski lifts, restaurants etc and start again!! We had lunch at a restaurant in the Sportina region where we were served our meals on plastic plates. There must have been about 6-7 restaurants in this small area and yip they had all but one toilet!!! We really liked the slopes but seriously that was about it for Sauze. The Italians were nice and friendly but most of them seriously needed some deo!! Out on Friday night, we went to a bar which had about 200 people inside it and it has a communal bathroom for men and woman which was a ceramic hole in the floor. We were not impressed to say the least!!
Friends went on a weekâs package deal which was quite reasonable but I think if it were us, we would have left after the 2 nights we had experienced no matter what the cost!!
Saturday it snowed huge and on Sunday morning there was at least 40cms of snow which melted so fast because we think it must have reached about 10 degrees on the mountains. We skied loads on Sunday and our bodies felt the effect. Last night we were delayed in Turin airport which is also filthy so only got back at 230am in th emorning.
To sum it all up, we think Austria RULZZZZ big time, it is spotless, much cheaper and so modern and you can't even compare Austria's great nightlife to Suaze. We will never return to Italy, at least for a skiing holiday. We will need something really special to make us go back â maybe the Italian Riviera ....who knows??
So take advice from this, you might get a good ski package for Italy but DO NOT TAKE anyone/anything up on it.
2004-12-09 |
