Ship’s flying start
LUXURY river-cruise line Ama Waterways is offering free UK return flights when you book with its new ship. Taking to the water on May 5,Ama Magna is double the width of other river-cruise ships.
Full-board cruises cost from £2,732pp including drinks with meals, excursions and wi-fi. The offer is for Danube itineraries until November 30. See amawaterways.co.uk. A MAGICAL blanket of snow has softened the Alps, making it the perfect time to discover Italy’s TRENTINO – one of Europe’s most fun and affordable winter sport regions.
Location location Valley of the sun
Trentino is a long valley that runs northwards from Verona into the mountains. Its ski area, Val di Sole, starts just north of the capital Trento and runs westwards along the border with Switzerland. Getting here is a two-hour journey from Verona airport, through vineyards overlooked by castles then up a valley quilted with apple orchards.
Until the end of the First World War, this region was part of the Austro-hungarian empire, and it retains a sense of order and neatness that is quite Germanic. It looks very like Switzerland, which is just a hop and a skip away, but a week here costs a fraction of Swiss prices. Expect pizza and wurst.
Pistes and apres Best resorts
If you are here to ski, there are six main resorts, all connected with a free ski bus system. The biggest are Madonna di Campiglio and Pontedilegno-tonale.
Glitzy Madonna di Campiglio, with 100 miles of pistes and plenty of dolce vita, is the place to go if you would like boutiques as well as lively apres ski. Pontedilegno-tonale, with 60 miles of pistes, is higher and more purpose built, with glacier skiing as well as a lot of sun-facing beginnerish slopes.
Good alternatives to both are the smaller resorts of Pejo, close to Pontedilegno-tonale, and Folgarida, near Madonna di Campiglio. These are villages that retain their original atmosphere and traditions – cattle overwintering in village barns – but don’t have enough pistes to sustain a week of just skiing.
Soft shoe shuffle Snow hiking
Much of the northern side of Val di Sole is in the massive Stelvio National Park, the slopes cloaked in pine, larch and spruce. And there is a very healthy population of animals here, including brown bears, although these are very shy and hibernate in winter.
The ski lifts of Pejo give access to hiking trails through the woods, with paw prints galore in the snow. Foxes, rabbits, deer and chamois mountain goat are common, and if you take the cable car to the highest point, you are likely to see ibex and golden eagles.
There are history lessons up here, too, as this was a particularly rugged and merciless frontline during the First World War.
Troops dug into the mountainsides and many died in the brutal winter weather.
You can follow the region’s extensively waymarked trails yourself with a map, or sign up for multilingual guided walks via the National Park office in the village of Cogolo for just £13 for a full day. Information at parcostelviotrentino.it.
Cool tunes Ice music
This winter the Val di Sole is hosting a unique festival of music, played entirely on instruments made of ice, in a snow dome up on a glacier 2,600 metres above Passo di Tonale.
The instruments – violin, viola, mandolin, cello, double bass and rolandophone, a big xylophone – are all made by an American ice artist ar called Tim Linhart, who also created the ice ic dome. The sound is good, but the instruments in are not easy to play, partly because they th are heavy, partly because of cold fingers, and an partly because of the warming up of the atmosphere at created by the audience, which affects af the way the ice behaves.
Accordingly, the concerts are kept short at 4 45 minutes, and a lot of retuning is required.
But it is certainly a unique experience. See va valdisole.net/en/ice-music.
Saluti cheers! Pejo’s spa springs
Apres A ski is not all about sinking a load of beers here. he The water from Val di Sole‘s Pejo valley is health he giving and pure, and is bottled and sold throughout th Italy.
In Pejo itself, there are three mineral springs – o one neutral, one heavy with iron and one with a