Skiing in Abetone

This week I went skiing at Abetone ski resort.  It was my first day skiing in two years, my first time skiing in my new Fischer ski boots (bought 2 years ago) and it was my first time skiing in Italy.  Abetone (abba-TONE-a) is not in the Alps, it’s in the Apennine (appa-NEEN-a) mountains but it’s a lot closer to Florence than the Alps are, a 2 ½ hour train/bus combination trip (and a lot less than that by car if I had mine right now!).   

 The weather wasn’t the best and the snow was a bit sparse as you can see from the photos, but it was soft and my high performance Rossignol rental skis were fast.  And my new ski boots worked perfectly, 10 times better than my old worn out, beaten to death Nordica’s.

Abetone is one of the biggest non-Alp ski areas in Italy.  With 4 major peaks, a bowl between two of the peaks, and almost 1,800 vertical feet of long skiable trails, it has a big mountain feel.  And during weekdays there are few skiers on the slopes.  After not having skied for 2 years it was a good tune up in preparation for skiing the Alps later this month.

I am tentatively making plans to ski Cortina in the Dolomites, and I have finally figured out the necessary train transportation.  I will keep you posted on how it turns out!