Sunny skiing in Breuil-Cervinia

Breuil-Cervinia

For the last few years, I have wanted to try skiing in different countries, rather than the usual Switzerland, Austria and France that we have been going skiing to. So this time we went to Breuil-Cervinia, in Italy. Though it's still the Alps, at least the food was better than the ski resorts in other European countries 😂. Plus the skiing was enjoyable - sunny weather, fabulous slopes, and the ability to cross-over and ski in the glaciers of Zermatt.


Getting there

We took a flight from London to Geneva, which flew over the Alps. It all looked so calm, so serene down below, with the white peaks peeking through the clouds. We also had to register at check-in kiosks before immigration, which was a new addition. Thankfully the queues weren't as chaotic as they became by springtime.

We had to drive about 3 hours to reach Breuil-Cervinia. We had rented a car from the airport, and picking it up was an interesting experience. First, the car was parked in a car park, 200m from the rental shop - it’s the first time I have seen something like this. Second, the car was extremely dirty, especially the wind screen and windows, which were completely covered with flowers and leaves stuck to them. When we pointed it out to the rental staff that the car should be cleaned before handover, they had a very shocked look! Thankfully they did clean it a bit for us.

And then we were off to the Alps. We first drove on flat plains, with snow covered mountains right next to us (well they were far away but looked near!). The plains were mostly farmlands with some industries in between. The far off peaks accompanying us the whole way looked stunning. The driving was bad though. It felt like no one drives properly in Italy! People speed, change lanes without signalling and quite often break the rules. I have had this experience in Italy a few times before but it still shocks me that such driving exists in Europe!

Ivrea

After some time, we took an exit and started driving through the alpine valleys. We first stopped at Ivrea for lunch. It was a small town and quiet empty at that time. We walked to a few restaurants and all of them refused to let us eat so late as it was already 2 pm 😂! So we had a snack at the station food shop (so much for good Italian food on this trip 😂).

We walked a bit in town. It had a few castles, one within the town and one slightly outside of town. The streets were all cobbled and looked lovely, with the red-orange houses around, and the snow covered Alps in the background. It was quite a scenic though short (and hungry) halt.

Thereafter, we mostly drove through Aosta valley through a scenic route which passes through the local villages and is dotted with castles. The scenic route runs alongside the highway but is a smaller and slower road. We drove through small villages, all charming and rustic, surrounded by mountains on both sides.

The houses were wooden and different from the Austrian/Swiss alpine chalets. The vegetation was mostly brown. The mountainsides were lined with vineyards. And there was no snow in this valley. We also drove past loads of castles on the mountainsides along us, including the famous Bard castle. They looked so majestic, and so cute - perched in brown on the hilltops. I enjoyed this slow drive, through charming villages, with the sun setting behind the mountains.

The gradient on the drive till now was gradual. Then suddenly after the town of Chatillon, we turned and went up quickly to 2000 m. We crossed a pass and suddenly there was a lot of snow everywhere. The last bit of the route was quite winding but not too tough to drive on. And then we reached our village, Breuil-Cervinia. We should have seen the Matterhorn (known as Monte Cervino in this area) as we arrived at our village but we couldn’t, as it was quite cloudy that day.

Snowed out view

We were staying in an airbnb in one of the apartment buildings in town. It was tough to find as the location shared was wrong! But it was very well done up, close to the ski lifts and we had a gorgeous view of the mountains around us. It started snowing right after we reached, so everything around looked heavenly. The temperatures were freezing though.

High street

On our first evening, we walked into town for dinner. It looked so cosy and active, with loads of people around. There was a small little high street, all lit up at night, with loads of eating places around. There was music playing in the evening. It felt like being in winter wonderland as it was snowing lightly all evening!

We first walked to our ski rental shop to rent skis and the staff there were so unfriendly. The owner was just not willing to store our skis and even started shouting at us when we asked him questions! They were also upset that we came late in the evening, even though the shop was still open. It wasn’t a great experience, and till now, I wasn't impressed by the service and hospitality of northern Italy.

After renting the skis, we walked into 5-6 restaurants and they were all fully booked! Finally we found a place, the Sporting Bar, which was willing to accommodate us 😂. Dinner there was simple but at least we got to eat!


Skiing in Breuil-Cervinia

Overall, I loved the skiing in Breuil-Cervinia. It was snowing the first day, but the next three days were gorgeous and sunny. The slopes were wide, the snow was fresh and the Alp views magnificent. On two of the days, I even skied the other side of Monte Cervino, in Zermatt valley in Switzerland, where the skiing was even more amazing.

Breuil-Cervinia

On the first day it was snowing and the slopes were covered in clouds the whole time. It wasn't too crazy weather but we still couldn't see where we were skiing. So we mostly did blues all day as we could not risk skiing blind on unknown slopes! I didn't enjoy it much that day as I couldn't see much around. So I skied only 4 hours, one of the fewest hours I have skied in a single day.

We had lunch at La Grotto, a fancy Italian restaurant in town. And the pizza there was so tasty. Finally we got a taste of the great Italian food we had dreamt of! Also I always say, I like Italian food only in Italy (otherwise I don't like pasta and pizza much) and this trip proved it. The pizza here was so thin and tasty, I loved it!

The last day too, I skied on the Italian side. I took a few connecting gondolas and went all the way till the village of Valtournenche. The gondolas on this part of the resort went quite far, they took a long time to navigate. The runs here were amazing though. And so long! I had a nice day skiing here in the sun.

Love Apres

I went on a very long run, all the way down to the village. Valtournenche looked delightful from the top, it even had a lake visible from the mountain. There was less snow here though than Breuil-Cervinia. As we were leaving the same day, we started early and it took a while to ski back to town, after taking a mix of gondolas and lifts to get back. I had lunch on the slopes that day at Love Apres (a place I had skied past everyday but never stopped at). It was lovely to sit there and enjoy the last view and feel of the mountains before heading back to the plains.


Skiing in Zermatt

It is possible to ski from Breuil-Cervinia towards the Zermatt valley in Switzerland. There are a few gondolas which can take one over the high peaks to the other side. To do that, one needs to buy international ski lift tickets for the day. A lot dependd on the weather and of course winds though, as quite often these gondolas are shut down due to bad weather.

On days 2 and 3, the weather was brilliant and we could have a full day of skiing. So I ventured to the other side. I had to take a few lifts and gondolas to cross the border. I also took the Matterhorn Glacier ride which takes you all the way up to the mountain peak of Klein Matterhorn, at a height of 3800 m. In fact when you get off, you have to walk through a tunnel inside the peak to reach the ski slopes.

Matterhorn

It was fun to go there, and I spent the whole day skiing around the Zermatt ski resort. From the peak, you can ski on the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise on the top, which is open for skiing all year around. Around it are 5-6 other glaciers which one can see from one of the lifts at Hohtalli. Skiing on the glacier was like a dream. Cruising on wide slopes, with stunning views around. I mostly did reds all day today and they were stunning. The only time I fell was on a flat slope while I was admiring the Matterhorn 😂. One can see the Matterhorn while skiing down, and it was stunning. It looked like a sphinx to me. And over the next two days I kept admiring it from various different angles.

I skied down to Furgg and Schwarzee lifts. The marking on the slopes was a bit off here. So as I was skiing, I got on a very flat blue slope (51) which went all the way down to Furi. It was not fun at all, as I had to push on the poles the whole way down.

When I reached Furi, it felt nice to be back there as I had visited the place in summer 2021, when I had hiked this area. It looked so different now with a completely opposite vibe. I was looking for the same restaurant that I had eaten at then, but I couldn't find it. So I had lunch at the Gitz Gadi restaurant near Silvana hotel, in the sun. It was lovely. It felt so nice to be there.

As it was my first day on the Swiss side and I was a bit anxious to get back to Italy, I left early on and took a few lifts to get back to the Italian side. I had to take the Trockener Steg gondola to the Klein Matterhorn peal but this gondola approached from the other side. I could see a lot more of the glaciers around (I had done a hike in the same area during the summer of 2021 when the glaciers had receded a lot more).

The gondola went through a few ups and downs and we could see the peak of the mountain far off. And boy, was it scary. So scary, that I decided not to look outside of the gondola even! The weather was brilliant that day, but now I understand why most of the time this gondola does not work. It would be quite scary on a bad weather day. After I got to the top, skiing down on the Italian side was quick as most lifts closed by 4 pm (even though sunset was after 6 pm!). So I just cruised down on the blues, all the way down.

The second day I went to Switzerland, I started earlier and skied much further, across many mountains to get to Schweigmatt. I went all the way through Furgg, Riffelberg, Gant and Hohtalli till Schweigmatt. The whole ski route was lovely. The valleys were wider with more panoramic views. They even had a ski train on the Gornergrat mountain, which looked cute. We got a magnificent view of the glaciers and peaks around from Hohtalli. Skiing here was just fabulous, with some easy but many challenging slopes. The weather was colder here though as the sun set here earlier.

While skiing back to Breuil-Cervinia, I stopped for lunch at Alphitta Zermatt, and it was heaven. We ate with a direct front view of the Matterhorn. And there was live music playing there. I think this was the highlight of my ski trip. I also chatted with some Germans who had taken a train all the way up till the restaurant and were also going to walk back down. They were on a holiday taking mostly trains to get anywhere (including the famour Glacier Express and Bernina Express), it sounded like an interesting travel idea. After lunch, I started the long trek back to Breuil-Cervinia via the Matterhorn Glacier.

The slopes on the Swiss side were generally longer and wider. The slopes felt easier too, maybe because they are wider. Surprisingly the snow felt less than in Breuil-Cervinia (other than on the glaciers of course). Also there were regular patches where one had to go speeding down to be able to naturally ski up the mountain. It was good practice for me, especially to get comfortable with skiing at high speeds. But still surprising.

Also, there were far more gondolas than ski lifts on the Swiss side. Which led to a lot of time wasted queuing for them. But as the slopes were longer, we didn't need to use them often. This side of the mountain was also more stunning than the Italian side. The Zermatt valley is definitely one of the loveliest in the Alps. And I think it's because I was admiring all the scenery around, I ended up skiing a lot, almost 8 hours from 9 to 5 pm. And I totally enjoyed it.


Breuil-Cervinia town

Monte Cervino

One of the evenings, I just walked around town for almost an hour and a half, all the way up one of the mountains. And I loved the town. Monte Cervino is the name given to the Matterhorn on the Italian side, and is quite a key attractor of people here in town. The town is quite huge, and spread out along a few of the mountainsides around. There were many other activities going on around here other than skiing, like snow tours, snow walks, glacier walks and so on. Overall, it seemed quite calm and convenient town. 

There are apartments in the centre of town, and also along four of the mountainsides. I walked up one of those mountains (where our airbnb was), and there were apartments and hotels there, right next to red slopes coming down! It would have been nice to stay at such a “ski in ski out” place. The sun also came out during this walk and the skiing on the other side of the mountain still in the sun, looked amazing.

High street

When we went into town in the evenings, we could see many apres ski and other restaurants alive and kicking. One evening, I sat outside Casa Montana next to a fire and sketched the hotel in front, the Da Compagnoni. The high street felt so lively with all the people around, the snow falling and the music playing there. It was so atmospheric, I loved it.

The second evening, we had dinner at La Barbaroque, where I ordered an Aosta soup and it was so bad. There was no soup in it, no liquid 😂. But the service was really good, our waiter was from Argentina. So she changed the order for me. The next evening we had dinner at Casa Montana apparently the oldest in Breuil-Cervinia. The vibe was so fun there though the food was quite average.

Leaving Breuil-Cervinia

On our last day, we had an interesting experience at the ski shop (again!). When we went to return our skis, we realised they were closed from 12-2 pm! That was a shock. It is Italy, but still we hadn’t expected this. Thankfully the owner picked up our phone and came back to take the skis, so that worked out OK. But if she hadn't, we could have even missed our flight.

The drive back to Milan airport was quicker, as we drove through the highways. Even that was as beautiful as the scenie road we had taken earlier. There were snow covered mountains and gray clouds all the way. Apparently, there was a storm approaching and the next few days, skiing was going to be limited in Breuil-Cervinia. At least in that respect, we had good timing.

At the car rental, after we dropped our car, the receptionist offered to drop us at the airport in the same car. And he drove so crazily, that now we knew why traffic was so bad all around! We had our dinner at the Milan airport. There were just so many nice restaurants - Italians do love their food! And by then, we started felling our trip was now over. 


Overall, I loved the experience of skiing in Italy. The views were great, the sun was welcome and the food yum. I would definitely recommend this ski resort anytime.