Just an quick update and some thoughts:
We ended up in Bormio, as mentioned. Rented a car, and had no problems with the travel from Milan (3 hours). I'm glad I chose as I did; arriving late afternoon on Sunday was great in order to settle in. We stayed in an awesome 2 BR airbnb that was a 15 minute walk to the slopes. The rental shop we used was right next to the gondola and had storage for the equipment, so that made things easy. Town of Bormio was very cool, lots there. It was the right size, it could have been smaller and I'd have been fine. We had great food, from pasta to pizza to fancy. The food on the mountain was surprisingly decent and reasonable; certainly much more so than at a US resort. We didn't have to wait in really any lines to speak of.
--It hadn't snowed there in a few weeks, and it showed. Lower half of the mountain wasn't great, but actually had a sweet spot in the day where it was soft but not slushy (yet). Grooming was good, but tended to get skiied off by the end of the day. Conditions would be equivalent to good east coast skiing.
--The mountain itself was fun, but not very big (the groomed parts at least) and not particularly steep. Huge drop though, so there was enough to ski there for 3-4 days.
--Great weather. 50's at the base, mid-20's at the peak, mid-30's+ at 2k meters. Bluebird for the first 4 days.
--Got absolutely dumped on our last day. Peak was closed, but we had at least 18" at mid mountain. Would have LOVED to stay for a few more days.
--The Italians seem allergic to powder and do everything they can to avoid it. We couldn't resist taking a few runs under the lift and just off the side. I couldn't tell actually what was "off-piste" vs just ungroomed in quite a few places
--We did one day in Santa Catarina. Loved it there. Quite a bit steeper than Bormio, and the town seemed cool as well. Easy drive down there, and nice to mix it up. I don't know if anything was running on that last day though, since it starts at 2k meters. We could have done another day there for sure.
--The "thermal springs" were a bit of a disappointment. More of a huge rec center. The disappointment was that there wasn't actually a hot tub anywhere, the pools were all just warm. Still enjoyed it though, and the saunas were great. Way too many obnoxious kids though.
--We were the only Americans that we encountered during our whole trip. Quite a few Brits. People were excited that we were American and not British. That was interesting. My son was intent on learning some Italian, so he ordered all his own food. The Italians were for the most part super patient and amused by him. (He got good at "Vorrei una cioccolata con panna, per favore")
--American bread sucks. American pizza sucks. American pasta sucks.
Most important: My wife had a great time. I billed it as "a vacation in the Alps! (where we'll do a little skiing)". She hit the shops, read, walked along the river during the day, and then joined us in the afternoon/evenings. Nice weather helped.
We ended up in Bormio, as mentioned. Rented a car, and had no problems with the travel from Milan (3 hours). I'm glad I chose as I did; arriving late afternoon on Sunday was great in order to settle in. We stayed in an awesome 2 BR airbnb that was a 15 minute walk to the slopes. The rental shop we used was right next to the gondola and had storage for the equipment, so that made things easy. Town of Bormio was very cool, lots there. It was the right size, it could have been smaller and I'd have been fine. We had great food, from pasta to pizza to fancy. The food on the mountain was surprisingly decent and reasonable; certainly much more so than at a US resort. We didn't have to wait in really any lines to speak of.
--It hadn't snowed there in a few weeks, and it showed. Lower half of the mountain wasn't great, but actually had a sweet spot in the day where it was soft but not slushy (yet). Grooming was good, but tended to get skiied off by the end of the day. Conditions would be equivalent to good east coast skiing.
--The mountain itself was fun, but not very big (the groomed parts at least) and not particularly steep. Huge drop though, so there was enough to ski there for 3-4 days.
--Great weather. 50's at the base, mid-20's at the peak, mid-30's+ at 2k meters. Bluebird for the first 4 days.
--Got absolutely dumped on our last day. Peak was closed, but we had at least 18" at mid mountain. Would have LOVED to stay for a few more days.
--The Italians seem allergic to powder and do everything they can to avoid it. We couldn't resist taking a few runs under the lift and just off the side. I couldn't tell actually what was "off-piste" vs just ungroomed in quite a few places
--We did one day in Santa Catarina. Loved it there. Quite a bit steeper than Bormio, and the town seemed cool as well. Easy drive down there, and nice to mix it up. I don't know if anything was running on that last day though, since it starts at 2k meters. We could have done another day there for sure.
--The "thermal springs" were a bit of a disappointment. More of a huge rec center. The disappointment was that there wasn't actually a hot tub anywhere, the pools were all just warm. Still enjoyed it though, and the saunas were great. Way too many obnoxious kids though.
--We were the only Americans that we encountered during our whole trip. Quite a few Brits. People were excited that we were American and not British. That was interesting. My son was intent on learning some Italian, so he ordered all his own food. The Italians were for the most part super patient and amused by him. (He got good at "Vorrei una cioccolata con panna, per favore")
--American bread sucks. American pizza sucks. American pasta sucks.
Most important: My wife had a great time. I billed it as "a vacation in the Alps! (where we'll do a little skiing)". She hit the shops, read, walked along the river during the day, and then joined us in the afternoon/evenings. Nice weather helped.