Val Gardena

Area Profile

In skiing terms Selva Gardena is the best known of the three villages in the Gardena Valley which now market themselves together as Val Gardena. Indeed Selva's official title is currently 'Selva Gardena' although in common with most villages in the formerly Austrian and strongly Germanic South Tyrol area of northern Italy, it also has a German name 'Wolkenstein', although this is rarely used (except in marketing to Germanic nations). At least adding Gardena to Selva (Or 'Gröden' rather than Gardena for German speakers) prevents any mix up with fellow Dolomiti Superski resort Selva di Cadore, and the more remote danger of another mistaken identity case with Prata Selva in more distant Abruzzo. Confused? Well the locals must be quite blasé about it as they have a third language dating back several millennia to when the Roman legions marched in to the area and their Latin got mixed up with the native 'Rhaetian'.

Selva is the best placed of the three Val Gardena resorts for most skiers, at the head of the valley which leads up to a Pass which can take you down to the Fassa Valley on one side and to Alta Badia on the other. The really excellent thing, as far as skiers are concerned, is that you can ski in both directions and continue right round the huge Sella mountain on the famous Sella Ronda circuit without having to take your skis off or go back on yourself. Better still, because Selva is part of the world's largest ski pass system, the Dolomiti Superski, you have computer card access to all the lifts on that route (and hundreds more that you can drive to).

Val Gardena put itself on the map in modern times by staging the Alpine Ski World Championships in 1970, but it was already long famous as one of the early classic centres for skiing. Tourism began in the valley, which had three centuries of fame for its wood carvings, around 1860, firstly with summer visitors - nature lovers and more adventurous mountaineers. Then came the first tentative stirrings of what quickly became a key sector in Val Gardena - tourism.

The winter sports took a hold at the turn of the twentieth century and in 1908 the first ski club (Ladinia) was founded in Val Gardena. The first ski race was organized in the same year (from Passo Gardena down the steep Dantercëpies Valley to Selva).

Apart from some great skiers and wood carvers, the Val Gardena is famous for producing a famous musician, Electronic music pioneer Giorgio Moroder who has collaborated with many famous artists including Phil Oakey, Donna Summer and Debbie Harry on global hits. The area is also beloved by British tourists partly because in an annual World Cup Downhill event Britain recorded what is still its best ever performance - a second for Konrad Bartelski.

Selva is a complete, lively and rather cosmopolitan resort in the tradition of the classic Italian resorts such as Madonna di Campiglio and Cortina. The proximity of, and integrated promotion provided by the other Gardena Valley resorts, smaller Santa Cristina and the largest village, Ortisei (known as St Ulrich to German speakers), only add to what's available. From there it's possible to pass through a tunnel back across the village and reach Alpe di Siusi's lifts, an area especially famous for its cross country.

The remarkable Ronda Express opened for the 2004-5 season, an undergreound railway system linking all the Val Gardena ski areas without the need to take a car or a bus.

Until 1960 the valley was accessible by train from Chiusa, and although trains only ascended the often steep gradients at 10-15mph tourists continues to prefer the spectacular scenic route to the version by road in the valley below, even when the latter were improved. Sadly all that remains of the railway now is a steam locomotive permanently parked in Ortisei. However the views from the villages themselves of the stunning pink Dolomitic precipices above the lower wooded valley slopes remain as spectacular as they have always been.

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