Week End In Alba Di Canazei, Holiday In Val Di Fassa
When traveling through the Val di Fassa, I pass the town of Canazei, travel a few kilometers, and in a widening of the valley, I meet Alba, a hamlet of the municipality of Canazei. This tourist resort can shine with its light. The town, located at over 1500 meters, still maintains an architecture with Ladin characteristics. The new buildings have been designed according to tradition. The old buildings have been fixed up, but that hasn’t changed how they fit together.
Its wealth comes from the fact that it lives right at the base of the Marmolada and Gran Vernel Dolomite massifs, which are popular places for hikes and mountaineering trips that are, without a doubt, very profitable from a landscape and mountaineering point of view.
The hiker cannot miss an excursion in Val Contrin, with its typical glacial morphology and furrows created by the homonymous river. The Contrin Refuge can be reached from the Delba hamlet with an easy path in just over an hour and a half.
After passing the refuge, I can go up the valley and decide whether to go back down to Alba from the Ciampac valley or traverse towards the Monzoni group, descending towards the San Pellegrino Pass or towards the San Nicol valley.
The valley floor is also crossed by numerous more accessible paths suitable for those who do not have high-altitude ambitions or want relaxation and clean air away from exhaust fumes and annoying noises.
If, on the other hand, I have a car available, many routes open up to me among the Dolomite passes: one of these starts by continuing along the valley to Lake Fedaia; I stop for a break on the dam; and if I have more time available, I can climb the Cestovia up to Pian dei Fiacconi on the northern side of the Marmolada.
I resume driving the car. I go over the dam to go up to the Fedaia Pass, and from here the descent becomes very steep; be careful not to overheat the braking system. I go up to Malga Ciapela, the starting point of the three cableway trunks that go up to Punta Rocca on the Marmolada.
In the surroundings of Malga Ciapela, you leave your car and go into the natural forest of the Serrai di Sottoguda, about two kilometers long, which offers a spectacle of rare beauty and charm. Returning to Malga Ciapela, you can go back through Arabba and the Pordoi Pass, or go down to the Agordino and go up the San Pellegrino Pass and the whole Val di Fassa.
We must not forget that the paths at the bottom of the valley and those that go up towards the mountain pastures are almost all practicable by mountain bike, with itineraries that, due to the variety of lengths and differences in height, allow even the less trained to reach beautiful destinations.
There are six four-star hotels in the area between the capital, Canazei, and the small towns. Some of which have a spa and wellness center; as many as 40 three-star hotels; plus many others, including garnì and pensions, all of which can still please the guest according to typical Ladin hospitality.
The skiing practice in Alba di Canazei began in the 1960s with the first ski lifts in the town’s meadows. Still, it is only since the mid-seventies that the Ciampac cable car’s construction has reached levels of excellence.
In addition to the cable car, this ski area is equipped with three chairlifts and two ski lifts that serve slopes that, in the upper part, run entirely out of the woods in large spaces.
Instead, as soon as you go down into the woods, one of the most beautiful and technically valid slopes of the whole trip begins. The Val di Fassa, whose path winds between curves and schuus under the cable car route, is over two kilometers of the FIS-approved track for giant slalom and super-g competitions, whose width varies between 20 and 70 meters.
always perfectly covered with snow thanks to a powerful system for the production of programmed snow. At the arrival of the cable car near the school camp, in an always sunny position between the shelters, a fun playground is placed to brighten the day in the snow for the little ones who still don’t ski or who have just finished their ski school.
The morphology of Alpe Ciampac also leaves ample free space available to free-riders, who never fail to remember the respect for the rules of prudence that the practice of skiing off-piste imposes. In the last two winters, a new connection that goes through Val Giumela to the Buffaure di Pozza di Fassa ski area has been opened. This gives skiers more kilometers of slopes and more off-piste slopes.
The valley station of the Ciampac cable car and the valley station of the Canazei-Pecol cable car are connected by a convenient ski bus service. This is one of the entrances to the Sella Ronda carousel, which lets you do the tour both clockwise and counterclockwise or just ski around the slopes of the valleys around the Sella group.
Nordic skiing has one of its Italian cradles in Val di Fassa. In addition to the Marcialonga route near Alba, you can train on the Pian Trevisan ring or the school ring, always traced in the Ciampac basin. Even for non-skiers, even in winter, there is no shortage of attractions.
You can wear a pair of snowshoes and go for beautiful hikes in the silence of the snowy woods or take some of the hiking trails. You can put on your ice skates and slide your skates on blades on the ice rink built right in Alba or take a nice swim in the indoor pool in Canazei.
The Fassa specialties that come from the close proximity of the South Tyrolean cuisine enhance the valley’s gastronomy, which we can sample in one of the many restaurants.
Reaching Alba di Canazei is very easy. You have to take the former SS 48 of the Dolomites that you take from the Brenner motorway at the Egna-Ora toll booth. You cross the entire Val di Fiemme and almost the whole Val di Fassa to reach your destination after nearly 60 panoramic kilometers of gentle ascent.