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Italy isn’t necessarily the first country most of us think of when we imagine top-level skiing. Neighbouring France and Switzerland usually spring much more readily to mind. The average British non-skier has probably heard of Chamonix, Val d’Isere and Zermatt, but might not have heard of Sestriere, Madonna di Campiglio or Abetone. But the fact is, Italy offers some truly world-class skiing – something which received wider popular attention in 2006 when a triumphant Winter Olympics was held in Turin. With more amateur skiers newly wised-up to the excellence of Italian slopes, it’s a good time to consider buying a ski-oriented property in Italy. There are more ski-areas and price-ranges to choose from here than you probably think, and there are potentially superb holiday rental returns to rake in. As a holiday home, or for relocation, a property in or near an Italian ski resort certainly isn’t just limited to wintertime fun, but also invariably gives access to a host of great summertime attractions.
Accounting for seventy-five percent of the country, mountains are the dominant feature of the Italian landscape. The Apennine range runs the full length of the peninsula, from Liguria to Calabria – forming the spine from which whole the country hangs. Meanwhile, the mighty Alps stretch for hundreds of miles across Italy’s north (and exist at all, geologists say, because of Italy. The once-free-floating Italian landmass moved up and smashed into the bottom of Europe – buckling the continent and forcing rock upward to create its highest mountain range). The bewitching Dolomites sprout in the northeast, their tall, needle-like peaks quite unlike other mountains elsewhere in the country. With so many mountains, it should come as no surprise that a lot of skiing goes on in Italy. Even though, to British minds at least, it’s a hot country. Italy has ski resorts of various sizes all over the place – even in improbable-seeming locales, like Sicily and Calabria.
Because there are mountains everywhere and so many skiable slopes, skiing is a commonplace activity in Italy. Most Italians take a ‘settimana bianca’ in the winter in addition to their month-long holiday in the summer. The snow-resort culture is noticeably more friendly and laid-back than in, say, France or Switzerland. Skiers take themselves a bit less seriously and are rather more concerned with communal fun. There’s a great deal of eating, drinking and sunbathing on Italy’s slopes, a lot of looking good and chatting, a lot of socialising. Italians do skiing pretty much like they do everything else – happily, socially, and with the prospect of good dining never too far away. It’s a lovely culture to join in with. As in any other Italian setting, you need never feel lonely on an Italian ski slope.
With so many places to choose from, the most important question a ski-property buyer needs to address is ‘where should I look?’. The right answer depends on several factors, chief of which are your budget and how you want to use your property. Let’s consider the latter first. Are you a massively keen skier who only wants access to world-class resorts, challenging runs and/or a wide range of slopes so you never get bored in the many hours you plan to spend skiing? If so, then the Italian far north is the place for you. You want a property in the Alps or the Dolomites, home to all of Italy’s major slopes and its most developed resorts. You want to look at regions like Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta, northern Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige, the northern Veneto and northern Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Up here you’ll be very much in mainstream, big-name European ski territory. And if you want to be at the apex of the scene, you could even consider super-fashionable (and pricy) resorts like Courmayeur (in Valle d’Aosta) or Cortina d’Ampezzo (in the Veneto).
Many of Italy’s northern ski resorts lie amidst a network of adjacent resorts – meaning a great variety of slopes and valleys to explore over a relatively small area. One such network is the ‘Milky Way’ west of Turin, where attractive and well-stocked places like Sestriere, Pinerolo, Sauze d’Oulx et al together provide about 400km of excellent slopes all within a stone’s throw of each other. Note that the infrastructure in these resorts and in others near Turin has massively benefited from an estimated billion-euro investment in the run-up to the 2006 Winter Olympics, and that the level of general convenience in these places is currently at its very best. Another extensive, interconnected ski network is the famous ‘Dolomiti Superski’ area in Italy’s northeast. Here, across twelve different little ski areas, 450 lifts serve a whopping 1,220km of slopes. The tiny, unspoilt region of Valle d’Aosta, meanwhile, is another spot teeming with ski resorts, where you might choose to ski in a different local area every day.
Note that Italy’s far north has another added perk in terms of variety and diversity. The local culture and aesthetic up here is rarely just Italian, benefiting from a fascinating touch of the exotic in most parts. The northwest is clearly influenced by adjacent France and Switzerland – with French widely spoken in Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta, and Swiss chalet-style buildings standing incongruously in northern Lombardy. In the northwest, meanwhile, a strongly Tyrolean or Austrian air suffuses the Alto Adige – affecting the food, language and architecture. All along Italy’s northern borders, a pleasantly mixed aesthetic of one kind or another attests to the proximity of another culture. It adds colour and spice to an already arresting landscape.
While winter is obviously their busiest time, all of Italy’s northernmost ski areas offer superb hiking and climbing throughout the rest of the year – and plenty of people come here to do just that. These areas also give relatively easy access to some world-class northern Italian cities. But the fact remains that, if you’re keen on skiing but you want a property in a place where you can do plenty more besides, Italy’s far north might not be your number one choice. (An exception might be a place like northern Lombardy, where you could get a property pitched halfway between a ski resort and a summertime paradise such as the shores of Lakes Como, Maggiore or Garda.) If you’re looking for somewhere with a diverse range of sights and activities, including skiing, then you could do a lot worse than look at more central Italian regions such as Emilia-Romagna, Le Marche and Abruzzo. Each is almost ideally arranged to allow good-quality skiing never very far away from other, more year-round attractions.
In the Emilia-Romagnan Apennines south of Parma and Modena, there’s excellent skiing to be had, despite the relatively low altitude of the mountains here. Ski-friendly winter snowfall is fairly assured, and the well-run little resorts in these parts top it up with artificial stuff if necessary. A famous ski-region this may not be, but the slopes are really very good, and the area holds manifold delights. First, there’s the general beauty and atmosphere of the place – leafy, tranquil and orderly, with contented little towns and villages sprinkled across unspoilt terrain. Second, there’s the proximity the area affords to other irresistible attractions. The gilded beaches of western Liguria and the cultural pleasures of northern Tuscany often lie within daytripping distance. As do the super-civilised delights of Emilia-Romagnan cities like Parma, Modena and Bologna. Top all this with the fact that the Emilia-Romagnan Apennines are widely acknowledged to provide the best eating in all of Italy, and you’re looking at a very appealing area indeed.
Buyers who like the idea of being within easy reach of swimming and skiing – even being able to combine the two on the same day – should definitely think about Le Marche and Abruzzo. Both flank the blue Adriatic but rise quickly from the beachy seaside to skiable heights. Le Marche offers some skiing in its Sibillini Mountains, while Abruzzo offers rather a bit more in its tremendously high and rugged Gran Sasso and Maiella ranges. It’s perfectly possible in both regions to buy a property half an hour from a ski resort in one direction and half an hour from a beach resort in the other. Buy a property here and you’d be looking at year-round entertainment. In a much lower skiing league, sun-seeking buyers for whom skiing would be an occasional novelty could think about buying a place near the Sila Massif in Calabria (Italy’s toe-tip) or near Sicily’s Mount Etna – both of which offer limited skiing, but of course a host of other attractions.
Most buyers who specifically want a ski-oriented property are interested in renting the place out to holidaymakers when they’re not there. This is, of course, an excellent way of covering your costs and making your property work for you. If it’s serious ski rental returns you’re after, then you probably want to look north. Ski properties in Italy’s north are at the priciest end at the spectrum, but they do offer the greatest rental returns and the highest number of booked weeks. [All subsequent figures accurate for 2006.] Gorgeous little areas like Valle d’Aosta and Alto Adige are perhaps consistently the most expensive areas for ski property, with two-bed apartments asking €200,000 or so, but you can rent out a home here for around €950 a week throughout the ski season. Other parts of the north are only slightly less expensive, but offer similar rental returns. Winter isn’t the only time that people visit Italy’s mountainous north, of course. Hikers and climbers are drawn to the Alps and Dolomites in sufficient numbers that you can expect to rent out a property in these parts for much of the summer, though not at the same rental rate as in the ski season.
The more central and southerly of Italy’s ski areas are perhaps of more interest to those seeking to permanently relocate to Italy, or to second-home-buyers for whom holiday rental returns aren’t one of the most crucial concerns. You will certainly get holidaymakers interested in renting a property up in the mountains of Emilia-Romagna, Le Marche or Abruzzo, but you won’t get as many of them as you might in the Alps and Dolomites – nor can you expect to charge them quite as much. €250,000 could get you a comfortable three-bed house in Emilia-Romagna’s Apennines, and you could rent it out for perhaps €800 a week – both in the ski season and in the summer. Property prices drop as you move down into Le Marche, and drop again as you move down into wild, mountainous Abruzzo. The latter has probably Italy’s cheapest ski-oriented property, and it’s a region where tourism in general is beginning to come into flower. Amazingly, you can currently pick up old stone houses needing full restoration near Abruzzo’s ski resorts for as little as €10,000. You might spend twice an original purchase price like this making the place into a comfortable home. Modern, purpose-built apartments in Abruzzo’s ski resorts can go for less than €60,000. Again, summer hikers are drawn to Abruzzo’s higher elevations, and could well be a fixture on your rentals calendar. And as we noted earlier, a property half an hour from the coast and half an hour from the mountains, in either Abruzzo or Le Marche, could appeal to both summer and winter visitors. Especially given their low property prices, these two regions are certainly worth your consideration.
Ever since the 18th-century Romantic movement opened our eyes to their majesty, mountainous landscapes have been viewed as places of awe and inspiration. The savagely clear air, the huge vistas, the terrible beauty of jagged terrain – these things still thrill and humble us, reminding us of the fundamental forces of the planet and our relatively puny place in it. At a time when we as a species dominate and despoil our world more than ever before, it’s surely good for the soul to stop and wonder at mighty scenes of serrated rock forced up to spectacular heights by the ancient collision of landmasses. Buy yourself a home high up in the mountains and you’re buying yourself regular, reliable doses of awe and wonder. You’re buying yourself a reminder of the eternal. So it’s not just about slipping around on snow!
Tucked up against the border with France, and benefiting from a particularly sunny Alpine climate, Piedmont’s busy ‘Milky Way’ resorts together offer about 400km of excellent slopes. Picturesque villages flank thoroughly modern facilities – made even better by a billion-euro investment in the run-up to the 2006 Winter Olympics. Sestriere, just 60 miles from Turin and drawing a metropolitan weekend crowd, was Italy’s first purpose-built ski resort, and it’s still a fashionable and well-equipped place. Nearby lie picturesque towns-cum-resorts such as Pinerolo, Pragelato, Claviere and Cesana. Bardonecchia is especially loved by snowboarders, and family-oriented San Sicario is best known for its challenging runs. Of Italy’s three main northern ski areas (west of Turin, north of Turin, and the Dolomites), west of Turin is perhaps the least expensive. But not by much. All three areas sit in wealthy Italian regions with very high standards of living, and property prices reflect this as well as the excellent holiday rental prospects available to owners. In addition to the eager snow-crowd, summer walkers are drawn to the area, making year-round rentals a possibility. Property investment here is popular with local buyers as well as with foreigners.
With a distinctive Swiss-French-Italian flavour, and as comfortable speaking French as Italian, tiny Valle d’Aosta is Italy’s smallest region. Its limits defined by the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc and the Gran Paradiso National Park, Valle d’Aosta is stunningly beautiful – sprouting castles, pine forests and waterfalls, and with quaint Alpine villages sprinkled across high, unspoilt mountain vistas. One of Italy’s most thinly-populated regions, Valle d’Aosta nonetheless teems with visitors come here to hike or ski. Its most glamorous resort, on a fashionability par with super-chic Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Dolomites, is Courmayeur – often voted Italy’s top ski-spot. Cervinia and Champoluc are also popular. Property prices can vary wildly in Valle d’Aosta, with villas asking more than a million in Courmayeur but great bargains to be found in the region’s more remote parts, where there are few buyers. The holiday rentals scene is very strong, benefiting both from winter sportspeople and summer walkers. To the east of Valle d’Aosta lie the northern lakes (Maggiore, Como, Garda, et al), each with various small ski resorts to their northand a growing number of tasteful developments catering to the ski-property-buyer. You could get a 2-bedroom chalet apartment here for €200,000. Property in this area can tap into two holiday rental markets – lake-goers and piste-seekers.
Thought by many to be the world’s most beautiful mountain range, the tall, needle-like peaks of the Dolomites offer superlative skiing and world-class resorts. Queen of them all is Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy’s most famous, fashionable and expensive ski-bunny bolthole. But Cortina lies at the heart of only one of twelve different ski areas forming the ‘Dolomiti Superski’ network – where 450 lifts serve 1,220km of slopes. With typically sunny weather and abundant powdery snow, it’s little surprise that the Dolomites see huge numbers of winter visitors or that property here is expensive and commands superb holiday rental returns. The Dolomites lie across two Italian regions – the Veneto (home to Cortina), and Trentino-AltoAdige. While the former is pancake-flat save for its Dolomite bit, the latter is almost wholly mountainous – Dolomites in the south giving way to Alps in the north. Squeezed up against Austria, and maintaining a distinctly Germanic feel, the Alto Adige or ‘Südtirol’ area is gorgeous but extremely costly for property. Dominated by resorts and holiday homes, it might not be a first choice for relocation, but it’s a great place to rake in holiday rentals.
The sprinkling of ski resorts in the mountains south of Modena make up one of Italy’s lesser-known high-quality ski areas. Serving as a natural border between Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, the Apennines here offer great skiing despite their relatively low altitude, and are generally snow-sure in the winter (topped up with the artificial stuff if necessary). Sestola and Abetone are the largest resorts, the latter with 70km of pistes over 30 slopes. Febbio has the highest slopes, with more than 12km of ski runs, and Piandelagotti appeals especially to cross-country enthusiasts. The whole area is very well-situated for those who want to do more than ski, with the cultural delights of Tuscany and the seaside bliss of Liguria just a few miles to the south, and all the civilised and gastronomic pleasures of Parma, Modena and Bologna to the north. Emilia-Romagna’s Apennines are leafy and peaceful, dotted with small, well-run villages and towns. Property-wise, there’s a lot of good-value stuff about. You might spend €250,000 on a very comfortable 3-bedroom home, and rent it out to summer and winter holidaymakers for €800 a week.
East of Rome, in the comparatively little-visited Abruzzo region, Italy’s Apennines rise to their mightiest heights. Here in the ‘Gran Sasso’ and ‘Maiella’ ranges, a handful of ski resorts look out across awesome terrain. The area is of especial interest to those after a bargain, and to people who fancy having a ski resort half an hour in one direction and an Adriatic beach resort half an hour in the other. Old houses needing restoration get going at about €10,000 in Abruzzo, while one-bed flats in or near the region’s ski resorts can go for as little as €50,000. This peaceful and unspoilt region, teeming with wildlife, has a burgeoning tourist industry and it’s probable that property prices here will continue to rise slowly and steadily. The adjacent region of Le Marche also has some ski resorts in its pretty Sibillini Mountains. More fashionable than Abruzzo, Le Marche’s property prices are slightly higher, and there are fewer restoration projects available. Those seeking skiing in improbable places might like to consider the cross-country runs way down south in dirt-cheap Calabria, or the slopes of Sicily’s Mount Etna, rather pricier.
Gary Pennington and his partner Nicola Craig own a three-bedroom apartment on the shores of Lake Como, about 25 minutes away from a ski resort. They stay in the apartment six times a year or more, and rent it out to holidaymakers when they’re not there.
“Nicola used to work as a ski rep in Italy,” Gary explains, “then she did a degree in Italian Literature, so she’s fluent in Italian and absolutely adores Italy. We’d been to Italy a few times together on skiing holidays. We’d driven past Lake Como and fallen in love with it, so we decided to buy a property there. Being fairly close to a ski resort was just one of our criteria. We also love the walking and the fresh air of the place. It’s just beautiful. You’ve got it all here. It’s somewhere you can come at any time of the year and find it inspiring. There are always thing to do. I actually prefer Lake Como in the wintertime. Everything’s so crisp and clear. It’s wonderful. The little ski resort nearby is great for daytrips, and there’s a bigger one about 75 minutes away if we feel like going further.”
While holiday rentals weren’t something the couple really considered when they bought the property, its location has proved a profitable feature in terms of year-round lets. “Our place is part of a little complex of about 30 apartments right on the lake,” Gary says. “There’s a swimming pool, which is a great selling point. I advertised the property in November, and by January I could have booked July and August half a dozen times over. I was getting literally three of four e-mails a day asking to hire the place. The rentals have certainly gone well. This year [2006] it was booked up a couple of weeks in April, most of May, all of June to September, and two weeks in October. Christmas and New Year are also booked up.”
Gary and Nicola found the buying process very straightforward and trouble-free. Their agent helped them with all the bureaucratic details of buying a home overseas, arranging a mortgage and so on. “Como is an expensive area,” Gary admits, “but the apartment has been a very good investment. They’re building some similar apartments just down the road from ours right now, and comparing what they’re going for with what we paid for this place, there’s been at least a 20-30% increase in the last couple of years [2005-2006].” Year-round entertainment, good rental returns, and appreciation on their investment – Gary and Nicola have definitely made a wise buy in Como! |
