Indus School 2024
A Visit to Italy
Venice - Folgaria - Verona
The Trip
This trip to Italy will give you the opportunity to experience and explore just a few of the many delights that it has to offer; outstanding cuisine, beautiful scenery and the ability to step back in time with historic remains.
Begin the trip on the 19th January 2024, by landing in the culturally rich city of Venice and spend the night at the A&O Hotel Venice in Mestre. Enjoy a traditional Italian evening meal and rest up, ready for a day of adventure.
After a delicious all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast, we will take the short train ride across the water to the main island of Venice. Here, in Piazza San Marco, we will meet our English-speaking tour guide and start to learn the history of Venice. As part of our guided tour, we will enjoy some of the most famous sights that Venice has to offer – St Mark’s Basilica, the Doge’s Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, and (time permitting) the Rialto Bridge. After a picnic lunch back in Piazza San Marco, we will board a traditional Gondola for a 90-minute tour of the floating city. As this busy day draws to a close, we will hop on our private coach transfer to take us to the ski resort of Folgaria – a mere 2 hours away - and check in to the Hotel Vittoria.
Whilst in Folgaria, you will embark on 5 days of ski tuition, taught by the local Italian Ski school. Enjoy expertly crafted pistes and gasp-worthy scenery as you discover the joys of skiing whilst surrounded by snowy white peaks. Each evening there will be an activity for the students; night snowshoeing at Passo Coe, ice-skating, tobogganing, swimming, and a town visit for those all-important souvenirs for their families.
For our last day in Italy, the 26th January, we will travel to Verona and discover why Shakespeare based one of his most famous plays on this fair city. We will meet our local English-speaking tour guide in Piazza Bra in the shadow of the Roman Amphitheatre and participate in a tour of this historically significant building, followed by a visit to Juliet’s Balcony (yes, that is correct, Juliet from Romeo and Juliet). After enjoying a tasty lunch of authentic Italian pizza and Gelato, you will head back to Folgaria on your private coach, for a last night of celebration.
On the morning of the 27th January, a private coach will collect you from the Hotel Vittoria in Folgaria and you will descend the mountain and journey back to Venice airport to catch your flight home to tell your friends and family all about the adventures you had in Italy.
Venice
Once again head down to the valley to the last destination of your whistle-stop discovery tour of Italy, Venice. Built over 118 islands, Venice and its lagoon is one of the most unique cities in the world full of beautiful bridges, atmospheric streets and carnival celebrations. Meet your English-speaking tour guide in the corner of the bustling Piazza San Marco and gaze upon the magnificent San Marco's Basilica, the most famous of the city's churches. Head inside the church to marvel at the stonework and step out onto the balcony to gaze out across the city. Next door to the Basilica is the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) which was built in 1340, with various extensions and modifications throughout the centuries. Vist the Bridge of Sighs, in popular folklore, it comes from the sighs of prisoners condemned to life sentences as they take in their last view of Venice from the tiny window in the bridge. This theory was popularized by Romantic writers like Byron who came to Venice on their Grand Tours. Time permitting, we will step across the oldest and most famous bridge on the Grand Canal - the Rialto Bridge - and disappear into its market, filled with local delicacies and delights. Finally, navigate the winding and twisting waterways of Venice on a traditional gondola and see the city from a different viewpoint - if you're lucky, your gondolier will serenade you as you drift back to the hotel.
Folgaria
When considering what resort to visit this winter it is easy to miss the 'hidden gems', authentic unspoilt mountain villages with lovely bars and restaurants, a ski system with an excellent variety of slopes and a great snow record, sometimes quality really does outweigh quantity!
The Accommodation in Venice
The A&O Hotel Venice is located in the district Mestre and close to the main train station. The mainland connection from Mestre to the main island of Venice is via a bridge that can be crossed by bus, car, and train. From the A&O Venice you can quickly get to the island with its lagoon. Modern furnished rooms all have en-suite facilities and complimentary Wi-Fi.
The Skiing
Only 95km or about 90 minutes from Verona airport, Folgaria is a mid-sized resort in the Trentino region of northern Italy that has a reputation for being in a snow pocket. It also has impeccable ski history credentials, as the first ski lift in Italy was built here, in the 1930s, and a full ski resort created shortly after the war.
Since then the pistes, accessed by chairlifts, have grown to cover 104km. About two-thirds of that is local to Folgaria itself; the other 30km is above the neighbouring villages of Lavarone and Luserna, a short bus ride away.
Folgaria is a gem, with an excellent variety of slopes it is ideal for a mixed-ability groups and perfect for beginners with 37 flattering easy-to-intermediate red and blue runs carving down through the trees plus a handful of testing blacks.
Mountains of the Champions
It is official, Alpe Cimbra ski area is the new training centre of the US SKI TEAM for the next 4 years.
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The decision of the US Ski team is no coincidence.
In the last couple of years, many World Cup teams trained here.
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The technical features of these slopes coupled with the optimal conditions of the terrain resulting from the professional grooming techniques of the ski lift company led to spread the popularity of the ski area as one the best destination for training purposes.
Men’s Alpine Team Finds New European Home Base in Italy
Every year national teams from all over Europe come to Alpe Cimbra to train: the Italian, Austrian and Swedish national teams to name but a few.​
The Accommodation in Folgaria
Hotel Vittoria is a traditional 3-star hotel steeped in charming hospitality. The Toller family have been putting their love and care into the Hotel Vittoria for the last 30 years and like to make guests feel at home during their stay.
The hotel is perfectly located between the village centre, the village skating rink and most importantly, the ski slopes. In a few minutes you can reach the ski lifts and start exploring the impressive terrain that Alpe Cimbra has to offer.
The hotel has small but cosy communal areas, that offer a lovely place to relax after a busy day skiing up a storm. These are tastefully decorated in keeping with beautiful surroundings of the mountains. The guest rooms are all furnished with a parquet floor and different kinds of mountain wood to showcase the naturally produced resources in the area. The rooms are comfortable, impeccably maintained and have a variety of bed configurations.​
The Restaurant
The hotel restaurant caters for a variety of tastebuds with the plentiful breakfast buffet full of locally sourced meats, cheeses, and breads, this continues at dinner with a buffet of salad, vegetables, and delicious main courses. Papa Agostino leads the charge in the kitchen and specialises in combining Trentino delicacies and unique regional flavours to create exquisite homemade dishes.