By Pat Turner Kavanaugh
Snow Chronicles Correspondent

TORINO, ITALY — Friday Feb. 10 at 8 p.m. the eyes of two billion winter sports enthusiasts will be turned towards Italy.

For that is the time of the Opening Ceremony for theTorino 2006 XX Olympic Winter Games. Among others asmany as 35,000 spectators, 2,500 athletes, 600 judges andreferees, and 100,000 media representatives will be therefore this quadrennial spectacle on snow and ice.

Italy is hosting the Winter Games for the second time. In1956 Italians staged the Winter Olympics at Cortina in theDolomite Mountains.

Piemonte is nestled against France to the west and Switzerland to the north.

East of Piemonte is another part of northern Italy which hasbeen breeding skiers throughout the history of what startedas the only means of winter transportation. This is Trentino Alto Adige in Italian, Sud Tirol in German, South Tirol in English. Here rises the Dolomite range of the Alps.

This area, too, now and for more than a century, hasattracted intrepid travelers, whether mountain explorers orrecreational skiers and snowboarders. Just as Piemonte reflects French and Italian cultures infood and lifestyle, the South Tirol in northeastern Italydisplays a combination of Germanic and Italian traditions. The majority of the people speak German first.

In addition to German and Italian, there’ s a thirdrecognized language in parts of the region, Ladin, a Latin language which predates Italian.

However, an American tourist will do just fine at ski areas and major towns in South Tirol.

The architecture is typically Tyrolean, the road signs are inGerman and Italian, and the food seems more German than Italian.

Of the various ski and snowboard resorts in the Dolomitesthe average American snow enthusiast and tourist probably would recognize Val Gardena.

However deficient in language skills beyond English, manyintrepid American adventurers prefer not to trave lthousands of miles to be surrounded by fellow Yanks.

Thomas Mussner, who heads the tourist board in Selva, one of three communities which make up Val Gardena, saidabout 2 percent of the international guests there hail from the States, another 5 percent from Britain. So you get the best of both worlds - the ability to function in English and the bragging rights to be the first in your skiclub to casually describe your adventures on the SellaRonda.

You may want to make your first trip to Val Gardena orother parts of the Dolomites with a group. Several hotelowners in Selva spoke of hosting organizations like theChicago Ski Club.

And Gunther Pitscheider, director of tourism for ValGardena, said his staff often works with ski clubs to makearrangements and even set up special events.

Or you can work with a reputable tour operator.

Our trip to the Dolomites late last month was handled by Ski Europe out of Houston. Our group had previous successful ski excursions through this company.
We stayed in Brixen/Bressanone. (Brixen is the German,Bressanone the Italian name.)

Brixen turned out to be a good choice because our group had bus transport allowing us to reach a variety of ski experiences. You would need to consider this. Of course,renting a car would give you even more flexibility.

We flew into Munich and were whisked south through Germany and Austria and into Italy. No passport or customs checks after arriving at the airport. Also no changing currencies once we’d oh-so-easily procured Euros from the ubiquitous ATMs.

In Brixen we used the four star Gruner Baum Hotels, anaffiliate of Best Western, but charmingly run by the Stremitzer family, in their eighth generation in the hospitality field.

We had half-board, which seems the custom in the Dolomites, at least in winter. Typically that entails abreakfast buffet and at dinner a buffet for starters and desserts with a choice of main course.

There is a free ski bus connecting Brixen to its neighboring snowsports resort Plose.

That ski bus to Plose, from Brixen to the resort at S.Andrea, runs every half hour and takes half an hour. The Sunday we clambered aboard, there were youngsters, possibly as young as 11 or 12, who jumped on unaccompanied by adults.

But that lovely Sunday there were many families on the slopes at Plose - some walking or hiking, some pulling sleds. I passed a toddler with a pacifier in her mouth holding her dad’s hand and confidently striding up the hill for some fun in the sun, parents on skis with babies in pouches, and one mother with one of those jogging-typestrollers, this one built for snow.

Locals drive up to the beginning of the trail for hiking. Without a car, you would need a lift ticket to ride the gondola before setting out to hike on a designated snowtrail or cross-country ski.

In the high season (this winter from Dec. 24 to Jan. 7), a one-day ticket cost 26 Euros for an adult, 18 Euros for ajunior born after Nov. 26, 1989, and 22 Euros for a senior born before Nov. 26, 1945. (Children born after Dec. 1, 1997, get a free pass when an adult buys a ticket.) (All this information applies to the 2005-2006 season; in January a Euro cost about $1.20 U.S.)

The Italian color code for trails is different than in North America: blue is easiest (our green circles), red is intermediate (our blue squares) and black is most difficult(our black diamonds.)

Typical of much of the Dolomitcs, Plosc offers little designated expert - one run .7 km long. There are eightblues and 11 reds.

Also buzzing with activity on the Saturday when our group hit it was Alpe di Siusi/ Seiseralm. Several reported being disconcerted by the variety of things on the slopes - skiers and boarders of all abilities at all speeds, cross-country, roads for cars, sledders and more.

The members of our group used a Dolomiti SuperSki pass.(www.DolomitiSuperski.com.) This is described as "1 chip-skipass, 12 villages, 450 lifts, 1220 km of runs" (abou t750 miles. Chip refers to the embedded computer chip.

The Dolomiti SuperSki tickets works at Cortina (think1956 Olympics), Kronplatz , Alta Badia, Val Gardena and Alpe di Siusi, Val di Fassa/Carezza, Arabba/ Marmoleda,Alta Pusteria, Val di Fiemme, San Martino di Castrozza, Valle Isarco (includes Plose), Trevalli and Civetta. Jagged peaks are kissed by sunshine (eight of 10 days aresunny and South Tirol bills itself as "the sunny side of theAlps.") Unlike some other mountains in North America and else where, altitude is not a problem. There’s plenty of snowmaking and grooming.

The Dolomiti Super Ski pass is priced differently for regular season (Jan. 8 - Feb. 4 and March 12-April 18,2006) or high season (Dec. 24, 2005 - Jan. 7, 2006 and Feb.5 - March 11, 2006), and age - adult, junior (born afterNov. 26, 1989) and senior (born before Nov. 26, 1945.)

A five-day pass: regular season, adult 149 Euros, junior104 Euros, senior 127 Euros; high season - adult 169Euros, junior 118 Euros, senior 149 Euros.

Now if you were staying in Val Gardena without a car, you might think about the Val Gardena pass. Comparable prices: regular season, five-day, adult 138 Euros, junior 97 Euros, senior 117; high season, adult 157 Euros, junior 110 Euros, senior 133 Euros. Each of the 12 areas in the Dolomites can quote you ticket costs from one day (even half a day) up to 21.

But do factor in a guide, at least for the first couple of days, every day if you can afford it and want to hop among areas. Local tourist offices are glad to help you find guides whospeak English. Check ahead by e-mail.

That brings us to Sella Ronda - the highlight of the trip foreveryone in our group and truly a once in a lifetimeexperience. In one day you ski a circuit, into four valleys, through seven towns.Amazingly an intermediate skier can accomplish this is about six hours.

Although it’s marked in both directions - clockwise with orange, counter clockwise with green, a guide will make the adventure immeasurably better.

Set out early because you have to make the last lift to getout.

You can start at any one of the four Ladin valleys - ValGardena, Alta Badia, Val di Fassa and Arabba.

You are circling the magnificent Sella Massif, which spectacularly dominates the landscape. Over beers in Selva, Val Gardena, it was constant high fives of enthusiasm at what our group accomplished, how much fun we’d had.

One person, who has skied all over the world and skis well, declared the Sella Ronda the best day of skiing in her life.

Which prompted another one of the strongest skiers to quip"not the best skiing of her life," commenting on therelatively easy nature of the skiing itself - all reds and blues. But he wouldn’t have missed it for the world.