This Sunday festival of ‘Waiting for the Snow’ up at the Abruzzo ski resort of Prati di Tivo, 1450 masl in the Gran Sasso Mountains, is held by Italy’s second oldest ski club, Sci Club Aquilotti  del Gran Sasso, and is an annual event, on the first Sunday of November.

It’s a day spent enjoying the views of Prati di Tivo’s craggy outline softened with the first Abruzzo snows, and allows for a great road journey as you make the most of the spectrum of  Abruzzo’s Autumn colours on the drive up.  As you wind past each wood, its trees unfold a different colour drama which when looking down from the top remind me of Tom Baker’s multi-coloured Dr Who scarf, as they loop round & round the mountains.

It’s a very simple event that encourages you to go off exploring the ski-runs-to-be, now still meadows, and stride through forests amongst basket-carrying Italians out mushroom hunting.

Bliss is Bright Skies, Snow Sprinkles & a great Polenta Salsicce Picnic sitting in a Meadow

Lunch is served at 1.00, for a very reasonable €5.  This included Polenta Salsicce with some of the best sausages I’ve eaten; they were delicately flavoured with clove, and really do make me wonder about the same old same old ‘Italian’ sausages sold in Italian delis elsewhere in the world.  Included in the price is a glass of fruity Vino Novello and a cone of freshly roasted chestnuts.  This you eat sitting outside the ski-bar, or sitting out on the grass of the high Apennine meadows that you could be ski-ing down in just a few weeks.

After this it was all downhill, at least as far as the delightful town of Pietracamela, where we embarked on another stroll following one of the ancient shepherds’ routes.

Further Reading

Sci Club Aquilotti  del Gran Sasso official website

Prati di Tivo Webcam

Author: Sam Dunham

Sam is a very lucky midlife 'mamma' to A who is 13 and juggles working as a freelance SEO copywriter & teaches IGCSEs at Istituo Cristo Re in Rome. She is the founder of the Life In Abruzzo Cultural Association, co-founder of Let's Blog Abruzzo and 'English in the Woods' initiative.