SKIING Slopes of Sella Ronda prove exhilarating

Enjoy a trip to Italy to ski, eat and relax.
By FRITZ FAERBER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SELVA, Italy -- It's 9 a.m. It's 10 degrees. My legs are stiff. A strong wind makes the weather more appropriate for a polar bear. But I'm in heaven.
This is the start of a longtime goal -- skiing Italy's Sella Ronda.
To my right, a massive clump of limestone shoots up more than 2,000 feet into the sky, brooding like Sauron's hideout in "The Lord of the Rings." To the left, mellower hills roll up to more limestone cliffs and ahead, a wide snowy trail plunges straight into soupy clouds.
I head down and am quickly immersed in shimmering sparks from the snow, which gain a slight amber tint from my goggles.
The cloud of ice crystals starts the day off with magic.
The Sella Ronda slopes
The nearly 25-mile Sella Ronda circuit includes roughly 16 miles of skiing in a trek that circles the Gruppo Sella -- the massive stack of jagged limestone cliffs that shoot up to an elevation of more than 10,300 feet. Bad weather closed the high passes and foiled my attempt to complete this skiing adventure a year ago, but today, I will prevail.
My fiancee is a beginner snowboarder, so I ski solo. I go fast, since I'm something of a speed demon. The circuit offers plenty of opportunities to go fast.
But many of the runs are relatively short and groomed: no bumps here. The entire circuit is made up of mainly intermediate trails, with a few steep descents. An advanced skier would likely want to take a detour and check out the area around Arabba or Ciampinoi.
There are lots of lifts, tow-ropes and gondolas. As the day wears on, the lifts grow more crowded, which can be a bit frustrating for Americans used to orderly lines. Skiers here don't seem to respect the idea of lines and often walk all over your skis. There are a few spots where you have to take off the skis and walk across a road to get to the next lift.
Skiing the Sella Ronda is less about the act of skiing and more about the overall experience.
The views are stunning: jagged peaks as far as the eye can see, limestone cliffs several thousand feet high that look like they might just crush you, beautiful alpine villages and stylish skiers all around.
Slopeside restaurants serve food ranging from pizza with pepperoni and pepperoncini (pickled peppers) to goulash with polenta. Apres-ski ranges from a glass of fine wine with red deer sirloin steak to wild dancing with other visitors -- mostly Germans in a festive mood -- while listening to a techno version of "Que Sera, Sera."
Selva is located near the Austrian border. The region was stripped from defeated Austria after World War I. The residents, however, have held on to their culture and language and it is officially bilingual, Italian and German.
Visiting Ortisei
My favorite trail actually wasn't on the Sella Ronda. It's a very long run from the top of Seceda, which is a peak reached by gondola from the town of Ortisei. La Longia has a vertical drop of about 4,100 feet and winds 51/2 miles along high ridges, down wide fields and through narrow ravines and past a frozen waterfall.
The gondola out of the opposite side of Ortisei gives access to Alpe di Siusi. It's a wide open valley with a huge variety of terrain for beginner to intermediate skiers. Plus, it's loaded with nifty features, like timed slalom courses and a straight speed run with a radar gun to tell just how insanely fast you're going.
For the non-downhill skiers, there's a network of cross-country ski trails, toboggan runs and horse-drawn sleighs.
More for less
One of the most amazing things about skiing in Italy is the price. Once you're there, it's a bargain. An adult three-day lift ticket that covers 450 lifts throughout the Dolomites runs $120 at peak season. (A similar length ticket at Vail would cost $234.) A slice of scrumptious pizza and a half-liter of Ayinger Weisse Beer at the restaurant atop Ciampinoi runs about $7. We stayed in a great B & amp;B, Garni Planaces, in the center of the village of Ortisei, a short walk from ski lifts, surrounded by shopping and restaurants. A standard room runs from $40 a night per person to $61 during the holidays.
When you're done skiing, Ortisei (also known as St. Ullrich) and the nearby towns of Santa Cristina and Selva are loaded with restaurants, bars and shops. We loved the Ristorante La Rosticceria a few blocks from our B & amp;B in Ortisei. The Tyrolian Spatzle with ham and spinach just melt in the mouth. For a panini and hot chocolate, try nearby Cafe Demetz just a few doors down from La Rosticceria.
There's a pool complex in Ortisei with whirlpools and sauna. And the local hockey team is worth seeing if they're playing at the arena in Selva. The local fans are very boisterous, especially after a few glasses of mulled wine.
Other stops to make
Getting to Val Gardena, as the villages of Ortisei, Santa Cristina and Selva are known, can be half the fun. Milan and Venice are the two main international airports nearby in Italy. The train takes a few hours from each. Verona is the transfer spot for the line heading up into the mountains.
Verona, a charming city, is where Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet. You can even visit a courtyard with a balcony modeled on the one from the scene where they reveal their love. Even more impressive, there's an ancient Roman arena that looks much like Rome's Colosseum, but still holds operas and concerts.
Get off the train in Bolzano, which is where you begin to think you've left Italy and arrived in Austria.
Street vendors sell sausages, beer is everywhere and German is more likely to be heard than Italian.
Bolzano is a picturesque town tucked into a tight valley between the mountains.
It is also the home to Oetzi the Iceman. His 5,000-year-old body was discovered frozen in a nearby glacier in 1991. Now, there's a whole museum built around him. You can see his tools, clothes and even his shriveled body in a special freezer vault.
The museum also recreates a Roman road and has an extensive collection of other artifacts.
Skiing Italy might seem an extravagant trip, but it's really two vacations in one. The total cost ends up being roughly the same as a ski vacation at a top resort in the United States. The skiing is a blast, but the cultural (and culinary) experience turns a ski excursion into a truly memorable vacation.
If you can, take two weeks and spend one visiting Rome, Florence or any of the other great destinations, and then the other week in the mountains. The skiing will help work off all the tasty pasta and sinful breakfast pastries from the first week.