Santa Caterina Valfurva m. 1738 - 2900 (Sondrio)
Host town of the 2005 Alpine Ski World Championships. Winter sport resort since 1961, it hosted the Women’s Alpine World Ski Championships in 1985 and numerous other Alpine Ski and Nordic Ski World Cup Competitions and so became an ideal area for training and competition preparation. It is also famous thanks to its Athletes, the Compagnoni brothers, the Confortola, Tino Pietrogiovanna, Silvano Barco, Pietro Vitalini and Deborah Compagnoni. The resort is equipped with lift facilities up to 2,900 mts. and guarantees snow from the end of November to May, both natural and artificial (extensive snow cannon programme on 90% of the ski slopes and on part of the cross country tracks). 35 km of ski slopes are at your disposal, offering varying degrees of difficulty (blue, red and black runs) and 15 km. of cross country tracks offering two levels of difficulty, one competitive and one for tourists. The resort also possesses a snowboard-park. A new 8-seat cabin-lift has been installed in December 2004 from S. Caterina Valfurva to Valle dell’Alpe, where you can reach the international ski run of the 2005 Alpine Ski World Championships. Since February 2005 a new 4-seat chair lift has been opened in Valle dell’Alpe/Sunny Valley. In the resort you can find alpine and cross-country ski schools, ski equipment rental and servicing, mountain shelters and restaurant facilities on the ski runs, Après-ski, mini-club for children with a cordoned off area equipped. Ice-skating, resort entertainment offering variety and cabaret shows, (tourist information office and travel agency), bars, restaurants, pizza restaurants, shops, bank, chemist’s and a first aid service. And last but not least all those gastronomic Valtellinese specialities: pizzoccheri, bresaola, polenta taragna, sciatt and the famous Valtellinese wines...