Review of Sestriere

15th March 2017 by barry 

Via Lattea Milky Way: Slow old lifts, long queues, rubbish signs, poor grooming, great food…

I visited Via Lattea in the first week of March 2017.

Via Lattea’s lift systems were relatively old (especially for a resort area of this size). The lifts were very prone to closure due to wind. When lifts were running, most lifts were slow and small (2-4 people chairs, telecabin between Sestriere and Mt Fraiteve is only 8 people) so capacity was small. Therefore pistes were quite quiet, but queues were often long. Lift attendants did nothing to help fill the spaces. Piste grooming was of poor quality (there were steps of un-levelness on the piste, and golf ball sized “corn” lumps) and some pistes were simply left ungroomed. Icy mogully pistes could be dangerous to many. When the Sestriere-Mt Fraiteve link was closed, the lift company should have opened all the available lifts in Sestriere and Borgata to alleviate queues, but they did nothing. They just let customers remain stuck in long queues. Signage on pistes was rubbish, ranging from bad (small signs at wrong places) to no signs at all.

Food and drink on and off mountains were great though.

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