The truth behind the viral Italian ski resort overrun by daytrippers

Early in January, I flew into Naples to ski what was, at the time, a secret little ski resort in central Italy. I was excited to have discovered empty slopes and a slice of raw, untouched Italy, but all that quickly changed. Just two weeks later, Roccaraso in the Apennine Mountains hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Urged on by a TikTok “star” (am I alone in detesting the word “influencer”?) tens of thousands of day trippers from Naples descended on the village having been dumped there by coach companies selling cheap day tickets to the snow. The result was utter chaos on Roccaraso’s tiny local ski slope, which is only useful for tobogganing.

But the Roccaraso that I experienced was a world away from that, and calmness will once more prevail thanks to authorities acting quickly to stop the day trippers and reduce the number of coaches.

Roccaraso’s real ski area, Alto Sangro, is set on a high plain some 10 minutes’ drive away and home to 110km of empty pistes and a modern, remarkably well-planned lift network. Despite its location in central Italy, the Apennines have plentiful snow during the winter months, in particular January and February, thanks to their location between the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian seas.

The ski area is mainly south-facing, with far-reaching views across the peninsula of central Italy. Most of the slopes are blues and reds, between 1,325m and 2,142m, and wind around forests of beech trees, which not only offer natural avalanche protection but also give the mountains a very different feel to the pine forests of the Alps.

Alto Sangro has three, small, separate and functional bases – Aremogna, Pizzalto and Monte Pratello – each housing a large car park, ski school, a restaurant and a hotel or two. But most visitors choose to stay in Roccaraso or the surrounding area, including the larger and prettier town of Castel di Sangro, further down the valley.

“We love the area because it feels like you have stepped back in time,” said Graeme Spratley and his wife, Fiona, who have settled in the resort, setting up Ski Abruzzo and buying a house in Castel di Sangro after first visiting just over 10 years ago.

“Abruzzo feels like the Italy of 20/30 years ago, there is an entire shop dedicated to selling eggs and pasta, the latter must be bought fresh on the day and depending on what sauce you’re planning to cook. Even bread in the supermarkets is labelled according to which village it was produced in. Life here is extraordinary in its simplicity.”

Contrary to the videos now circulating on TikTok, Abruzzo is a remarkably unspoiled region of Italy and Roccaraso is surrounded by the Molise National Park and abundant wildlife. Wolves have been known to pad silently around the villages by night, sharing their home with Marsican brown bears, golden eagles, wild cats, lynx and chamois. They all coexist happily with the human inhabitants in the area and make occasional appearances around the ski slopes, according to my local ski instructor Matteo.

When I first arrived, I was initially underwhelmed. Roccaraso was razed to the ground during the Second World War and there’s no hiding the fact that the town was rebuilt with architecture distinctly less charming than some of the pretty surrounding hilltop villages, such as Pescocostanzo. The three-star Hotel Trieste, where I stayed, has small and simply furnished rooms that lack the Alpine charm and comforts British skiers associate with ski holidays – but overlook this place at your peril.

The owner, Pierpaolo Del Castello, is ever-present, greeting us daily like long-lost friends, his attentive team of staff creating a slick experience. The rooms are spotless and warm and the food and wine, as you’d expect from this region, world class. I’d been determined to head out for a pizza one night (Italians here don’t eat pizza at lunchtime) but Hotel Trieste offers half-board stays and with three tempting courses every night, including vast veal chops, exquisite lasagne and buffets of chargrilled antipasti – all washed down with €10 (£8.30) bottles of juicy Montepulciano d’Abruzzo – it was impossible to leave.

Lunchtimes were no different. The slopes were so empty and lifts so quick that while we skied hard I could still stop frequently for coffee – ranging in price from €1.50 to €2.50 – and enjoy long lunches of the local polenta or hearty, meaty sausages (€12 to €20) with €4 glasses of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. If you’re a real foodie, don’t miss the three-Michelin-starred Reale run in a 16th-century monastery near Castel di Sangro.

There is very little English spoken here, but food and drink are a common language and the locals are charming and oh-so welcoming. Restaurant owners would conjure up an English-speaking ski instructor to help us decipher a menu, a vastly different experience to the unfriendliness I’ve occasionally experienced in the French Alps.

It’s not just at mealtimes that you notice the value here, either. While Alto Sangro is no Trois Vallées, a six-day ski pass this winter costs €305 and ski/boot hire ranges from €60 to €85. The flights are a bargain, too, because Naples is a summer destination. Three weeks before my trip in January I snagged easyJet flights for just £34.99 each way – an entirely unattainable price if I’d flown to Geneva, Lyon or Innsbruck.

As a ski resort, Roccaraso is not the place to visit if you like banging après ski (instead I sipped prosecco and went ice-skating), but it is the place to visit if you have a young family – particularly in February as Italian schools don’t operate half terms. It also suits those wanting to step back in time, away from the crowds and experience a place worlds away from the quintessential Alpine experience.

The reputation of this little place may have been tarnished by recent social media, but in reality, it has so much to offer – as do its friendly locals. Once the coachloads and their cameraphones disperse, then sleepy Roccaraso will really start to shine.

Essentials

Ski Abruzzo (07941 496924) offers six nights at Hotel Trieste, Roccaraso, for €2,399 (£2,008) for a family of four (two adults and two children under the age of 12), half board, including transfers, children’s evening entertainment and ski shuttle to Alto Sangro. EasyJet offers return flights from £22.99. To avoid the crowds, ski for five days, arriving Sunday night, leaving Saturday morning.

Abigail was a guest of Ski Abruzzo.