Hello everyone. This winter my sister, her kids and I went to Abetone. We had a good time together on this trip. Abetone is the spot near Florence where you can find snow. My sisters oldest son had not seen snow for a long time. And my little nephew had never seen snow before. This was the first time in his life. I was very excited to see Abetone and spend the winter season with my family. We wanted to give the kids that magical winter experience as a gift.
We stayed at a place called Residenza Riva instead of a traditional hotel. After checking in we rested a bit in the lobby. Then we went out to see this mountain village. The kids played in the snow while we waited for our room to be ready.
We got into our apartment after lunch. It came with a kitchen and the kids were happy enough sleeping on the sofaa. The view from the apartment was really great. It looked out onto the ski slopes. There was an area for sleeping upstairs but I have to say the ceiling was pretty low. We had to be really careful not to hit our heads when waking up at night. It was still a lovely spot. The kids loved it. There was a spa and sauna, in the building too.. We didn't go in this time because the kids were too young.
We were walking around the town. And came across a really old sled that was made in 1938. The sled was used by people a time ago to take tourists and skiers to different places. This old sled had a steering wheel. It also had brakes. After we saw it we decided to rent some sleds for the kids. The atmosphere was just magical.
We went out for dinner in the evening. I fell asleep at 6:00 pm. That was a very bad idea because I woke up and felt really mixedup. But we were very hungry so we went to the restaurant. The restaurant had an issue when we got there. They could not find our reservation. Then the staff found a table for us at the restaurant. We had to eat really fast. But the food here was great. The restaurant had a lot of things to eat like truffle and wild boar and the porcini mushrooms.
The morning it was still snowing really nicely. So we signed the kids up for ski school. It’s definitely an expensive hobby as the instructor was €50 per child per hour, equipment was €16 and the lift passes were 20 and 14 euros depending on their ages. Despite the cost seeing them experience it was worth every penny. One of them loved the speed, while the other was just obsessed with getting off the chairlift.
As for getting the roads were getting cleared but the sidewalks were really bad. We were basically walking through snow. If you plan on driving a quick tip is that you need winter tires, chains or snow socks here. We got here on a Friday. It was very very crowded because it was the last weekend of the holiday break before schools opened on Wednesday.
We had a ski lesson. Then we warmed up with some hot chocolate. Our car was all covered in snow. We did not have a sow brush so we had to use our hands to clear the snow off the car. This night was our last evening on the mountain. We went back to the restaurant and this time our reservation was okay. We spent the rest of the time taking in the mountain air and wandering around. My nephew loved it so much he didn't want to leave and the older one even suggested to my sister that they should sell their house in Florence and move here.
And it was time to head back. We packed up our things, fitted the snow socks on the tires and decided that this was the perfect amount of snow for a first trip. We left with some wonderful memories and I know for sure we’ll be back to Abetone again.
