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Livigno Winter
A flat open valley that
disappeared into the horizon. Two chains of mountains that descended
gently down to a town composed of a series of dark wooden houses that
rose up out of the snow here and there in a long single row. A sheltered
village flooded with sparkling rays of sun from the clear blue limpid
sky, the air is fresh but revitalising, there are no roads, only tracks
for sledges and an immense blanket of snow broken here and there by the
green of the trees”.
This is how Livigno appeared in
the thirties, to the German tourists who fell in love with Livigno and
its skiing, coming in via the Gallo Pass by horse and sledge, the only
way to get in from the Engadin at the time. These tourists would go for
long treks on skis up the valley or climb up the gentler slopes around
Livigno using snow shoes in order to ski down the virgin slopes.
| Then after the war
advances in snow ploughs allowed Livigno to break its winter
isolation. More tourists started to come, new hotels and the
first ski lifts were built. Today Livigno is one of the most
important European ski resorts and despite its growth it has
been able to preserve its environment and architecture and the
alpine atmosphere that those first German tourists so
loved.
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Livigno is still a true mountain resort , the sort we all dream
of, with an immense blanket of snow, blue skies and dotted with wooden cottages
just below the tree line .
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