At the top of the rope, and having let go and got our balance, Domenico brought us down gently by skiing in front (he was skiing backwards), and controlled our speed and direction. As we gained confidence, he introduced the turn (and the unnatural gravity-defying technique of leaning away from the slope while turning), and we began to control our own direction as well as our speed. We did several turns with our instructor encouraging and correcting us each time. The lesson actually lasted nearly an hour and a half, so we got great value for our €40.

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Sarnano and skiing >

At this point the man in charge of the tow explained that we would be welcome to continue, but would need a lift pass for the day to continue. This was €8 each and we stayed for another hour before getting tired. We skied the short distance back to the ski school and returned our equipment. When happened next is also typical of Italy, especially this region. Not realising that we could keep our lift passes, we asked if they would return them to the relevant person. The instructors explained that we should keep them, and that next time we visited the pass would only cost €5 for the day. I am sure some people in other parts of Europe might be tempted to take the passes from unwitting tourists.

We took our lesson on a Thursday when the slopes were very quiet; weekends are busier but there are more lifts and ski runs open.