B&B Terre Aromatiche

Lucia and her family run this immaculate B&B with great style and a warm welcome. The town of Chiesa in the Valmalenco valley is charming and remains a real community, not an overpriced ski resort. The gondola for the Valmalenco slopes is just a short walk down the valley (parking is free if you want to drive) and there is a range of pistes covering everything from beginners to challenging blacks. The resort may be modest in size but has remarkably quiet slopes during weekdays although busier at weekends. If you want ski or snowboard lessons, you will never do better than booking Stefano, Lucia's talented ski and snowboard instructor son. Stefano is fluent in English, is amazingly empathetic and can take anyone to a higher level from absolute beginners to advanced (like my daughters). He's also amazing with young children, and is the valley's main bee keeper and cultivator of luscious blueberries and gooseberries. (Lucia always has a bottomless supply of Stefano's yummy jams at breakfast!) Others here have descibed the B&B's facilities - and I fully endorse the positive comments. The apartment is on 3 floors: with kitchen and lounge for breakfast on the ground floor with a bedroom (that often rents separately to the upper 2 levels). The top floors can sleep up to 6 or even 8 at a push since there is a very comfortable 2 person sofa bed in the expansive double height upper lounge, complementing the double bed on a mezzanine level that sits above a well appointed self-catering kitchen and bathroom. The floor below has a superb double room and 2 single beds in another room plus shared bathroom with high quality shower. This is my second visit to Terre Aromatiche - first in January 2023 with a friend and my 2 daughters and again this year for 3 weeks, again with friends and one daughter. I have yet to visit in the summer when by all accounts the valley is in full bloom and the hiking is said to be stunning. I fully intend to try to be back to see it for myself.