Let me begin by admitting that skiing is not my forté. I do, however, have a fascination with snow and thought that perhaps it was time to improve my skills. I’d come to Sauris, a small comunein theFriuli-Venezia Giulia region, on the recommendation of friends back home, who told me that there would be different levels of ski areas here, and one particularly family-friendly slope that even I would have no trouble with.
“It’s not very difficult,” said Veronica Schneider, my ski instructor, as she gently guided me onto the pull-lift and then patiently glided with me down the slope. It took a couple of goes, but I soon started to relax and was able to enjoy the storybook atmosphere of the mountainous surroundings dotted with traditional wooden houses. Even so, after the fifth run, I realised that I was simply not built for snow sports.
Luckily for me, however, Sauris isn’t just a place to ski. In fact, it was named by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation as one of the 32 Best Tourist Villages in the World in 2022, in recognition of the ancient traditions that are actively maintained here.
