Livigno > Reviews > Duty Free in Italy

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money
Sightseeing
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around

Advantages:	High in the alps, Duty Free
Disadvantages:	Long Transfers

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

My wife and I went skiing in Livigno in March 2000 looking for somewhere a little cheaper and smaller where we could work on our skills.

Accommodation
We stayed at the Garni Francescato, which offered new clean rooms with ensuite facilities. While not overly large, they were fine for a week where little time was to be spent indoors. The breakfast room/bar, was downstairs and offered an alternative place for relaxation. TV’s were in all the rooms, as well as a personal safe.

Advantages
Livigno’s main claim to fame is it’s Duty Free status. This means that no sales tax of any sort is charged on purchases. In practise this means that high duty items such as tobacco products and alcohol are good value, whereas lower duty items are simply reasonably cheap.

Livigno is based high up in the Swiss/Italian Alps. This means that you can expect good quality snow right through the season. The village itself is along the banks of a river, with the two skiing mountains reaching up on either side. The skiing is separated by the valley, but buses can easily be caught between them

Day trips to St Moritz are also available for those who would like to see where the rich and famous ski. We went on this trip and although it probably wasn’t worth the money, being able to say, “Of course I’ve skied at St Moritz darling. I was there just after the millennium.” is quite nice.

Disadvantages
The main disadvantage of Livigno is the long transfer time from Bergamo Airport. It is generally in the order of 5 hours. We were unlucky as fog and mist made us divert to Milan Airport. The resulting delays meant that we didn’t get to our hotel until 9 pm. This is after leaving home at 4 am that morning!

Although both mountains have quite reasonable amounts of skiing terrain, they are not linked together. This means that transferring from one side to the other required a (admittedly short) bus trip. The terrain also tends to focus on beginners and the intermediate. I suspect that most advanced skiers would get bored during the week.

Recommendations.
Livigno is probably best for people who want a holiday as much as a skiing trip. It would also appeal to the shoppers out there who want to splash some cash on something new. However if you’re looking for challenging skiing terrain, it probably isn’t the spot to go.