Well, we arrived in Verona airport to be greeted by sunshine and very warm air - glorious but not what we wanted for our first ski holiday! Snow was predicted and thankfully it came.

We got to our hotel by coach transfer and were very happy with our room at the Residence Stella. We went self catering and seemed to strike it lucky and have a big apartment - large bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and even a mezzanine floor up to another little bedroom. Also two double doors leading onto large balcony with lovely views.

The hotel seems quite new. It is beautifully clean and smells lovely. There are flowers weaved into frames on the walls and the apartment furniture is proper solid pine.

Bathroom - shower, toilet, bidet, sink, mirror, soap, shower cap etc.

Kitchen - Electric oven, 4 hobs (but can only use one big + one small at a time, or 3 small. Also can only use one small hob if the oven is on. If you exceed this the power in the apartment blows. This is no cost-cutting threat- it really does blow as a fellow resident found out), table, 5 chairs, fridge/freezer, other units. The utensils could have been better - perfectly clean but only 2 big old cooking pots and one tiny saucepan. No kettle - had to boil water in metal jug. There was a teatowel provided but nothing else.

Bedroom - large wardrobe, really large bed, bedside tables, tv (only one English channel - BBCWorld - which is rubbish!). We took a Playstation and hooked it up to the TV so we could watch DVDS - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as there is NOTHING to do in Folgaria. Bed sheets clean and bed is comfortable.

The only downside to the room was that you could hear the neighbouring room - their voices were really clear.

The slopes of Costa are right by this hotel but they were closed when we were there (as they had melted!). There is absolutely nothing to do anywhere near the hotel. You have to walk 45 minutes to the nearest town (Folgaria) but this has absolutely nothing either. No interesting bars (aprat from those in hotels), not even any decent restaurants. All I wanted was a typical Italian lasagne. No can do. It was pizza pizza pizza.

There is a supermarket about 10 minutes walk but it is tiny. There is a slightly bigger one in Folgaria but that's just miles to carry things back (about an hour walk (uphill) back to hotel).

This is a typical Italian village. Nobody speaks English, there is nothing there for tourists whatsoever and there are weird things like speakers on the path chucking out crazy dance music, and peacocks and goats by the path. Also the people there are a bit random and can be incredibly rude.

Found a nice little wine shop in Folgaria. Also a lovely meat and cheese shop. Thank god for those shops!!!

We had to get a bus every morning to the nearest slopes (Fonde Grande) which took about 10-15 minutes. There were only 3 buses there each morning and 3 buses back between 12.45 and 4pm. The service wasn't good - buses late, times change daily, buses sometimes packed. Not pleasant.

Ski slopes ok but not great. No blue runs in Finde Grande (well there is but you have to go down a red to get there!). Nursery slope crowded. However - NO queues whatsoever for lifts - great. Nearby in Fonde Piccolo there are meant to be good blue runs but we didn't venture there. Apparantly good red runs up the chairlift but I didn't get that far!

All in all, disappointing. Wouldn't go back and certainly wouldn't recommend the place at all.