With their sports shops, hotels and restaurants closed due to coronavirus restrictions, Italy’s main ski resorts already resemble ghost towns. And hope of reopening for Christmas is fading fast.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned this week there is the risk of a new wave of infections, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for all EU resorts to be closed until January 10.

In the alpine village of Sestriere, one of the hosts of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, Giovanni Brasso normally employs 350 full-time staff in his ski lift operating company.

But he fears that if they do not open for Christmas, they may not reopen at all this season.

“We take 45 per cent of all the season’s revenue over the Christmas holiday. If you take that away, we can’t go on,” he told AFP.

“I am very bitter because I’m convinced the ski stations could reopen safely, by taking the necessary measures,” like they do in Switzerland.

According to him, they could work with Italian police to ensure skiers wear masks and keep their distance from each other.

Disaster 

The industry is still recovering from the abrupt end to last year’s season caused when coronavirus swept Italy, sparking a national lockdown.

1992 Olympic silver medalist Gianfranco Martin poses at his hotel Lago Losetta in the alpine ski resort of Sestriere. Photo: AFP

At the Lago Losetta hotel, on the edge of a little lake of the same name, owner Gianfranco Martin says closing until January 10 would be “a disaster”, losing him 60 per cent of his annual turnover.

“We are very concerned, and very pessimistic,” said Martin, himself an Olympic silver medallist.

Sestriere is also suffering from a lack of snow, a problem that could be, and has been in the past, resolved with cannons firing artificial snow. 

But at a cost of €500,000, according to Martin, it would be a major investment with no guarantee of a return.

Apres-ski is also an attraction of a holiday on the slopes, but all that has stopped with new restrictions against COVID-19, which has surged again, taking Italy’s death toll past 50,000.

Massimo Fontana, whose Igloo bar and restaurant is a popular spot, with big wooden tables and fur-covered stools overlooking the pistes, is trying to stay upbeat.

“From an economic viewpoint, it’s a horrifying loss. But if we want to get out of this situation (the pandemic), we have to find a compromise,” he said.

Merkel’s call for a Europe-wide solution might be better than a country-by-country approach, he said. “We might receive some support.”

Fresh air 

Some 200 kilometres north, still in the restricted “red” zone, the village of Cervinia has been allowed to keep some of its slopes and ski lifts open for athletes – one of the few to do so in Europe.

A professional athlete skis down the Plan Maison ski run in the alpine ski resort of Breuil-Cervinia. Photo: AFP

This partial reopening involves “a big economic sacrifice”, based on the expectation of business as usual over Christmas, said Matteo Zanetti, who runs the local ski lift company.

Closing over the holidays would require “significant support” from the government, he said. “The economic damage would be huge.”

Erjon Tola, an Albanian Olympic athlete who is also a ski instructor, is already finding it tough.

For two months during the spring, he earned nothing, living on €600 a month in government hand-outs. “It’s a critical situation,” he said.

“It’s so unfair that we’re closed,” added Gianlorenzo Vaudagnotto, who runs two ski shops.

“Skiing is not like being in a nightclub – you’re alone, and in the fresh air. And by managing the situation properly, we could all be open.”

He said one of the hardest things was not knowing: “We wait, we’ve got nothing to do.”