Christmas 2009 was myself and my boyfriend’s very first Christmas. To celebrate this, and also avoid the very common dilemma of where to spend it to, we decided to head of to Livigno, Italy.

                                               Livigno town from top of a mountain.

Livigno is a small ski resort in the Lombardy region, Italy, just South of the Swiss border. It’s is the highest resort in Europe to be permanently populated, with just fewer than 5,000 resident and as we unfortunately found out, takes 4 hours to travel to from Montichari airport (We also found out after we booked that there are noe flights to Switzerland where transfers are only 2 1/2 hours). However, we did get to see some gorgeous scenery on the way.

                                Sun setting over an Italian lake (and bus window grime)

                                        One of the mountains we passed on our way

When we finally got to Livigno we stayed at the San Giovanni in the San Rocco area of Livigno. It was a decent hotel. It had a shop, restaurant, bar, lounge area and also did half board accomodation.

                                           Hotel San Giovanni (view from ski slope)

There was a ski school and a slope right behind the hotel which was useful, although my experience of snowboarding consisted of spending 90% of the time on my bottom!

My boyfriend however was a natural.

Livigno is a very beautiful place, which due to my lack of snowboarding skills, i got to explore quite a bit.
There's some spectacular views from some of the mountains and as it was Christmas time, we also got to visit a Christmas market and see some awesome ice sculptures.

                                             View from top of Carosello 3000 mountain

                                              View from Mottolino ski area.

                                    Christmas winter market

                                            Huge ice sculpture

                                        An entry for an ice sculpture competition.