Hotel Fiordigigli

I am still wondering whether anything did actually go wrong during my week at Fiordigigli at all. My family and I (my son, my partner and my parents) were due to spend a week on the slopes elsewhere when we were informed that the weather had been so mild that there was no snow at all; my mum did some extensive research and came up with the Fiordigigli, one minute walk from the Gran Sasso cableway, only access to the ski area. Highlights: certainly the general feeling that all members of the hotel's staff were willing to go the extra couple of miles to respond to any request. My mum was given a room she did not feel 100% comfortable with - the bed was slightly squeaking and she's a very light sleeper as well as quite picky - and the staff managed to show her three more available rooms to choose from. My partner, not used to the Italian-style breakfast buffet, requested eggs for breakfast, which they very happily prepared on the spot and began making it available every day since. After her unusual requests for some alternative herbal tea the buffet was stocked up. One day we were given outdated skipasses - there is the option to include them on the room's price; five minutes after reporting the problem to the hotel we received a call than new and working replacement passes were on their way with the cableway conductor - they cannot be bought up in Campo Imperatore. Finally, we decided to stay one more day on a Saturday, when hordes of weekend tourists invaded the hotel: again, no problem, the rooms were re-assigned (before the guests arrived!) and we could stay one more night in our room. My partner and I also had a try of the in-hotel spa, a very well kept room with a handful of treatments, perfect after a day skiing in the cold. As we choose the half-board option, we enjoyed long dinners in the dining hall heated by a period fireplace: the menu is set but alternatives are available if necessary - example, an outstanding straccetti with mushrooms, truffle and sausages was replaced with a plate of straccetti with simple tomato sauce as my son doesn't like mushrooms (with such samples he will learn!); no tourist portions are served, and the waiters were more than happy to refill the plate for a second or third go. I feel I should mention Ernesto, one of the waiters: a man of infinite patience and permanent smile, who suggested the best wines for the menu, kept my young teenage son busy with maths and logic games, and filled our plates until we could not take any more. I am not used to spend holidays in a hotel, but at the Fiordigigli I appreciated being pampered and got used that any request would be addressed quickly and efficiently: I feel grateful to have discovered such a gem.