by InTrieste
As the year draws to a close, winter has firmly taken hold across the mountains of Friuli Venezia Giulia, and with it comes a broadened offering for skiers and holiday travelers ringing in the New Year on the slopes.
Regional tourism agency PromoTurismoFVG announced that, thanks to consistently low temperatures in recent days, the skiable area has been expanded across all six of the region’s mountain resorts: Piancavallo, Sappada–Forni Avoltri, Forni di Sopra–Sauris, Ravascletto–Zoncolan, Tarvisio and Sella Nevea. Resort staff have been working around the clock to prepare pistes and lifts in time for the holiday rush, when thousands of visitors traditionally head for the Alps and Prealps to ski, snowboard and celebrate the first days of the new year.
The region has also introduced a small but telling innovation aimed at modern travelers: a power-bank rental and sharing service designed for use directly on the slopes. Starting this holiday season, Tarvisio, Zoncolan and Piancavallo are hosting stations where skiers and visitors can borrow portable battery packs for their smartphones, free of charge for the first two hours.
The service is being rolled out by PromoTurismoFVG in partnership with Brick, an international company based in Spilimbergo that operates power-bank sharing networks in more than 25 countries. The system allows users to pick up a charged battery at a station — for example at the Monte Lussari cable car in Tarvisio, the Ravascletto and Sutrio ticket offices on Mount Zoncolan, or the Tremol and Casere ticket offices in Piancavallo — carry it with them during the day and return it to any compatible Brick station.
In a mountain environment, where cold temperatures drain batteries quickly and smartphones are used for GPS tracking, ski apps, weather updates and, in some cases, emergency calls, keeping a phone charged is increasingly viewed as a matter of safety as much as convenience. Regional officials say the goal is to ensure that skiers can always make a call, share their location or receive urgent information if needed.
Alongside safety, sustainability is another stated aim of the project. By encouraging the shared use of rechargeable power banks, the system is intended to reduce the purchase and disposal of single-use charging devices and limit electronic waste — a growing concern in sensitive alpine environments.
All stations are branded with the regional “Io sono Friuli Venezia Giulia” identity and are designed to fit into existing resort infrastructure without the need for major new installations.
Up-to-date information on which lifts and slopes are open across the region is available through the Infoneve section of the PromoTurismoFVG website, and ski passes can be purchased online, at resort ticket offices or at automated kiosks. The Amaro ticket office, a key access point for several resorts, is open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. during the holiday period.
For Friuli Venezia Giulia, the combination of expanded ski terrain and small technological upgrades reflects a broader strategy: to make its mountain destinations not only more accessible, but also more attuned to the expectations of contemporary winter travelers, even as they glide into the new year on freshly groomed snow.
