A handful of resorts had already opened a few ski lifts last weekend, such as Cervinia and Cortina d'Ampezzo, but the season really started on Saturday 4 December across the entire Alpine chain.

The mountain world hopes to erase the nightmare of two seasons weighed down by confinements and restrictions on mobility from one region to another.

"This will be the year of the resumption of skiing after the forced closure due to the pandemic which particularly penalized this sector, which did not work at all during the winter of 2021 and at 25% during the 2019/2020 season" , said in a press release the president of the National Association of Cable Car Operators, Valeria Ghezzi.

In Bormio, in Lombardy (north), winter sports enthusiasts were already numerous on the slopes for this extended weekend until Wednesday, the day of the Immaculate Conception, a public holiday in Italy.

The sanitary pass is mandatory to access the lifts and a mask is required off the slopes.

Passers-by in a street in the village of Bormio, Italy, December 4, 2021 Piero CRUCIATTI AFP

"It was a good decision to introduce restrictions. Skiing is an outdoor sport, the authorities [the past two seasons] could have managed the pandemic differently and avoided all these problems for mountain professionals," explained to AFP, on skis, Mery Pozzoli, 45, from the Como region.

Pietro Maranzana, a 50-year-old manager from Milan, shared his "emotion" of putting on skis: "I have butterflies in my stomach, as if I were in love".

Fabio Giacomelli, equipment manager at Bormio, said he was "confident of being able to work the winter season to the end".

"We will do everything to ensure that the rules are respected" and avoid the emergence of epidemic centers, he stressed.

The Italian government has undertaken to financially support the ski industry, and to maintain all or part of the wages of seasonal and permanent workers.

But the checks are long overdue.

A view of the alpine village of Bormio, Italy, December 4, 2021 Piero CRUCIATTI AFP

"They should arrive soon, but we haven't seen anything coming for a year and nine months," said Nicolò Sartorelli, 41, a ski instructor in Bormio.

The stations are not definitely out of the woods: if a new wave were to sweep over the country, the most affected regions could be re-defined and travel from one region to another prohibited unless there is a compelling reason.

For the time being, Italy, where the pandemic has already killed more than 134,000 people, is recording less than 10,000 new cases per day, three to four times less than in France.

© 2021 AFP