Ho sciato (I skied)

I have been skiing once before, 3 years ago, with the Hopper’s. First time out, I was learning at Snowmass on the largest, snow covered mountain I had ever seen in my life. And let me tell you, I was scared out of my mind. Thoughts and visions of me losing control and flying off the side of the mountain were constantly in the back of my mind. That, and the possibility of falling and crashing so hard that I hurt myself were common thoughts. But I sucked it up, and took hold of the opportunity they gave me. Now, I am not saying that I was the best first time skier in the world, but I thought that I did pretty well. Well, fast forward almost 3 years later, and there I was, on a bus with Olivia, Sabrina and 6 other students, 350 euro poorer and scared out of my mind yet again. There wasn’t anything I could do-I had paid the money, gone out and gotten a pair of wind-proof, water-proof rain pants (to use as a pair of make shift ski pants), had gotten on the bus and already started pounding the ibuprofen for my knee—I was going skiing in the Italian Alps whether I liked it or not. And I must give a disclaimer: from the first day that I turned in the deposit, I kept psych-ing myself out everyday up until that Saturday morning when we actually were getting off the gondola at the top of the first run. But oh well…I just told myself that whether I enjoyed the skiing or not, that this was going to be one of those once in a lifetime chances that I was being presented with, and that if I didn’t take advantage of it, then I was doing myself a disservice.

Friday was met Francesca, the woman from FUA who organized the trip and got on an “short bus” and started the 6 hour bus ride up to the mountains (it really was only supposed to take 5, but the bus driver got lost…of course!) We finally get there, get checked into the hotel and then walk over to the rental place, getting fitted for boots, skis and poles. Poor Olivia…she was so cute! Now, another disclaimer: Olivia had never once put on a pair of ski boots or skis EVER! In her entire life…she was so brave to go into this without any experience, whatsoever! GO HER!!! (She did super for never skiing before either!) So we got all fitted out, made our way to a ski shop and picked up some last minute essentials a.k.a. a gator (or neckscarf)…it was the best 12 euro that I had spent in a REALLLLLYYY long time! So worth it! Then, we made our way back to the hotel, took a little nap and met back down in the lobby at 8 for our 4 course dinner that the hotel was providing. (PS We stayed at a 4 star hotel, Hotel Grifone….SO nice!) We started out with speck (which is a smoked prosciutto) and potato pancakes that reminded me of McDonald’s hashbrowns! Haha. Then, primi piatti (first course) I chose a small portion of mini-penne in a fresh cherry tomato sauce. Secondi (second course) was over fried chicken and cheesy cauliflower. Desert was a slice of apple cake (I must say though, that the one that Sabrina and Cat made was better, in my opinion.) The three of us then made our way back to the room and hung out, relaxing, knowing that in the morning it was the start of a new adventure!!

Saturday! Ski day 1! We made our way down to breakfast that morning, dressed 90% of the way for the day. At 8.30, the entire group caught the ski bus (which coincidentally enough was the only time that we ever saw that bus stop and pick anyone up!) and made our way to the rental place to get geared up! We headed out of the rental place and onto the gondola that was right above the shop, making our way up to the first run! Now, their categorizing is a little bit different in terms of difficulty in trails here than at home. At home, green is easy, blue is intermediate, and black, well, is black. Here, blue was considered easy (but some were definitely much harder than others), red was intermediate and black was the same. Regardless, I kept reminding myself and refreshing my memory of what I had learned in Colorado and how to pizza and French fry and that if I wanted to attempt to “sliddeee” as I called it in my head (turn like a real skier), that I had to get warmed up and watch the professional that is Sabrina Mason! I stuck with Sabrina and Olivia that day; Sabrina was teaching Olivia everything that she needed to know; plus it was a good refresher course for me! They both were so patient with each other, and they are 2 great people that I am glad that I got to know, and decided to share this semester with! The views from the mountains were GOREGOUS GORGEOUS GOREGOUS!!! It literally was breathtaking…and amazing! So many words…so little time! Around 3, Olivia and I decided to call it a day…we were both tired, and sore and our boots were a little too tight…so we were good for the day. We left Sabrina at the gondola so that she could end the day on some harder trails, allowing her to swoosh done the hill as fast and furious as she wanted. We went back, showered, took a nap, called home to let them know that we were still in one piece, and then made it back down to ANOTHER 4 course dinner. Started with a vegetable puff pastry, spinach and ricotta ravioli, grilled steak and apple strudel! YUM-O!! We hit the sack early, relaxing to the sound of Italian Bert and Ernie clay-mation, preparing for Sunday!

SUNDAY: Our last day on the slopes and in the beautiful Madonna di Campiglio. We got up, packed our stuff, ate breakfast and Olivia and I made our way back out onto the slopes. The 2 of us went out by ourselves, letting Sabrina go and explore the mountains all day by herself. It was a little more difficult to control ourselves Sunday because the snow was still pretty packed down from the day before, but we handled it like pros! Neither of us fell—go us!! So we skied the same 3 trails two times in a row, and then headed back to return our gear, take showers and relax until the bus was to pick us up and bring us back to Florence.

The weekend was a success…except for the extremely sore knees, bruised shins and sore shoulders. It truly was a once in a lifetime experience, and I could have just stayed in the little town forever and been completely content! It was so gorgeous, and so quite, nestled half way up the gorgeous Alps.

Here is the link to the skiing pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=244208&id=506052285&l=d6d4455a9e

And here is the website with information about the little town we stayed in:
http://www.campiglio.com/

Now that I’m back in Florence, I find myself getting SO excited that I will be home in 11 days. It seems like the semester has flown by and that just yesterday I was saying goodbye to everyone in Cincinnati, not wanting to let go of the hugs I was getting, and now, it’s less than 2 weeks before I will be getting back on the bus to Rome, and flying home. I CAN’T WAIT!! There are still so many things that I want to cram into these next couple of days, and I’m glad that I have amazing friends and roommates who want to do them to!