Firenze

Friday, January 21 - Saturday, January 23

Most people make last minute trips to the grocery store. This weekend I decided to make a last minute trip to Florence. By last minute I mean, 3:15 phone call from Brody with a 5:10 departure time. Seriously, I don't do these things and I would love to take credit for the spontaneity but unfortunately it all goes to Brody and Carol who looked at me like I was crazy and said "Why are you asking me this?"

Yep, so I went. Aunt Raelene would be so proud of me!

Anyhow, our train was delayed in Chiasso, causing Brody and I to miss our connection in Milan. We literally pulled in just as the fast train was pulling out on the platform next to us. But it wasn't too traumatic because there was another one in an hour and it took me about 30 minutes to figure out how to rearrange our tickets, getting us on the 8:10 train. Then, this train was having difficulties and we were delayed multiple times on the track causing us to arrive in Florence around 10:30 in the evening.

After checking into Hotel Centrale, Brody and I strolled down the street looking for a restaurant with an open kitchen. It didn't take us to long to find Cipolla Rossa Osteria. It was packed at 11:15, a good sign for our starving selves. After perusing the menu we determined that we wanted a caprese and two different pasta's that were recommended by our waitress. Brody ordered us an IGT Sangiovese that we are now wishing we had written down the name. It was fantastic. The entire meal was amazing, the caprese had mouthwatering mozzarella and the pastas were made from homemade noodles, fresh pesto and a spicy bacon, salami oil sauce. To top it all off we shared a tiramisu, had limoncello, followed by almond biscotti and vin santo liqueur. Around 1:15 in the morning we had finished dinner, looked around and realized we were the last ones in the place. We had no idea and the restaurant was not pushing us out at all. Actually they were chatting with us, Brody engaged in quite the conversation about language and wines before calling it a night. It was a great start to the spontaneous weekend.

On Saturday morning we wandered to the San Lorenzo Market to look at all the leather goods, journals, purses and fur lined leather gloves. Luckily Brody and I shop in a similar fashion and we wandered up and down the same strip of stalls multiple times checking items out, trying them on, and deciding what to purchase. My inability to be spontaneous caused our first purchase to not take place until well into the afternoon. Prior to my first purchase I was convinced to try on multiple leather jackets, engaged in a conversation about Italian education and university with a man selling hats and looked at many different scarves. Finally, I pulled the trigger and purchased two pairs of leather gloves lined with rabbit fur. They are going to greatly improve my morning car duty and frigid fingers.

Our next destination was indoors and the Mercato Centrale to check out the various meats, cheeses, fish and wine of the area. The colors were amazing and it was the first time I brought my camera out on the trip.

The first display we passed as we entered the market. Loving it!

Exceptional Colors

From here we walked around the Duomo to find a place to grab a bit of lunch before heading to Mercato Nuovo and the Fontana del Porcellino where I rubbed the boars snout to guarantee I would return to Florence one day.

After this, we had pretty much seen the sights. We walked to Piazza della Signoria to see the replica of Michelangelo's David and the statues showcased in the Palazzo dell Assicurazioni Generali.

Duomo

Brody told me the name and it has already slipped my mind

The David

This is famous or so I have been told

I'm coming back!

Ponte Vecchio or Bridge of Gold

On our way back we stopped into a restaurant to grab a glass of wine. While Brody was taking his 15th bathroom break I spoke with the women who informed us that we didn't want to grab a drink at her establishment but we should head about two blocks back the way we came to Verazzano Restaurante.

Where Brody spent most of his time

We quickly found out the reason behind the suggestion. It was a small bar or cafe that only supplied their vineyards product. The waiter, Jonathan had summered in Massachusetts and had a opening line for all of his English speaking customers, "I hope you're not a Yankee's fan." We quickly started talking with him and determined my allegiance to the Red Sox as well as the fact that we have a friend in common. His mother is a director of a Renaissance studies program in Florence and a college friend of mine had previously studied under her guidance and was their neighbor. Definitely a small world.

Once we got all the chatting behind us we settled on a flight of 5 wines that would allow us to sample a variety of the Verazzano blends. Jonathan paired the tastings with an assorted appetizer platter made of different meats, fruits and breads of the region. We tried a white which was exceptional and then moved through the Chiantis to a pure Sangiovese. Brody was in heaven talking up a storm and gaining more knowledge. The two of them were kind enough to stop every once in a while to fill me in on the terminology and what exactly I was looking for. Luckily I have a decent sense of wines and some background knowledge. Otherwise I would have been lost. We ended the sampling with a Vin Santo liqueur from their vineyard. It was sweet but wonderful. At this point we needed a break and a little fresh air. Before heading out we asked Jonathan for a dinner recommendation. He asked a few questions, disappeared and came back with a slip of paper stating, our reservation time, location, and we were instructed to let them know, Jonathan had sent us.

Our pairings

Next stop, Pane & Vino on the other side the river. It was a small restaurant located off of the main road. From the outside it looked like a complete dive but when we walked it, the place was rather swanky and chic. We started off with a glass of prosecco and discussed the plan of attack regarding food. We settled on fried sardines, not my choice but ended up being rather tasty, and a parmiggiano creme brulee to start. Followed by a pumpkin ravioli topped with a pumpkin sauce and a filet. Amazing! This was all paired with a wine of the owners selection called Gravello.

On Sunday, we had a lazy morning walking the streets, taking pictures of the Duomo and enjoying the beautiful weather. We were also on a hunt for Gravello to take back with us. We tried at least five different shops before we realized it may not happen.

Great window!

Proof we were actually in Firenze

When noon rolled around my anxiety level became elevated because our train was at 1:00 and we couldn't run into any glitches since I had to be at a board meeting at 5. Brody found this quite amusing but it made me nervous. We were scheduled to arrive at 4:13 and I was just thinking about our 2 hour delay on the way to Florence. I took some deep breaths and willed a positive outcome. Which there was, even though I did have to ring the doorbell to the hotel about 10 times before we were let in. Only a slightly quickened heart beat. But all was good and it was an amazing trip!

I think I may try this whole spontaneous thing again.

Macagno Climb

Sunday, January 16, 2011

What a day! 60 degrees, sunny, out on Lake Maggiore in Italy. I couldn’t ask for more during the winter!

Jen, Josh, Tye, Noah and I took advantage of the warm weather and planned a day of climbing along the water front. Josh being the expect lead us to the perfect spot…in the sun and accessible to all of us inexperienced people. As always watching Josh make the first climb builds up our confidence and allows us to believe that it won’t be that bad.

View from the first climb

Fearless leader paving the way!

Tye and I stood off in the background watching, assessing the different areas commenting that once we got through the first part then we would be all set. Sure! Noah suited up first, being the brave younger brother and all, and tackled the rock. He gave it a good effort but the first couple of steps were challenging and he decided to step back and reassess his tactics, allowing for Jen to step up.

Now Jen is a true spider monkey. She had a couple failed attempts but then muscled her way pushing and pulling up through the steep beginning and eventually making it onto what appeared to be the easy part. Yeah, not so much. There were a few more hand holds and places to put your feet but it still was quite the challenge. However, Jen successfully made it to the top, tapped the metal rings and repelled down.

Getting Noah ready for his first climb

Spider Monkey

My turn! It only took about 12 tries for me to get past the first 3 steps. I used a very technical move, at least that is what I have been told to make my way through the section. It is called the flag. I guess that makes me a climber or something!

Anyhow, it was all good. I made it to the top in under an hour…or close to an hour. The climb should have taken about 15 or 20 minutes. I guess I may need a little more practice on the rock before I am able to scurry that quickly.

Showoff!

Josh takes such good care of me!

If I am happy it will be easier...right?

Official Move

This is fun!

Feeling the fatigue

Still working...getting a little closer

Success!

After my climb, Tye made an attempt and was successful and Noah took another swing at it. He persevered and reached the top much quicker then I did. However, all of us when we came down were a little shaky, tired and questioning if we wanted to try another area.

Tye

A unique move...quite flexible indeed!

Jen belaying Tye with a little help from Josh

Noah's 2nd attempt

Jen looking on as Noah attempts his second climb

Jen’s desire won out and we followed the sun a little farther down the path and tackled an easier section. Josh climbed first putting in all of the carabeaners and then Jen took a swing at lead climbing placing the ropes in the carabeaners for the rest of us to use. She did a great job but it made her little brother extremely nervous while he watched. He continually was mumbling to himself, don’t you want to come down now, why don’t you clip that in from where you are from…I think that’s enough. It was great to watch the role reversals on that one.

Carabiners

View from the 2nd climbing location

Jen taking the lead

After Jen got all the ropes in place, Noah and I took another swing at climbing. We were both a little quicker this time and our height was extremely helpful when reaching for the various holds and pulling ourselves up. I think I may be a little sore tomorrow!

I Did It!

Noah celebrating at the top of his last climb

Another day in Austria

Kitzbuhel, St. Anton & Innsbruck

December 30 - January 8, 2011

After a whirlwind tour of the US, I headed back to Switzerland to try out my new skis. After a few delays for Jen and Josh we were on our way late in the evening of December 30. Josh had flown to London spent the night, woke up early to fly to Geneva, jump a train and in 45 minutes turn around and pick up Jen and I for a 4 hour drive to Kitzbuhel. I would love to say that Jen and I were great friends, driving the entire way but that was not the case. Josh stayed behind the wheel while we played DJ and enjoyed various snacks that were found when cleaning out our pantries. My favorite snack of all was the healthy cookies that came in large clumps. We decided because they were crumbs they didn't count. Pie Face 1 & 2 had no problem gobbling those up.

Anyhow, we finally made it to Kitzbuhel around midnight and met our Kiwi host at the Ski Bunny lodge. He was an interesting egg for sure and little did we know what excitement he was going to bring to all of our festivities over the next couple of days. After a slight disagreement about our lodging situation we settled into a 6 bed dorm room with very little space to move. Josh completely unpacked and got himself organized while Jen and I dug out our PJ's and shoved our bags snuggly into a closet to keep them out of the way. We would deal with it later.

Friday, December 31 - New Years Eve!

What a day! Up early, ticket purchased and we were on the slopes. Kitzbuhel is an interesting resort, made up of 3 peaks that are accessible by a serious of gondolas and chair lifts. It really isn't possible to ski from one peak to the next without a private guide and avalanche gear. So as much as Josh was tempted we didn't try that out.

Kitzbuhel

Throughout the day we enjoyed the warm weather, decent skiing on piste and exploring the various peaks. We made it all the way to the farthest point for picnic lunch out on the patio. As we were sitting there being lazy we realized that we had under 2 hours to make our way back to where we started and we weren't really sure if it was possible. So we jumped up, and hustled off to our first run still taking things relatively easy. However, that didn't last too long, we quickly realized we had quite a few lifts to take before we would even reach our mountain. We started bombing the runs, leaping off the chair and taking off, meeting up at the bottom for the next ride and assessing our situation.

Around 3:45 we reached the S3, the gondola across the valley to our mountain. Perfect, we were in decent shape, we had 30 minutes to catch 3 chairs and make 4 runs. Possible...maybe!

Out of the gondola we followed the crowd down, to find out that our long traverse was actually a t-bar ride with a packed line. Time is ticking...at the top we bomb again down the run, catch a chair, ride up, and Josh takes off on a long traverse that leads to carrying skis. Jen and I are a little behind him and realize that it is possible to ski down, catch a chair to the top and not carry but Josh is too far away so we followed along skating as best we could. At the top of the skate a couple of guys we had been following happily got off the chair and gave us a wave. I wasn't too excited about that.

Then we were off again, Josh in the lead following the path we had mapped out. At one fork, we all stopped and discussed the fact that the majority of the people were heading in another direction. We tried to rationalize it and continued on our path. At the last minute I noticed another chair that was still running but it was too late. Josh had committed down another trail. So we followed, only to find ourselves at the bottom of 3 charis, 2 of which are not running and one that is slowly being put away. Josh skied up to the operator and asked if it was possible for us to get a ride. He looked at how pathetic we were and realized we would be carrying our skis for some time if he didn't let us on so taking pity he allowed us to wait 15 minutes. At this point it is 4:30 and the sun is going down. My anxiety levels are rising but I am trying my hardest to not let it show. I think I was relatively successful.

At the top of the run, we head off running into signs that say groomers on the trail and we turn back to the ski patrol for guidance. They just ski past without saying anything so we follow all the way to the gondola. Even though it was slightly scary and the chance of us having to walk quite a bit was aggravating, getting lost was a great thing. It resulted in us watching the sunset over the mountains from the gondola. Absolutely amazing!

We finally made it back to our hostel around 6:00 and all the others found our story quite amusing. After laying around for a bit we decided to get dressed and prepped for the BBQ our Kiwi was hosting along with the many Australians that were spending the week there.

The BBQ...another interesting experience. Our Kiwi had a grill glowing in the backyard with bottles of champagne and beer stuck in the snow around it. He had his wife bring out a bucket of meat containing lamb, fat steaks, burgers, and chicken. I didn't know all of those meats could be combined together like that. Oh well, he tossed some bear on the grill and started firing up the meats, literally. After a while Josh decided to take over because he couldn't handle what was happening. Jen and I just stood around drinking beer, talking up our hostel mates and getting to know everyone. They were all so friendly and wanting to party it made for a great evening.

BBQ

Happy New Year!

Around 10:30 our Kiwi decided he wanted to light off fireworks, not into the sky but under our feet. We spent the next half an hour running around dodging flames and sparks from his various purchases. At one point he shot a pretty significant one into the road hitting a man and his son walking by. Instead of owning up to his stupidity he ran away and hid inside leaving all of us looking dumbfounded. Luckily everyone made it through the BBQ portion alive with no casualties.

At 11:30 all of the hostel headed to a bar in town to grab drinks and enjoy the spectacle. We spent most of our time with a couple of Australians who had friends working at the bar and seemed to know everyone. It was a great time dancing, chatting and dodging fireworks in the street at midnight.

Shoes and Socks

Roommates and the Australians

Saturday, January 1 - Sunday, January 2

Even with all of the festivities Jen, Josh and I were able to wake up bright and early to hit the slopes. We wanted another good day of skiing before leaving town for St. Anton. However, our first wave of energy slowly wore off with the coffee and we stopped for an early lunch of bratworst and apple strudel. Well, Jen and I had bratworst and we ate Josh's apple strudel which he had no problem sharing with us.

The Crew

Pie Face

Fun hat club

Once we got cold sitting outside we ventured inside for a little longer to have another cup of coffee and determine a plan of attack for the rest of the day, the evening and our Sunday departure. Overall it was a rather lazy day of skiing but the snow conditions were not fantastic so we were not missing too much.

That evening we met up with Rob and Courtney for a pizza and some drinks at an outside bar. It was great seeing them outside of TASIS and having time to chat without any pressures pulling all of us in separate directions. It turned into a relatively early evening, turning in and hoping for a little bit of snow.

And snow we got on Sunday morning. So much that we decided not to ski and took off for St. Anton to get ourselves situated and ready for a good day on Monday.

In the evening we met up with Matt, Carol and Sarah B. at Haus Schmid in Schnann to continue on with our vacation.

Josh wanted to join the fun hat club

Monday, January 2 - Thursday, January 6

Haus Schmid in Schnann about 7 km outside of St. Anton may be my new favorite place to stay when skiing. It is an old house up on a hillside that has been converted into a bed and breakfast. It is run by a young Australian couple with 5 girls. Fiona was extremely nice telling us about the area as well as just being friendly. Each morning we woke up to have breakfast in the sitting room before catching the bus to the mountain. Every morning was peaceful and relaxing with our group slowly straggling in from the various rooms spread throughout the house. We would chat, laugh and plan our day.

The skiing was decent with a lot of mountain to explore. As the first day rolled on we got a little more adventurous finding our first off piste run that had decent snow. From there we tried a couple of other places throughout the week but the first was still the best. On occasion we found ourselves stuck with rocks and thin coverage leaving me with two rather large gouges out of the bottom of my skis. Josh was able to get a little footage during the trip but because the snow wasn't amazing it was slim pickings.

St. Anton

Josh demonstrating his skills.

Always a monkey

Apres Ski

In the evenings we ventured to apres ski indoors to keep Carol warm and then to a Mexican restaurant one evening and Tapas another. The final night in town we were all exhausted so we cleaned up, took some naps, hit the sauna and walked to the pizzeria in Schnann.

On Thusday evening we said goodbye to Matt, Josh and Jen who were heading back to campus for ski week. Then Sarah, Carol and I hit the bars for one last drink before saying goodbye to St. Anton in the morning and heading to Innsbruck for a little sightseeing.

It Counts if you have your own!

Snow Bunnies

Boughey after Apres Ski...helmets shouldn't be worn indoors.

Friday, January 7 - Saturday, January 8

Innsbruck here we come. We checked into our hotel only a few blocks away from the old town square before heading out to find some lunch. On our stroll we ran into stalls left up from the Christmas market and then to the pedestrian street for a little shopping. Of course I quickly found a pair of boots I must have but I heard Carol saying..."you need those like you need a hole in the head." So I didn't make the purchase and we moved on to sight seeing.

First stop, the Olympic village and the Bergisel Ski Jump. We wandered around for a while before taking a scary jumping picture and then the funicular up to the top and captured a few pictures from the skiers perspective. Then we boarded the red bus for a guided tour of Innsbruck. Since I am a very good rider, I had a difficult time keeping my eyes open and paying attention to all of the details the recording was telling me. But the highlights were the various locations of the Olympic village and museums. So I guess I didn't miss much because my museum attention span is about an hour so I wouldn't make it in there anyway.

Innsbruck

Olympic Ladies

Zoom in to see the fear in my eyes!

Not going down that

Old Town

Golden Roof at the end of the pedestrian street

New Town

That afternoon we found the train to take us to the top of the highest peak in Innsbruck, Hafeleker to get a panoramic view of the city. We enjoyed a hot chocolate at the top and watched the snow boarders tackle some daring jumps in the park. During our time at the top Carol and I were quite pleased with our decision to stay away from skiing because there was more mud then snow on the entire mountain. Maybe if we had ventured outside of the city limits deeper into the alps we would have been better off but I am not sure.

The View...can't complain

Love this sign

Boughey's first time at the top of the alps

Carol, Boughey and I at the top.

On Saturday morning we woke up early and loaded the car to make the drive back home. On our way we decided to stop in Rottenberg the smallest town in Austria. It is known for its glass blowing and the Kisslinger factory. We spent a little time walking around, making a few purchases for gifts and ourselves before making the rest of the drive.

Rottenberg

They take their glass very serious

It was a great trip with a lot of moving pieces but they all came together successfully.