Settimana Bianca

Settimana bianca, “white week,” is the Italian version of winter break and many people go on vacation and it seemed that most of the schools are closed. We headed off to the mountains for our annual ski vacation. We always go out west to Colorado, which involves a long day of travel. This year was great because we only had a very easy, 3-hour car ride up into the mountains from Padova. We went to Brunico in the Alto Adige region of Italy. This area is a semi-autonomous region of Italy, but the first language is German and this is the area of Italy that was passed back and forth between the Germans, Austrians and Italians during the various wars in this part of Europe. Brunico is the Italian name of the city, but its “real” name is Brunek (apparently Mussolini changed all the German names to Italian names during WWII, so all the cities, mountains, etc. have two names). We stayed at a spa resort and they did all the cooking! We had fantastic tasting, healthy food – they modified the presentation for the kids (e.g., no sauces) and we all liked the spa health drinks they gave us each night as an appetizer.

We skied on a mountain known as Kronplatz (Plan de Corones). The kids were very excited to go skiing, it is something that we all love and this year we could all ski together (meaning that Isabelle can keep up with us and I can still keep up with the boys!). We had “heard” about the European process of getting on the gondolas/chair lifts that take you up the mountain for skiing, but thought that the reports of how bad it is were exaggerated by crabby, insensitive types. We were wrong! There is no process. The reports weren’t exaggerated. Everyone stands in a crowd, jostles for space, jockeys for position and pushes, literally pushes, their way on to the gondolas. It was terrible. Let me say it again – it was awful! The gondolas and chair lifts up on the mountain, were a little, only a little, better. Bill thinks there is a great Art Buchwaldian essay on the comparison between lift lines, universal health care and the contrast between Europe and the U.S. I agree, but I think he wants me to write it and I will if I am inspired enough some afternoon. Okay, so the lift lines were terrible, but to ski in the Alps is just amazing. While every year we ooh and ahh at the beauty of Colorado, these mountains here were even more dramatic and breath-taking. The peaks were more jagged and because this was a low snow year, they were not uniformly covered in snow providing a panorama of enormous, textured beauty, 360 degrees. While the lift lines were very crowded, once up on the mountain, the ski runs were not particularly busy and there were many times that we were skiing around very few other people. The kids balked at going to ski school with instructors that spoke primarily German, but we just forced them to go and surprise (not to us of course), they loved it. Most of the instructors spoke Italian and they know enough Italian to get by and most know a few words of English. Although, this was primarily a German/Austrian resort area and that was the dominant language.

We took one day off from skiing and drove over to the famous Cortina where the 1956 Olympics were held. We visited with the family of a little girl, Elena, in Isabelle’s class. The parents are both pediatricians, he is a surgeon and she is a hospital doctor and they cooked us lunch & walked us around Cortina. Cortina is a magical city and it doesn’t matter which way you look, you are surrounded by beauty. The shopping looked wonderful, although we were walking around with 6 kids, 8 and under, so there was no shopping and mostly watching to make sure that no one got run over by one of the zillions of cars trying to drive around the tiny, old mountain streets. Also, when we complained about the lift lines, Stefano assured us that they were much better organized from when he was a kid and that they improve every year! We had a wonderful afternoon and all the kids fell in love with their 15 month old baby, Silvia, and the boys are pestering me to learn how to make the ragu (Bolognese-style) sauce that Maria put on everyone’s pasta. Maria wants me to visit so she can practice her English so maybe I can trade English lessons for a cooking lesson on pasta sauce. Confession – I still just buy the canned stuff over here.

Also, the Italians will not be without their cell phones - they are everywhere. For example, yesterday, I saw a guy on a bike with his two children, one in a little seat in the back and one on a little seat between his legs & the handle bars, riding down the street, talking on the phone while he ran a red light! I even see nuns all the time walking down the street chatting on their cells. But I digress, how unusual for me. One of the problems when we go to Colorado, is keeping in touch with each other on the mountain because the cell reception is so bad. Not a problem here. There was a huge cell tower, right on the top of the mountain, with at least 25 little satellite dishes on it. I'll post a picture. It was great - it was very easy to keep in touch, because you will inevitabley get seperated while skiing and it was easy to call and find each other.

It was fantastico! It was a wonderful week in the mountains and we always have fun on our ski vacations. Honestly, we would probably never come back here to ski during the regular holidays, but Bill and I are already fantasizing our return in the future during the “off-season” when the kids are gone to college. Also, we are thinking we might return for a hanging out and hiking around the mountains vacation before we return to the States this summer.