Skiing for Xmas

When we first booked our Christmas week in Sestriere we had some vague hopes that we might be lucky enough to get a white Christmas. Well, it wasn't to be. I mean, there's plenty of white stuff around, but nothing actually falling from the sky during the 24 hours separating Xmas Eve and Boxing Day. Instead, we were treated to glorious blue skies and light winds, with crunchy cold snow underfoot. So, nothing worth complaining about really.

Happy Christmas everyone!
Heading out for our Xmas day ski trip on a cold, clear morning.

So far this week we've had a couple of long days, where we took the gondola up to Salze d'Oulx and Sansicario, and a rest day (today) where Katy & I had a little ski on Borgata -- with a plan to break everything up with a trip to the swimming pool this afternoon. Of course, it's a little different to our regular skiing week in little old Guthega. Here's a list of the main differences:

1. Our apartment here is not actually on the ski run, so we have to walk about 200m to get to the slopes. At first, this created considerable angst amongst the younger members of our family, but we have become used to it. Our morning ritual is to stagger out fairly early, sometimes even before the lifts open, and take advantage of one of the cafes that are about 2/3rds of the way to ski slope. There, we recover from our walk, listen to some euro-trash pop music, have a cappuccino and a chocolate croissant, and then finally pluck up the courage to jump on the chairlift.

2. The scenery is a little bit more spectacular than we are used to! What's more, strong winds and fog seem to be a little unusual (at least, they are this week) so we can both see and appreciate the surrounding mountains.

3. The chairlift rides (and gondolas, etc) are pretty long. This has some downsides - you can get a bit cold (and if one child is inadvertently left at the bottom they have to wait for quite a while before being rescued; see previous post). Also, it is pretty common to take the opportunity to light a smoke on the chairlift - another thing I had never seen before. But on the plus side, long chairlifts mean pretty long runs - the longest here is about 1000 m in elevation, which is pretty fun. 

4. The long runs and cold weather means we can only get a few runs in before kids get tired... but fortunately there are coffee shops and restaurants dotted about everywhere. These places universally play hits from the '80s, which is just fine for us parents. Even better, they sell good food at normal prices - so whenever we hit our limit we are able to stop and refill.

5. People take their dogs to snow, of course, and often hang around the bottom of the lifts, or even walk part way up, with dogs in tow. Sorry, no pictures of the dogs, but I just had to mention them.

6. There are, surprisingly, a lot of J-bars (known as pomas in our family), and not just on the beginner slopes. Some of the highest and steepest runs have J-bars, including one I took the other days that boasted a 60% gradient. Oh, and they also have some weird little travelling walkways which allow you to get between key points between lifts (see right). Nat was a bit fascinated by these and took a few extra detours just so she could get an extra tunnel ride in.

OK, so that's about all I can think of for now. We still have a couple of days skiing left here before we head off for Grenoble to settle into our flat there which will be home for the next 15 weeks or so.

Sestriere

We had hoped to sleep in a little on our last morning in Venice, but jet-lag kicked in again, perhaps worse than our first morning. Instead, we spent time packing our bags, and getting ready to exit the city, then we had time for a small trip - starting with our local patisserie (noting that I have finally converted Nat to drinking a cappuccino :-) and meandering through some parts of Venice we were yet to see. This tour included the obligatory visit to a European church -- this one looked pretty plain from the outside, pretty spectacular within, and evoked some, err, interesting responses from Ella and Katy...




We picked up our bags with plenty of time to catch the train -- with so much luggage you can't run for the train, and we were pretty thankful that our apartment was so close to the train station. Our train journey sliced across the northern part of Italy, from Venice to Milan to Turin. The journey was pretty uneventful. We were hoping that there would be some good scenery, but everything was shrouded in fog. Then we jumped out, found a smaller regional train and kept going to Oulx. Finally, we grabbed a taxi for the ski town of Sestriere. As we climbed steadily from Turin, the fog lifted and Sestriere was actually warmer than Venice by the time we arrived. By this stage it was pretty dark, and we couldn't really make out the scenery. The girls were exhausted, so we cooked a quick dinner and went to bed, hoping they would sleep in for once ...

... which of course they didn't. So, once again we all found ourselves passing time in the dark waiting for the sun to come out and the shops to open!

The task was made easier by the rising excitement levels as we could see the groomers preparing the ski tracks fro our days activity. It turned out the the apartment we have booked here for the next week is about 100m from the slopes, with a great view over the main ski runs of Sestriere (including Borgata). The resort itself is pretty modest in size, but it's connected by gondola to Pragelato, Salze d'Oulx and Sansicario, which itself is connected to Claviere and (if you're really game) Montgenevre. This collection of resorts is known as Via Lattea (the Milky Way) with 63 lifts, 400 km of groomed trails. What's more, it had snowed in the last week, so even though it was pretty warm when we arrived, there should be enough snow to keep us happy for most of the week.

Our first full day here was Christmas Eve. The whole family was pretty tired after our journey from Venice, so we decided to take it easy - started the day by buying some supplies to get us through Christmas Day, then our ski tickets for the week and finally another cappuccino for Nat. Feeling considerably poorer, we finally strapped our skis on and headed out by mid-morning.

It was sunny, but windy, and the big gondolas were closed for the day, meaning we could only ski on Sestriere itself, but this was more than enough to keep us entertained for a shortened day of skiing. The day started well, when we discovered that our main chairlift had big padded seats -- definitely our most comfortable chairlift ride ever!

But on our second time up, calamity struck! Katy got stuck in the gate and missed the chair. We couldn't jump off, so the three of us left her there, crying in queue. The lifties and other skiers ignored here, so she stood to the side of the queue and bawled her eyes out as our chair drew away. Nat & I were kicking ourselves that we hadn't even spoke about how we would handle this eventuality. But, luckily, Katy decided to just stay still (probably because she was actually paralysed by fear rather than some rational thought process) and 20 minutes later Ella and I skied in to rescue her. Surprisingly she recovered quickly and we all got in a bit more skiing before the end of the day.

So, apart from the calamity, this was a good start, and allowed us to get our bearings, hoping that the gondolas would open again for our Christmas Day skiing!

Exploring Venice

Ahh jet lag. Despite keeping everyone awake until after dinner, we were all restless, mostly awake and struggling to return to sleep in the wee hours of the morning! Andy eventually cracked and headed out for a dark early morning run at 5am. Then after a slow breakfast and much discussion on our day's itinerary, we wandered down towards the Canal Grande before detouring into Pasticceria dal Mas, for a coffee and pastry.

Purchasing a 24 hour tourist ticket for the vaporetto (water bus) seemed like our best option. The journey down the Canal Grande was a wonderful way to see Venice from a different perspective. The vaporetto made numerous stops along this 3.8km main street of Venice. The waterway was busy with private taxis, gondolas and various other boats going about on their daily business.

Our boat glided under, the Ponte di Rialto, the oldest and most famous bridge in Venice. Built in 1588, this stone bridge was once the only crossing point located midway along the Canal Grande. Our destination was Piazza San Marco located at the southern end of the Canal Grande.

This area of San Marco is filled with important and stunning buildings. First to see overlooking the canal was Doge's Palace, an impressive place that once housed the Doge of Venice. Today it is a museum. On the western side of the palace is the Bridge of Sighs. This small enclosed bridge built in 1600's linked the palace to the Prigioni Nuove (prison). As the name suggests, prisoners would sigh as they stole their last glimpse of Venice before being imprisoned or executed. We wandered through the narrow streets crossing little canals every so often, ticking off a few items on our shopping list - mittens and journal for Ella. Eventually we found ourselves back at the Piazza.

We enter Venice's largest square, Piazza San Marco through the archway of the Torre dell'Orologio (St Mark's Clocktower). The Piazza which forms the social, religious and political centre of Venice is impressive and surrounded by wonderful buildings. The ornate and intricate details of the facade of Basilica di San Marco (St Mark's Basilica) dominates one side. The red bricks of the Campanile di San Marco (St Mark's campanile) housing five bells rises 100m into the sky. The Procuratie Vecchio, Nuove and Nuovissime, three elegant buildings connect the north, west and south sides of the square.

Our journey continues with another vaporetto ride. We gladly retreat to the interior of the boat and warm up on the 30min ride out to the glass making island of Murano, located 1.5km to the north of Venice. History tells us that in 1291, the Venetian Great Council forced all glass makers to move to Murano for two reasons - firstly the threat of fire destroying the wooden venetian buildings and secondly to preserve the knowledge and techniques of glass making and thus the monopoly of the market. We were hoping to watch some glass blowing as well as pick up a few treasures ourselves. Disembarking at Murano Faro, we wandered along the canal, stopping it seemed at every glass shop at the request of the girls. Numerous small glass animals and jewellery were purchased. We found a nice spot for lunch but failed at finding any glass blowing demonstrations so back to the vaporetto in search of some Christmas Markets.

The internet is a great source of information most of the time. Unfortunately not in regards to Christmas Markets in Venice. We hopped off the vaporetto on the eastern side of the island and walked through to the Giardini Della Biennale and were once again disappointed to find the space bare of anything christmassy. Luckily we emerged at a vaporetto wharf to embark on our final ride back along the Canal Grande. We disembarked early in search of the ice skating rink at Campo San Polo. We found the ice rink but everyone was too cold and too tired to have a go. Instead we ambled back to the apartment, cooked dinner and were all in bed by 8pm!