Livin' La Vida Italia 1 - Telve

When we last left the story, Boo and I were in Stockholm, half of us enjoying the sights at the modern art museum, both being a bit disappointed in the Nobel museum, partaking in the traditional swedish midday meal of thai buffet, and generally enjoying walking the cobblestones in Gamla Stan. By the end of my day and half of doing that though, my feet were killing me and I was actually limping, with my Rivers shoes to blame. Soon though, foot pain would be forgotten...

I left Boo in Stockholm on her last day, so she could gorge herself on McDonalds and Pizza Hut without me saying "that's not Swedish", and hopped on a Ryanair flight to Milan. I had an extremely tight turnaround to get onto a train to Trento, in the Dolomite Mountains in the NE of Italy. Ryanair was late, I missed the connection but got halfway to Brescia, then Pescia, where Marco came to pick up at midnight, and drive me back the 2 hours to his village of Telve, 30km or so north of Trento.

Marco's family's vinyard. Or the one next to it.

My 3 day plan was to possibly snowboard on day 1, maybe a little more somewhere closer on day 2 then see Marcos choir sing in the arvo, and then go to Venice on a day trip on day 3. In case we couldn't ski much on day 2, we thought to squeeze in a quick couple of hours in the arvo on day 1, despite being a bit tired from the travel. After all, I had just invested 1000kr buying literally the only pair of size 11 (eur 46) snowboard boots I could find in Luleå (that were under 2000kr), and used up one third of my paltry 15 kg(!) Ryanair baggage allowance on these boots and my suitcase which alone was almost 4 kg. So they had to be used. We headed 1.5 hours up the mountains to Cermis where in 1998 a US fighter flying low in the valley cut the cable-car cable, killing about 20 people.

There really isn't much snow this year. But I guess no matter where in the world you are you are probably shaking your head at the wierd weather problems this winter/summer. The pic below should be a blanket of white.

I'd like to say I was carving it up on the mountain, but no, that is me sitting down. I just couldn't get the board to turn properly. Something was wrong. I wasn't so tired. It was just totally different to Peter's board which I use in Lulea: the bindings were at the wrong angle, they were the wrong distance apart, the snow was wrong...something just wasn't going right for me that day.

On my way back down to the hire shop to get my bindings adjusted or board changed, we hit a fast, narrow run. And that is where I lost control, tried to avoid someone and went tit over ass and dislocated my left collarbone. Police on a snowscooter took me to the cable-car and we drove to Trento hospital, where in a relatively speedy 2 hours I was out of there with my arm in the compression sling and no hospital strength pain killers (that was a big mistake). Not surprisingly, 9 of 10 patients were all in ski gear and with arm, neck, or leg injuries. Actually, it was hard to see whether the old grandma in the guerney was wearing ski gear or not under the blanket so it could have been 10 for 10...

The next day, with the choir cancelled and the whole day now open for a relaxed day boarding in perfect weather, instead we took a gentle drive through the mountains. We went to a local Ristorante Laghetto Musiera for a sampling of the famous el carboniero - a flaming concotion of wine, spirits, coffee and spices. If the swedish version of mulled wine glögg is a staid Volvo, the el carboniero would be a Flaming Lamborghini. It would have been just perfect after a hard day in the slopes but alas all it did was inflame my inflammation.

Marco and pappa Giussepe!

THe evil (sinister in italian) left hand makes an appearance

Marco and pappa Giussepe! Italics and exclamation mark again because it is a famous frozen pizza brand in Aus.

In the villages, wood fired stoves are still the go, especially for pizza making, alongside the conventional one. Which I never saw used.

The Giovinazzo summer house

And yes, if you're remarking at all the text I have typed (or groaning at the amount there is to read, in which case you are probably just skimming this), 2 weeks after the accident my arm is now out of the sling and I have reasonably good motion in the joint, and typing is back to the two-handed two-fingered variety.