Ski Week at Crans-Montana

Mediterranean climate?! Yeah, right! We are returning from Ski Week with the school in the Valais region of Switzerland, and going through one of the worst storms I’ve seen. In a bus. With 45 tenth-graders. Hauling a trailer. When we moved here, all the returning teachers said that it is rare to see much snow in the Ticino region, where we live. Last year they got a few dustings, like the pictures I put on the blog December. They keep talking about how they got a huge storm two years ago, but that was not the norm. Well, apparently, there’s a two-year cycle or something, because as I’m writing this in the bus with David’s laptop to keep my mind off the fact that we keep passing cars who are pulled over into snow banks trying to put chains on their tires, not to mention the two snow plows we also recently passed before going through the Gottard Tunnel, the snow outside is frightening.

Here's a shot from our front seat in the bus!

Ski Week, however, was fantastic. Every year, the whole school picks up and goes to Crans-Montana for a week of snow sports. Crans-Montana is actually two different towns that make up a major ski area, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. We stayed in Montana, a short walk away from a gondola that took us up the mountain to our daily lessons from 10-12. David of course was in an intermediate skiing group, and mostly stayed to himself and explored the various trails with some of the teachers who have been to the area before. He even got to ski on a glacier! I did not make it up there, of course.

Montana on a very clear Friday, as we walked to Crans.

I decided to take snowboarding lessons. It is definitely hard to teach old dogs new tricks. All the students in my group picked everything up quickly while I was still working on sliding down the hill on my back edge. But that’s okay – David and I actually got to ski/snowboard together down some intermediate trails, and had a lot of fun together. I definitely feel like I improved throughout the week, and I hope to go again soon so I don’t lose what I learned. Wednesday was our best day together - we got a break from lessons, so the two of us went out in the afternoon after a morning of snow flurries, so the conditions were perfect. We took lots of pictures of each other.

Where I spent most of my first few days of lessons - the far, far left on the bunny hill, and you can also see the larger slope I managed the last few days (David's version of a bunny slope).

Can you believe this is me?

Can you believe we skied here?

The intermediate trail where David and I skied together.

The trecherous pathway between the gondola and the town of Montana.

The main gondolas we used.

Besides hitting the slopes, we also got to go snow tubing, eat fondue and crepes, drink lots of hot chocolate, and go to a thermal bath. Oh yeah, by the way, this was a work week. We did have several different duties to take care of, but the rest of the week definitely made it worth it! The dogs even got to come along, but they mostly hung out in the hotel room. Crans-Montana is a very beautiful area – very typical of what you would picture as a Swiss mountain town. Monday was a great day to notice the huge change in elevation from the town to the tops of the mountains – it was raining in the town and at the mid-station on the gondola we used most often, but at the top, it was snowing. We took a second gondola up to eat a fondue lunch with the eleventh graders – the restaurant was at an elevation of 2600 meters (that's 8530 feet!) – we saw a paraglider take off from there. And what fantastic views from these peaks! It was definitely a new experience. I think we might be spoiled now for skiing and snowboarding in a place that isn’t the Alps!

The restaurant where we had fondue at 2600m.

Some views from the area around the restaurant.

See the dark one in the background? It's the Matterhorn!

A shot from David's trip to the glacier at 3000 meters (9842 feet!). The smooth part through the middle of the shot is the glacier, and David had a great time skiing down into the center of it.

As I finish this post, we're now safely back in Montagnola, and glad to be back. The dogs definitely missed it, though it's raining on top of a few inches of snow we got here this morning. We all gave the bus driver a round of applause when we stopped in front of the school!

Tre, due, uno, Buon Anno!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

We spent December 30th - January 2nd in Lucca, Italy, which is close to the western coast in Tuscany, near Pisa and Cinque Terre. It is the most amazing little city! It was founded by the Romans in 180! The medieval walls are still surrounding the whole old-city area, and a park was made out of the walls, so you can walk along the top of them. There were so many churches to explore, and old defense towers, we just had a great time touring around the city. And it was smalll enough that you could just walk everywhere. The walls are about a 2.5 mile walk, so that gives you an idea of the size of the city. Our first night there was a little crazy, since I didn't look up directions to our hotel - turns out if we would have just entered the city through the gate and gone straight instead of turning down every little side alley, we would have passed it eventually. But of course, walking around the city in the dark with two dogs, a backpack, and a rolling suitcase which is really not very quiet over cobblestones, is much more fun. It didn't help that no one in the city knew where Corte Portici was. By the way, we learned that "corte" means something along the line of dead-end courtyard. Oh, well! We finally found it, and a great restaurant nearby, too. They had a special, hand-written menu for the 30th, and we asked for their specialities. I had a great ravioli for Primi Piatti (first course) and a giant pork steak for Secondi. David had tortellini in broth and several meats for his Secondi. He loved the salsa verde with the chicken and beef, and then there was something else on the plate that he also liked... later in the trip we found out it was tongue. Sometimes I think it's better to be oblivious to these things... Anyway, the next day we got up and did some exploring. One thing we really wanted to do was go up in the Guinigi Tower. The Guinigis were a ruling family of Lucca at one point, and built a tower onto their house, which has a garden on top. We actually took the dogs all the way up those stairs - I have no idea how many, but it was worth it for the views on top! You could see snow-covered mountains in the distance.

Almost at the top, just one more set of staircases....

Great views!

On our way back down those stairs...

The tower from a few blocks away.

I already mentioned that there were so many churches - for such a small city, you wouldn't believe it! It seemed like every little block had it's own church.

San Michele in Foro, built on the site of the city's old Roman Forum.

The city's cathedral, San Martino.

Another interesting thing about Lucca, especially for David, is that Puccini was born there. We walked right by the house where he was born on our first-night ramblings, but then we went back to get this photo. You could buy Puccini opera calendars, postcards, everything... all over the city.

That night, for New Year's Eve, we went out to an Osteria to celebrate with friends, the ones who invited us to Lucca in the first place! Thanks, M & N! We had a great time, even though the fixed-price menu was a little steep! Several courses of fish, seafood, raw oysters, prosecco and lentils were worth it! The most unique part was doing the countdown with everyone in the restaurant in Italian! It was great!

David and I right before the New Year.

The more lentils (in the background) you eat, the more luck you will have in the new year. They brought them out with the prosecco (sparkling wine) just before midnight.

The next day we took a 20-minute train ride with the dogs to Pisa. We didn't spend too much time there, just enough to see the tower, of course! On our way to the train station in Lucca, we walked on the outside of the city wall - what a great view of the city and the cathedral!

In Pisa, the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) has a cathedral, baptistry, and cemetery along with the tower. There were sooo many tourists there.

Here you can see the Torre di Pisa leaning (ha, ha) out from behind the cathedral.

Yep, it's leaning!

Hey, I'll hold it up!

Too bad we can't get the dogs to take pictures for us...

On our last day, I was determined to get a few last items like chesnut flour and buccellato, Lucca's traditional cake (which looks more like bread), and walk along the ramparts. We hadn't actually walked the wall for more than about a block, and I really wanted to see the city from the top! So we walked halfway around the city, completely out of our way "on the way" to the train station, with David nervous that we'd miss the train.

Me with the dogs on the walk, looking into the city.

Rounding the last corner on the way around... There better not be just one exit to the city on this side!

Finally! Outside the city walls.

We made it just in time, running onto the train! We definitely needed a rest after that.

We're off next to Ski Week with the school, starting Sunday. Look for some snowy shots after that! David can't wait!