More on Italy - Livigno & St Moritz, Switzerland

Downtown Milan after arriving from sweltering Bali

Well there was quite a transition going from 90 degree temperature and over 90 percent humidity in Bali where my pores were essential locked in the open position. As I mentioned I think I actually got heat stroke while surfing and was wiped out and exhausted the rest of that day. So after leaving Bali on a Friday night and gaining about 10 hours in time zone changes we ended up 7:00 am Saturday in Milan…temperature 29 F…ouch. I know I’m not getting any sympathy here but I hadn’t put on any pants for about 3 months and then it’s cold & raining in Milan. But the ONE pair of pants I did bring sure did come in handy. We checked into our hotel by the airport and I didn’t expect much of the “Italian feel” that close to an international airport 30 miles outside of Milan but we got it. Walking down the street we found a local bakery with incredible focaccia and pizzas. We got the train into Milan and enjoyed the beautiful Duomo which is the 4th largest church in Europe. Milan, the “commerce” hub of Italy compared to Rome’s claim as the cultural center is a wonderful place and there’s definitely some healthy competition between the two cities. Of course the big adjustment - for we Californians who are from a City that was the first in the U.S. to ban smoking from public places- was the prevalence of smoking. It seems everyone does it and It’s taken some adjustment but we’re getting used to the smoke. The boys haven’t had the benefit of being around in a time when you could go into a bar and come home smelling like a chain smoker so it’s even more of an adjustment for them.
After a couple of days enjoying Milan we got on our first train to Lucca to visit the Croziers. Now up to this point we didn’t know if we’d be renting a car or going by train or…….? So for an American who can speak some Spanish and no Italian I was in a bit of a bind trying to buy train tickets, at the automated machine for a departure in 5 minutes on a train you’re “recommended” to board 10 minutes prior to departure. Well I got some guidance and ended up with the right number of tickets to the right place but all this with the looming thought of being ripped off the whole time. You see in Rick Steve’s guide book on Italy (I highly recommend it) he talks of how in the larger cities you keep an eye on your bags, don’t carry a wallet and use a money belt securely fastened. Then, the sweet lady at our hotel as we left Milan for the train station said to watch your bags closely. So I was ready for battle. Of course, nothing happened and it was a wonderfully smooth trip.
Lucca is an incredible place and we’re so impressed with Alex & Judy’s decision to spend 6 months there, enroll their kids in school and totally immerse in the area. We have the benefit of being tourist for a few weeks in the area, enjoying the sights and then moving on. Just imagine taking your children to a new school, where you don’t know a soul and…..ready for this….don’t speak their language. That’s gutsy. But they had been there a month and were adjusting well. I know it’s easy to be the parent in this case, the tough thing is being a student. Imagine you’re a kid in class, everyone’s chatting away and you can’t understand any of it and then you have to do your school work…Wow, my hat goes off to Dan, Bo and Angie. I know they will learn a ton but it’s got to be so challenging!
So the train and bus system here has been very easy to use and comfortable. As the main driver in most of our road trips it’s a real treat to sit back and relax. No navigating, wondering where to go, stressing about killing someone or being killed, breaking a law, missing a turn, trying to figure out where to return the car etc. Just sit back and enjoy the view, a book or some conversation OR…..go to the dining car! Ya, that’s my kinda trip, letting someone else drive while you relax and enjoy a meal in a restaurant. If they only had ESPN sports center or a movie in the dining car then who would ever get off the train?

Nate in the boardpark going off jump with valley in the background.

Kyle likes to launch his body off things

Now just because the train system is good doesn’t mean we know how to use it. Some trains have assigned seats with power for your laptop and fold down tables and some have seats a slight step above a Greyhound bus. And with no assigned seating we ended up in between cars in the loading area with our luggage stacked and us sitting in a couple fold down chairs and on the floor. We didn’t realize there would be other stops and by us monopolizing this area we were right in the flow of passengers boarding and departing. So…….as a seat would open we would be more aggressive and move into position and stake our claim. For someone like me who loves to talk to people, see where they’re from and find out the best places to go it’s tough to sit in total silence. It sucks being a stupid monolinguistic American.

Mottolini is the name of the mountain

But we made it again and Livigno is a real treat. Maria found this incredible alpine valley online and did an AMAZING job. It’s quaint with old chalets, just two streets running almost the length of the valley, tons of restaurants and two great ski mountains on either side of the valley. It’s a difficult place to get so they RARELY have Americans here and you can be on the chairlift and hear Russian, Italian, German, Dutch, Sweedish, Swiss, Hungarian, Slovokian etc….There are a fair number of Brits here as well. In fact, I tend to lose context of language so when I met the gentlemen renting the unit across from ours and he greeted me I was about to say “non parla Italiano”. I then realized he wasn’t speaking Italian at all so I almost blurted out “no Sprechen” and finally I realized he was speaking English as they speak it in Scotland – I owe Mike Myers a lot for all his good Scottish impersonations which kept me from embarrassing myself in front of this Scottish Lad.
So we have a cool little apartment in a large remodeled chalet that probably has 4-5 apartments in it. It’s right on the road and near the bus stop. We have a store, a butcher and a hotel with great cappuccinos, pastries and internet access. We can walk out our door & go 30 meters to a Poma lift that will take us to another Poma and then to the main Gondola. We bought a 20 day lift pass (all the days we’ll be here and it worked out to about 15 Euro/day to ski….that’s soooo much cheaper than in the US!). The food is very reasonable and even at the Mountain lodges meals are only 5-7 Euro and are very good. Yes we eat mostly incredible Bolognese pasta or pizza and bread and we’re loving it!! The snow has been very good and they take excellent care of the mountain with grooming and snowmaking. It doesn’t look like we’ll get any fresh powder here which is disappointing.
After 4 days of skiing the boys got to try snowboarding. Maria and I really wanted to have the boys get proficient at skiing because we figured once they went to snowboarding they’d never go back to skiing. Well they took right to it and within a couple days they were going down the steepest sections of the mountain and didn’t even seem worried. So Maria and I decided to give it a try. After skiing for 35 years it was time for us to really suck at something and wallow in our suckiness. Well, you get wet when you snowboard cuz you have to sit almost every time you get on or off the lift to buckle into your board. So we lasted one day, turned the boards back in for our skiis and Maria tweeked her neck so bad she had to stay in bed the next day….who says you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.
The boys to continue on their school work. Nate already finished his Algebra course online and started into the Geometry text and Kyle is keeping right up with his work in advanced 7th grade math. The boys are NOT being home schooled , in my opinion, but are self-schooling. When we started on the RV trip it was hard to know what to do as parents/teachers and hard for the kids to know what to do and when to do it with no formal schedule. But we’ve worked it out and we’re very pleased with how the boys take the initiative, do their schoolwork on their own every morning with only an occasional question to tap their parents limited brain capacity. They journal regularly and do pushups 3 days a week for PE – Fridays are “100 pushup Fridays” so they’re getting quite strong.

[b]St Moritz, Switzerland....what a place

Before we left Livigno we made the trek to St. Moritz, Switzerland. Probably only 20 miles away as the crow flies it’s about an hour van ride then another hour or so by train. What a great decision that was. We had asked around in Livigno about St. Moritz as to run and snow quality and most Livignians are very proud and would only say it’s more expensive and the mountain wasn’t any better, nor would the snow be since the altitude’s are the same. Well, it was more expensive but the mountain is really a set of mountains and the terrain was quite diverse and boy, was it more upscale. St Moritz is where skiing was born, where James Bond made some great escapes on skiis and where the rich all over the world love to keep their hoards of cash. The train ride alone was well worth the trip.