The Italian Job

We are bracing ourselves for a very long haul of planes, trains and automobiles today - literally all of these are involved in our trip home this time. Our bags were pretty much all packed, so we headed into the laneways for a last Italian breakfast. Then it was back to the hotel and one last game of ‘car Tetris’ with our Alfa, before we set off for Bologna Airport.

I am going to miss this!

One last ride on the Autostrade and one last cheery “arrivederci” from the tolling machine and we were soon pulling in to Bologna Airport, dropping off the rental car and figuring out how to get 2 suitcases, 2 ski bags and 3 carry-on bags to the terminal several hundred metres away without a luggage trolley. We managed, with some effort - hopefully that burned off the pastry from this morning! Once we were checked in for our flight to London and through security, we decided we needed another coffee. This did not go well for me as my cup leaked and I had a lovely big blob of coffee on my white t-shirt (my rule is to wear black for travelling, but had run out of black t-shirts…uh!). A quick trip to the bathroom and I got most of it out, then I was just left desperately trying to dry my t-shirt under the hand dryer in the bathroom to avoid it being completely see-through. Reminder: pack an extra black t-shirt next time!

Joy.

Goodbye Alps

AT and Louise were on the same flight as us, so when we landed in London, we said our goodbyes - but not for long, as they will be in Sydney in less than a week! We watched them enviously as they headed off home, knowing we had another 24 hours in the plane ahead of us. Our bags arrived pretty quickly and then we were lugging our bags down to the Heathrow Express to change terminals. Once we arrived at check in, we were an hour too early, so realising it was 3pm and we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, we dragged our bags to a restaurant and tucked in to lunch - it was the first salad I’d had in weeks and it hit the spot. We were very happy to finally check in and send our bags on their way, so with a much lighter load, we did a bit more duty free shopping before settling into the lounge to wait for our flight.

Helpfully the upgrade Gods had smiled on us again, so once on board, Sean and I settled in for a comfortable flight, and Cameron settled in for a slightly less comfortable flight (but she has an exit row seat so not too bad!). I was perusing the movies, when the flight attendant arrived with a glass of Champagne and a birthday card and wished me happy birthday - my birthday festival isn’t over after all, hooray!

Still my birthday!

We met up with Cameron after landing in Singapore and she informed us she had been mistaken for a 12 year old by the older couple sitting next to her - I think that is the record for this trip, lol! We dashed up to the lounge for a quick shower and a bite, before boarding for the Sydney leg. A sleep and a movie or two later, we were wheels down, whipping through immigration, grabbing the bags and jumping in the car to go home. It was mercifully not too hot and a bit overcast. The airport surrounds gave way to the familiar green of Centennial Park and Queens Park, and soon after we were home, reunited with hugs for Maddy and Fergus doing full zoomies as we arrived. Our holiday is over for another year, so I’m signing off…

…Arrivederci!!

We were off and racing this morning, to get in a quick breakfast (but not too much because…lunch!), see the Ferrari Museum and be at lunch by 12:30. So we breakfasted Italian-style with a macchiato and a pastry - I’m going to have serious pastry withdrawal when I get home, you just can’t beat a fresh pain au chocolate where the chocolate is still slightly gooey. But there was no time for slow savouring this morning!

Breakfast

I would be delighted for you to use my expensive scarf to clean your glasses

The Enzo Ferrari Museum was so close we decided we’d walk - and we also had to get some steps in before lunch! We bought our tickets, and then the curtain was pulled back revealing a ‘gallery’ of mostly red fabulous Ferraris from every era - picking our jaws up off the floor, we took our time admiring the beautiful speed machines with their slick paint, huge engines and bullet shaped bodies. Sean was in heaven, Cameron was semi shopping and I just want them all!

The museum exterior

My favourite

Sean in heaven

Cameron would like this one for her next birthday please

I’d also settle for this used car (Michael Schumacher previous driver)

More more more

Now, THIS is a proper ride

After getting our fill of fast cars, our walk home was mighty slow. Today just happened to be the day of celebration for the patron saint of Modena, Saint Geminiano. A huge street festival was underway throughout the piazzas and skinny streets of Modena, full of market stalls selling the usual stuff such as sweets, fairy floss, foil balloons, cheese, small goods, pottery, clothing, and also a lot of unexpected things: socks, undies, cleaning materials, old vacuum cleaner parts, pots and pans, kitchen gadgets, electronics…weird but practical I guess! Every single citizen of Modena was out in the street, with prams, kids and dogs jammed into the narrow streets, it was like walking through a crowd crush at a Boxing Day sale. Naturally we had to stop and check out the stalls too…

Crazy street festival in Modena

Balloons!

Eclectic stalls

False advertising - there were absolutely definitely no pies at this stall

More stalls

We got back to the hotel with a sigh of relief, dropped off our souvenirs from Ferrari and prepared to go to lunch. It’s also my birthday in Australia and so I had some time to read all the birthday messages filtering through - so lovely. Also I happily noticed we’d already done over 11,000 steps before midday, so hopefully that has helped make room for lunch…

Random shots from our walk home through Modena

Today’s lunch at Osteria Francescana has been much anticipated, one of the world’s top 3 restaurants with 3 Michelin stars - booked six months in advance - and is the reason we made the ‘detour’ to Modena. We met AT & Louise at the restaurant - it has a very modest exterior, you would miss it if you weren’t looking for the little plaque next to the door and no windows to the street. The interior is also surprisingly minimalist - I’ve gotten used to the very maximalist design and decor that is the norm in Italy - leaving no distractions from the food. While we considered the menu, we started with a Champagne aperitif while munching on some (very) long skinny grissini. Cameron’s view on degustation menus is “you get what you get, and you don’t get upset” - I don’t think there is any need for this to apply in this situation! There was no debate about ordering the degustation option with 13 courses in all, and after a little bit of debate we decided to go with the matched wines.

The waiters asked if anyone had any allergies and so Cameron piped up to alert them to her allergy to…balsamic vinegar. Their eyes widened, because ironically, Modena is the global home of…yep…balsamic vinegar. If there’s one place you don’t want to be allergic to balsamic, it is here.

Us with Louise - empty tummies ready!

Then our degustation began - the menu was cryptically entitled “We Are Here” and was a tribute to Bob Dylan.

Introductory notes

Menu

Course 1: Mare Nostrum, Sotto la vigna, Carbonara - looked like a plate of sweet biscuits, but in fact were (left to right) Mediterranean flavours, venison tartare and carbonara flavours.

Course 2: Vignola

Course 3: ‘A potato who wants to be a truffle’

Course 4: Southern Camouflage - flavours of the south of Italy (basil, Parmesan, olives), surprisingly served with a very sweet dessert-style wine but an excellent combination

Course 5: “A fish like a pumpkin tortello”

Course 6: “Lentils are better than caviar” - caviar flavours, but made with lentils made to look like caviar (it was pretty convincing!)

Course 7: Tortellini or Dumplings? - hard to decide? Asian style pasta with Italian and Asian flavours

Course 8: Millefoglie Di Foglie - I think this means essentially ‘a pile of leaves’

Course 9: ‘Pigeon hunting’ - pigeon breast, with the “leg” made from quinoa

Course 10: This little piggy went to market - you might need to zoom in to see the pig shape, but this was in fact pork belly, with blood pudding and bitter chocolate sauce.

Course 11: Consistencies of milk and herbs - also check out the plate, looks like it was custom made for this dish!

Course 12: “Gold Bread”

This was actually a dessert made with custard, white chocolate and bread - it was absolutely delicious

Course 13: Zuppa Inglese, Better than popcorn and croccantino, “A bite of the South”

All of the matched wines were excellent including a few surprising choices, like the sweet wine early in the meal and a lovely white vermouth served on ice, and the service was unbelievable. The crockery and stemware were also a feast for the eyes - I absolutely love crockery (I need help) and this was a whole other level.

And then…a surprise birthday cake arrived - I couldn’t believe it! Obviously we needed some more Champagne to go with it… Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined a birthday lunch like this!

Crazy!

3 layers of chocolate, with gold leaf on the top, plus a re-created cherry out of chocolate with a runny cherry flavoured centre, cherry gelato - wow! And what a plate!

Finally we were at the end of the meal - what a blast! On leaving we ladies were given a little bottle of balsamic vinegar - obviously I’ll be getting Cameron’s too. As a birthday present AT and Louise gifted me two beautiful recipe books. No pressure Sean… Seriously, I will never forget this birthday. Ever.

We wandered out of the restaurant, AT peeled off to sleep off his food coma - which is what the rest of us should have done…but didn’t. Instead, we realised it was now apertivo hour, so we headed back to Bar Mana to be Italian one last time…! A couple of Aperols later plus some bar snacks, we had come to the end. Also the looming job of packing had to be done this evening for a somewhat early start tomorrow, so we said our goodbyes and made our way back to the hotel, via AT & Louise’s.

“One for the road”…

As we were was packing, I reflected on what an amazing day (and birthday) it had been, still pinching myself to make sure it wasn’t a dream!

It’s always hard to leave the ski fields - it’s hard to believe our skis are all packed away for another year…well, except when we have to lug them to the car… After our last breakfast at the Hotel Alpenrose, we played car Tetris again, I paid the bill and we were sent on our way a small bottle of home-made grappa from the hotel (perhaps to soothe the credit card bill when you get home?). We set off for Modena about 10am, it was a lovely sunny day and the roads were nice and clear due to the warm weather we’ve been having. We had to make a quick stop in Corvara for some last minute shopping at what must be the best ski shop in the world, Sport Kostner (because obviously we need more ski gear…NOT), and then we were back on the road. We wound our way down the mountains through the hairy switchbacks slowly - unlike the Fangios flying around the corners. Before long we were collecting our ticket to enter the Autostrada and zooming through the valleys, passing villages and castles tucked into the hillsides, vineyards and lots and lots of trucks. It got onto lunchtime and we started to get a bit peckish, so we nibbled on our leftover cheese, crackers and olives - how very civilised.

Goodbye to the mountains!

A couple of hours later it was time to switch drivers, however it took us quite a while to find a service station to pull into. When we did stop we filled the car up - petrol is generally very expensive here - EUR2.20 per litre, almost twice what it costs in Sydney. We topped up the tank and as I went to the cashier to pay, I couldn’t help but notice that the servo sold booze, in fact you can buy a flagon (literally a flagon) of Prosecco for EUR11.00 - yikes - that just added to my Autostrade anxiety! Back in the car it was my turn to drive, although we did not have far to go to Modena so I got off easily. I even managed to go close enough to the tollbooth to not have to climb out the window to pay the toll. I should mention that the toll machine talks to you, so after you’ve paid your (expensive!) toll, a nice Italian lady’s voice cheerily wishes you “Arrividerci!”. Hmmm. And ‘arrividerci’ to you too after I just forked out $40.00 in tolls…!

We arrived at our accommodation in Modena just before 3pm, located just at the edge of the “old town” of Modena. Modena is a small place, but the medieval village of pastel coloured stucco buildings with contrasting shutters, piazzas and streets cobbled with river stones is really beautiful. After unpacking the car, having a bit of a rest after the drive and freshening up, we decided we’d go for a bit of a walk before meeting our friends AT and Louise Thomson for dinner at 7:30pm. The sun was setting and as we walked through the skinny cobbled streets towards the Piazza Grande, the streets were lit up with masses of fairy lights like a sparkly cobweb dotted with hearts and snowflake decorations, so lovely and it was very quiet. It was getting on to apertivo hour, so we made like the Italians, found a bar and ordered up some Venezia spritzes (for a change from Aperol) and a negroni for Sean, plus a second around of local sparkling Lambrusco. One of the great things about Apertivo hour is that along with your drink you are given bar snacks - in this case small bites of pizza and french fries with dipping mayo, which they just keep bringing to you. This was a bit dangerous as we were all pretty hungry since we’d had nothing bit a few bits of cheese and bikkies since breakfast (although it’s not like there has been a lack of food this holiday!), so it was very tempting to eat lots of bar snacks, but we managed to restrain ourselves to leave room for dinner!

So many fairy lights

Apertivo time!

Our hotel in Modena

We met AT and Louise at the Antica Trattoria Cervetta, a lovely little place in a tiny cobbled street - we were glad we kept a lid on the bar snacks, because the food was delicious, and also we have a very big lunch planned for tomorrow, so stomach space has to be prioritised very carefully! We caught up on all the respective goings on over burrata and shaved cured ham, and anchovies, followed by pumpkin ravioli for Cameron and I, and thick spaghetti with tomato sauce for Sean. We washed it all down with a lovely Barolo, and then we were all ready to crash after a big day of driving. We also will have an early start as we plan to get in a visit the Ferrari museum before lunch tomorrow!

Dinner!

PS I took a whiff of the grappa at home this evening - smells like trouble (or fire water, take your pick…)

Our last day of skiing is upon us too soon! There are only 3 days left of our Italian adventure, how quickly it has flown. We were all feeling the effects of yesterday’s Sellaronda effort as we creaked and groaned out of bed fairly late, making it up to breakfast at 8:30 barely in time to eat before it stops at 9am. Over breakfast we agreed we’d have a very easy day - over to Corvara for a few runs, lunch and then a run home to start packing in preparation for our drive to Modena tomorrow.

Out we went into the bright sunshine - it was pretty warm again, as we were about to discover. A couple of nice runs and we were over onto the well-groomed cruisy slopes of Corvara. The slopes were fairly busy which meant a lot of speed control, which is actually quite tiring - not to mention we were paranoid about last-day accidents (sorry Amanda) - I’d had one near miss this morning and Cameron had a guy take her out too, luckily she was fine. The warmer weather was clearly bringing out not just the humans but also some wildlife - as we rode up the Col Alt gondola, we saw two small brown deer grazing in the sun on the grass below us, and as we rode up one of the chairlifts, a squirrel shot across the snow underneath us and into the trees. After a couple more runs, our legs needed a breather so we pulled in to a rifugio for a quick coffee stop. The seats were covered in cowhide and we discovered the seats were made for giants - so high that both Cameron and Sean were swinging their feet without touching the ground. My seat was much lower than theirs, so while my feet were on the ground, I looked about a foot shorter than both of them.

It’s for the ‘gram…

None of us were giants

We did a few more runs, and noticed that the temperature gauge on one of the lifts showed the temperature at…15 degrees. What?! No wonder we were boiling!

Hard to beat this weather

This is what we should have been wearing…

Lunch was a no-brainer: Las Vegas, of course! It was already pumping when we rolled in but we managed to get a table out on the deck - I know this sounds crazy on such a warm day, but it was completely irresistible. We settled in a de-layered, Sean hanging the jackets and helmets on a dead tree next to our table. It was beautiful in the sun - Cameron was down to her long sleeve t-shirt and the sun so bright she had to keep her helmet and googles on. We ordered up…you guessed it…Aperols! Except Sean hadn’t learned his lesson from yesterday and ordered a Bombardino. I tested it, yep still as strong as yesterday’s - but quite a lot smaller. Lunch arrived - Cameron and I sharing venison tagliatelle (thank goodness because the servings were HUGE here) and Sean with a traditional…hamburger.

Viva Las Vegas!

Soaking up the sun

Still Xmas…

Inventive jacket and helmet storage

Too bright!

Much better!

Aperol is the go

Danger!

Lunch!

Is that jacket channeling Elvis?

Also since we missed out on Kaiserschmarrn yesterday, we ordered a plate to share after lunch - not quite as good as Jimmi’s Hutte but still pretty good. Also Las Vegas offered us some helpful stretching tips on our placemats, so we gave them a cursory glance and felt like we’d mentally stretched. Gold star for us!

Kaiserschmarrn!

Reading it plus Aperol has the same effect as actually doing it…

More for the gram

Las Vegas even has a doggie hut

Where are my skis?

Then it was time to head home - it was gettting towards 2pm and we didn’t want to be home too late. Off we went carefully picking our way down the slopes which were getting busier as everyone else was getting the same idea. The closer we got to Arabba, the more cut up and icy the slopes became, the bigger the moguls and the heavier the snow. Skiing it is no problem, just laborious, however because they are marked as easy slopes, there are a lot of beginner skiers slowly struggling on them and stopping at random points. This means a slow pick-your-way down with a lot of sudden stops, very hard on the legs. We were all pretty happy when we reached the final traverse home - albeit that too is a very skinny icy luge-track of a path, culminating in a slide down what feels like solid icy glass to reach the apartment just after 2pm. Yikes! Happily we all made it in one piece.

This is all fantastic until you have to ski home!

An afternoon nap, some preliminary packing and general resting, it was time to wander up to dinner - our last one here at the Hotel Alpenrose and I’ll be eating a lot less after this! A negroni aperitif was followed by quiche Lorraine, tomato pasta, Argentinian beef for Cameron and I, chicken for Sean and dessert of crostini with a nougat-style cream. Yet again we were too full as we rolled down the hill to the apartment.

Leave me alone, I’m comfortable!

Dinner…

Then the packing began in earnest, I was wondering how we got all this stuff in the bags in the first place, it’s like a Tetris game with the added dimension of weight. And it’s not like we have done a lot of shopping! We managed to get most of the packing done, and then once ‘suitcase Tetris’ is done, we get to play ‘car Tetris’ tomorrow. For now though, it’s time to crash!

With only two days of skiing left, we decided that today was the day we’d do the Sellaronda ‘Green’, the anticlockwise direction of the Sellaronda. We were well rested after having a day off, and so most of us (me, Sean) were raring to go. Cameron was a little more sanguine due to her ongoing sore ankle blister and general fatigue. Nevertheless, we breakfasted early and were out on the slopes just after 9am.

It was so clear I could still see the moon at 7:45am

Another fabulous day

It was another fabulous day, sadly no snow so while the piste has a healthy base and is well prepared, off piste is looking decidedly brown. At least it was a bit cooler, so we weren’t cooking for once. Sean also has his GoPro out for the first time. The Sellaronda Green is a lot easier than the Orange direction - we had arrived in Corvara by 9:30am and on we went through Colfosco and Passo Gardena, arriving at the halfway mark, the familiar slopes of Selva, just on 11am. The skiing was lovely in the sun and the piste was yet to cut up so we revelled in carving down the wide smooth runs. It was fairly busy but not so bad that we felt we were weaving through a crowd, however there were a few lift queue crushes we had to make our way through (is it so hard to be organised?!). We didn’t stop for morning tea, but we picked up some necessary helmet stickers from the little shop at the bottom of the Ciampioni lift - staffed by a very sour-looking lady and gentleman, the only two grumpy people we have seen all trip. Booooo!

More fancy lifts

The “GoPro bow”

We kept on powering through to Plan de Gralba, on to Passo Sella and Plan Frataces, towards Canazei. It was getting on to midday and we only had two lifts to go to get back to Arabba - the Sellaronda is meant to take 6 hours, and we were almost home in less than 3 hours! All that skiing had made us hungry and since we had time, we decided to stop for lunch. We decided on the Rifugio Kristiania - a lot less fancy than most of the places we have been, but still delicious. Cameron had a wienerschnitzel, Sean had lasagne and I had a Bauern toasted sandwich ie. ham and cheese toastie on the local Schuttelbrot, which is the South Tyrolean crunchy flat bread spiced with fennel baked in a large disc shape - kind of like flat sourdough. Cameron and I had to order Aperol spritzes, of course! As the waitress went to put the drinks down in front of us, she tipped the entirety of one of the Aperols all over Sean, showering his thermal shirt and ski pants. Eeeek! There was a rush of apologies, towels and sponges and everything was cleaned up at speed - and a new Aperol promptly arrived. Lucky for Sean he dried quickly and wasn’t sticky. Cameron did a quick FaceTime with Jacob, who got the full rundown on our dramatic lunch, and then our Sellaronda mission was back on track. Also importantly, we could see that the men’s Australian Open final was underway between Medvedev and Sinner (the local guy) and it was two sets all - but we couldn’t wait for another set before setting off again.

Rifugio Kristiania

Oh god not more photos!

Bauern toastie - I recommend it!

Leaving the (absolutely pumping!) rifugio we headed back out on the piste and up the last lift for a long cruise descending around the mountain and down through the forest at Passo Pordoi, all the way to Arabba. We had thought we could ski straight home, however the path from the run we were on to our apartment block was fenced off, and so we had to continue down to the bottom. We took the Burz lift up and then cruised down the wide steep black of the Burz run and then negotiated the very icy slide down to home. By the time we had walked through our doggie door, locked our skis and boots in the ski room and let ourselves into our apartment with our “Harry Potter” room key, it was only just past 2pm. Barely 5 hours including a lunch break - a very speedy Sellaronda tour indeed! Also we saw Sinner had won the Australian Open - maybe there will be some celebrations this evening.

The ‘Harry Potter’ key

We cleaned up and chilled out, and then decided we’d head out for ‘afternoon tea’, which turned into apres ski (what were we thinking). We went to Miky’s Grill which was nice and cosy, with only one other table occupied with four Englishmen in their mid 70’s playing some slightly morose music on their iPhone. We decided we needed to spice things up, so we all ordered Bombardino drinks - a hot egg nog style drink that my friend Vicki from Uni recommended: “You MUST try it, it’s very traditional”, she said. The drinks arrived in a small glass mug, looking like hot yellow custard topped with Dairy Whip. We took one sip - Cameron’s eyes went wide, Sean went “ooooh!”, and my head almost blew off! Wow it was strong. I looked up the ingredients: Half egg nog and half brandy, the name means “bomb” - holy crap! I probably should have done that BEFORE I ordered. Good thing we don’t have to ski home after this little effort. I promptly texted Vicki to let her know that thanks to her helpful recommendation I couldn’t feel my face, which she thought was hilarious. Having said that it did not hit us anywhere near as hard as the deadly Limoncello spritzes, plus Cameron and I had to have an apple strudel to help soak up the booze - I guess that counts as afternoon tea…

Out and about in Arabba

Don’t try this at home…

Back at the apartment, we again chilled out - Cameron doing social media catch ups, me blogging and Sean having his afternoon siesta - still with his new snow boots on, I guess they must be very comfortable or he is very tired…or both. I have not had much opportunity to take photos on-piste because it is hard to find a place to stop for long enough. This is a shame because there is some pretty wild on-piste fashion happening here - there are plenty of crazy grannies in wacky outfits, giant mullets, kids with yeti-heads, lots of metallic, stylistas in monochrome, Tommy Hilfiger eshays, USA astronaut-like suits, high-fashion brand parkas (think Gucci, Chanel, Chloe), “Eastern Europeans” in head-to-to Bogner…and the list goes on. Although our outfits are bright, they are pretty boring compared to some of the crazy getups I have seen. The winning outfit for this trip has to be the guy standing at the counter at lunch confidently in head-to-toe gold metallic. He literally looked like a shiny gold Michelin Man - you wouldn’t miss that coming down the slope!

Wear it with confidence babe

My left thigh is winning the bruise competition…

Dinner tonight was another four course effort - fondue with baked ricotta, cannelloni, cod for Cameron and I, veal for Sean and finished off with a dessert of crepes with caramel sauce and berries. Good thing we kept a lid on it at lunch. We decided on Negronis with dinner, much to the bemusement of the restaurant staff who I suspect think it is strictly a pre-dinner drink. We trundled down the hill, trying not to slip on the ice - despite a clever person sprinkling gravel on it, it’s still scary - and collapsed exhausted. Only one more day of skiing left, oh no!

Dinner