Corvara extravaganza…

We all woke up a bit sore and sorry this morning, so despite it being another lovely day, there had been no snow and it was an easy decision to take the day off skiing and explore. My bruises are becoming more colourful by the minute and I’ve got a very swollen left thumb, which I assume is some kind of sprain. Wonderful! We only have 2 days of skiing left after today - our holiday has flown.

Need. More. Snow.

The hotel has a huge fire pit

Over breakfast of yoghurt, fruit, coffee and way too many pastries, we decided we’d hop in the car and go down to the main town of Arabba and explore a bit, and then go over to Corvara for lunch. Driving down the hill, we quickly realised there really wasn’t much to look at in Arabba, so we continued straight on to Corvara. Corvara is one of the ritzier resorts in the Dolomites - smaller, with easier ski runs and more ‘quiet luxury’ than the bling Selva party crowd. Also perplexingly, Corvara is the only place we’ve come across a cluster of camper vans - I can’t think of worse accommodation in subzero temperatures, those people must really love skiing! We are now quite comfortable sedately winding our way around the mountain road switchbacks, ignoring the Fangios (plenty around this morning!) and enjoying the views. Arriving in Corvara we parked the car and I was very happy use the parking meter to rid myself of a pile of 20 Euro cent coins that had been accumulating in my wallet. Of course the man behind me waiting for the meter wasn’t to happy about that. Anyway, Australian maths means paying with coins means it’s basically for free. My wallet lighter and a skip in my step, I happily followed Sean and Cameron to the shops to spend some real money, ie. NOT coins.

Speed camera warning - unheeded by all except Australians conditioned to fear whopping fines

What sort of crazy person stays in a campervan in the snow?!

Corvara definitely has the best ski shops - I could go crazy there, were it not for the fact that I have piles of ski gear due to the Aspen lost luggage incident of the 2015 ski season. So - I remained restrained and bought just one thermal top, Sean got a badly needed new pair of snow boots, and a few bits and pieces fell into Cameron’s bag too. It really is a bummer we can’t take any of the food home - we are loving all the cured meats, cheeses, jams, biscuits and every other food item you can think of. Also we learned today that Jannik Sinner, a finalist in the Australian Open Men’s competition, is actually from this area - one of the ladies in the ski shop said he comes there all the time and is ‘a very nice boy’. So I guess the locals will be glued to the telly tomorrow - we hope he wins!

Looks like trouble

Views around Corvara

After a quick coffee break and then a bit more shopping in some fabulous homeware stores, where unfortunately again we can’t really buy much because we can’t get it home but we did pick up a few little things to take with us. Then it was time for some lunch, we picked the Bistrot Burge 1968, with its lovely terrace in the sun. Since it was 7 degrees today, we were all hot and needed a cold drink - it was clearly Negroni time! Best Negroni ever - sitting in the sun right next to the ski slope, does it get any better? The food was also fabulous - we had an appetiser of their own smoked ham, sardines and focaccia with whipped butter. Then Cameron and I had broccoli risotto (I can’t resist broccoli!), and Sean had tortellini with pumpkin and speck. We had to then follow up with a white chocolate crème brûlée with gelato and a macchiato to ward off the food coma. Talk about hitting the spot!

Coffee break

Still Xmas…

Danger!

Cute gnomes everywhere

Mum they even have ‘dooblies’ here

Negroni time!

Lunch…

You can’t beat this

During lunch I had to go to the bathroom - yet another exceptionally clean bathroom which is a very nice surprise as my prior experience with ski resort bathrooms is that they are pretty gross - and I happened upon the restaurant’s wine cellar on the way. It was pretty amazing, and it is a shame we can’t have a long dinner here as there is no way to get home. Also dinner is clearly a whole other level of experience at this place, so the bill would be pretty frightening!

Fancy entrance to the bathrooms

Wine cellar!

Looks like the restaurant is pretty fancy

After our long lunch, we realised our parking meter was about to expire, so we decided we’d move the car and do a bit more shopping…forgetting that the shops close from 12pm-3pm here for lunch (what?!). It was only 2:15, so we decided not to wait and headed home to chill out (or in Sean’s case, have his afternoon snooze…). Naturally I used my time productively - blogging, catching up on a bit of work and the latest on the tennis.

Eventually dinner time came along and it was time for…more food! We wandered up the less slippery path - due to more snow being melted and some clever spark sprinkling gravel all over the path. Plus Sean had his new boots on, so no slipping this evening. Once again we had a pre-dinner drink - Cameron and I went for lighter Aperol and Prosecco options, but Sean needed another Negroni - clearly one wasn’t enough today. Then we sat down to dinner - seafood salad, seafood tagliolini and sea bass for me, the same for Sean except he had Uruguayan beef for mains. Dessert was a lovely orange seminfreddo with candied orange peel. Of course we were very full afterwards and again rolled down the hill to home, knowing we’d have a good night’s sleep, ready to get back out on the slopes tomorrow!

Yep, still Xmas

Dinner