So Nick and I headed out to make new Christmas memories and our first stop was Bolzano, Italy to an archaeological museum. The exhibit we were intent on seeing was that of the Iceman, Otzi. It was truly fascinating! This man lived an estimated 4,000 years ago and was discovered in 1991 by some hikers. He's now on display in a temperature controlled room along with all of the artifacts that were found with him. It was extremely interesting and I would highly recommend seeing this exhibit if it ever comes to the States.
After our museum tour the time was about 2pm, which is right at the start of riposo, much like a siesta in Latin countries. So all of the cafes and shops were closing for a few hours, or possibly the day since it was Christmas Eve. Nick and I have found ourselves in the predicament more than once since we are so used to everything being open all the time like it is back home. Luckily there was a vendor in the square selling what seemed to be an Italian/Austrian/German-type sausage on the most delicious bread. Worked out perfectly!
Our next stop was to check into our bed & breakfast located in Faver. Nick and I really had no idea where we were going and just punched in the address into the GPS. Thank goodness for those inventions! We traveled on the most beautiful mountain road with these amazing views of the Dolomite's all around us. Our little, old car hung right in there. My wish for this Christmas was to see snow, pine trees and mountains. I received all of that and so much more on that drive.
We reached our B&B at dusk and we were in for another great experience. Our innkeeper Maria was about as sweet and welcoming as you can be. We were greeted with coffee and cookies, a lovely modern European room, a common area with a fireplace and dinner in the restaurant on the ground floor would be just for us. We were the only ones at the inn!
After we settled in we drove over to Trento to check out the Christmas market. It was exactly what you might imagine a market to be at Christmastime, in a small Italian town. The atmosphere was festive with tons of people out shopping and partaking in food from the vendors and a warm wine drink called vin brule. Nick and I tried one and I'm not sure what all the spices were but it made me cough with just about every sip! Sort of embarrassing.
Back to our inn....we had the most amazing dinner of sardines, anchovies, seafood pasta and braised beef in a red wine sauce. It was not the typical corn chowder soup that my mother makes at home every Christmas Eve but it was the perfect way to end our day.
Then onto the presents! Nick and I put up a small tree (sent to us by my mom), had wine by the fireplace and exchanged gifts. Nick gave me a vase and necklace made of Murano glass (beautiful!) plus more. I could not have asked for better memories of mine and Nick's first Christmas together. I wouldn't change a thing.
Christmas morning arrived and our plan was to find a place to ski. Ski resorts in Italy are not exactly laid out in the same way that resorts are in the States. It's tough to describe since I'm still a little confused on how we got to where we went. But it seems that all the slopes are connected via chair lifts and trams and that multiple resorts may have the same name because they are all part of the same mountain. At any rate, Nick picked an option on the GPS and we decided to hope for the best. And it worked out just fine! Well, it was fine until we got off the lift and I looked down the hill. The slope was much steeper than anything I'd ever gone down before. Granted, I've only been skiing 6 or 7 times in my life. And some of those times were in Minnesota, where we don't have any mountains. So this situation really wasn't my dream come true.
For the first 15 minutes of our Christmas Day ski adventure I stood and looked down the hill trying to figure out how I was ever going to get down. Nick was a few feet ahead of me and kept trying to coax me into skiing towards him. I wasn't having it. Nick: come here. Me: no. And this is how it went until I accepted the fact that I didn't have a choice but to go down. I actually made it down by making very wide turns and incorporating the snow-plow technique. It was not cute or pretty but I accomplished the goal. We tried going up different routes to find some hills that would be more my 'speed' but that never really happened. That mountain didn't have anything other than intermediate or expert runs. So I called it a day at about 2pm and felt satisfied with my efforts. I know that the more I challenge myself the better I'll become so hopefully the next ski trip will go better for me.
Aside from the stress of the skiing, the mountains around us were breathtaking. The views can't be adequately captured on our camera but we tried nonetheless. Again, another great memory of our first Christmas together.
The fun part about having a GPS device is that you can ask it to find alternate routes that take you off the interstate (autostrata here) and you discover towns or see amazing scenery that you would otherwise never see. We avoided the autostrata on our way to Bolzano but we were low on gas and took the autostrata on the way home. We drove less than half-way on the autostrata when the GPS asked us to get off and we started taking a road that took us through the mountains. We're still not sure why the GPS thought it would be faster or shorter to go this route but as a result we drove on a narrow, winding and slow-going road that was literally perched on the edge of the mountain. I was sitting on the passenger side, which was the outside of the road. I could look down and down and down for what seemed like forever. There were mountain peaks that were just across the valley from us that appeared to be just as high as we were! I took turns being fascinated and being car sick. I will never forget this drive. Or the fact that after an hour and a half the GPS took us back to the autostrata for some unknown rason. Interesting.
When we got home around 6pm Christmas night, it was only 10am in Mexico, which is where my mom, brother, sister-in-law and my 2 little nephews were spending the holiday. So we were able to skype with them for a few hours. I actually watched my nephews open their Christmas gifts! I'm so thankful for modern technology right now. I was able to be so far from home and yet feel like I was right there with them. It was the perfect end to our perfect Christmas weekend.
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