Cambiaaaa tutto cambia.

This weekend was my first introduction to the Dolomites. Mountains. Snow. Ski. Mountain food. Mountain grog.

The View from our apartment- before snow.

The ski slope in view of our apartment- that I didn't attempt.

The View from our apartment- after snow.

 

Together with Lorenzos cousins Erika and Cristiana, Cristianas husband Giovanni and Giovanni's son Lorenzo we rented apartments in La Villa, a small ski town in the Dolomites, for 4 nights. My ski teacher (Lorenzo) was tough but fair, and at the end of my second day I was skiing and falling with confidence. Perhaps somewhat ambitiously we took the ski lift up to a higher slope where I fell numerous times, bruising my hand and legs and drawing blood under my chin... spectacular fall if I do say so myself.

The professionals!

 

 The owners of the apartments were saying that this year is the worst year they have seen in terms of snow, obviously enough to ski on- because they make it at night, but the snow was very sparse on the surrounding hills. However Monday afternoon the snow came and it was just beautiful! Better late than never right!

 

The Girly Weekend

Remember the girls from my Italian class? Well a couple of weekends ago Amelia (American) and I went to visit Sofia (German) at her house in Dusseldorf!

We arrived late Friday night and stayed up stayed up to the wee hours catching up and drinking bubbles, which consequently meant it was a very relaxed start to Saturday. Sofia treated us to a good hearty German breakfast before taking us into Dusseldorf center to see the sights.

  

 

 
Together we saw the city, drank some gluhwein, took a walk along the Rhein, tried reibekuchen (potato cakes, something like hashbrowns or rosti... but made fresh infront of you and served with apple sauce... strange, but amazing), walked through the Christmas markets, ate currywurst and pommes, went to the top of the Burgplatz tower... to get a coffee... went to the port to see the crazy architecture by Frank Gehry, had more gluhwein, tried alt bier (at this point I'm giving up trying to discuise the fact that all we did was eat and drink) went out for sushi (because Dusseldorf has a huge Japanese population and therefore some amazing Japanese restaurants) followed by a glass of wine... then a movie at home with a big bowl of icecream, chocolate and more bubbles...

 

 

Although different from the party weekend I had imagined with super late nights and a few too many to drink, it was a fantastic girly weekend that I haven't had in ages, thank you girls!!