17.02.2008

We woke up early on Sunday to go skiing at the nearest resort, Monte Bondone, situated nicely in the Italian alps- The Dolomites. We took a shuttle bus from the station and it was only 1 euro each way, which took about a half hour. Renting skis for my dad proved to be a little difficult because neither of us knew which size shoe he wore (in the European units) or how much he weighed in kilos. We had pretty good weather, it was cold in the mountains but not windy, and it was very sunny. The snowboarding was great and the views were breathtaking. We skied for four hours and had lunch on the mountain. Italians have wine with almost every meal it seems, but not on the ski slopes. The beverage of choice there is definitely beer. The restaurant was ski-in ski-out and very crowded. My dad and I each ordered a bruschetta (flat bread with sauce and toppings, similar to pizza) and mine had gorgonzola cheese and speck (a local type of hard cured meat, a little like bacon or beef jerky). We went back to the hotel when we were done and got ready for dinner. Almost everything is closed on Sundays, but we found a restaurant called the Green Tower that was open. The waiter was really nice and my dad wanted to buy some of their wine to bring back to the US. We were a little confused because the waiter told us something along the lines of “you can’t bring the wine outside,” and brought us one bottle wrapped in aluminum foil, and then he had my dad hide it under his coat.