Remember that in Nov. Israel came to visit and we went searching for places to ski in the Dolomites?! Well, after going skiing in Courchevel in Jan. and loving it Israel declared that he would like to go skiing again this winter, somewhere else. and when Israel decides there is no stopping him (not that I wanted to stop him, just that I'm running out of vacation days...). So we went skiing last week. Where? Val Gardena, of course. One of the loveliest places to be...
Before going there we had to find a place to stay. Since we wanted to go during the most busy time of the year this was not an easy task. I made about 20 phone calls before I found a place that sounded nice and had space for us. I was working and calling at the same time (shame on me...). I was getting confused from all the calls and had to write down whom I'd called already and what they'd said. The main thing was trying to find a place that was near the center of the village and the ski school. Pension Elisabeth in Santa Cristina (see photo on the left), where we finally went, boasted both - 5 min. from the ski school and 3 from the center of the village. Maybe, if you're in an elite unit in the army you can get from the pension to the center in 3 min. Normal people need about 10-15 min. and with ski boots on, probably more time... The place was lovely. Very quiet, at the end of the village, with a nice dining room and excellent local food prepared by the owner (Bruno something, a
lthough Israel insisted on calling him Gunter...). There were two slightly weird things there - one, the tendency of the family running the place, to avoid eye contact and not to smile (we spotted ghosts of smiles here and there) but then maybe they're shy?! and the second - that the owner tried to dissuade us from using the car during our stay to get to the ski slopes. He had elaborate plans for us to walk down to the village center, take our skiing equipment from a special deposit half way down to the chair lifts and then continue the rest of the way down on foot (with the ski boots and the skiis...). This, by the way, seems to be very common in St. Cristina - i.e. people walking down the streets to the chair lifts and cable cars in full skiing gear (very uncomfortable walking since the ski boots are 
heavy and not flexible and the skis are "just" heavy) is a common sight there. After doing this one day and realizing that we can conveniently park the car right next to the ski slopes, Israel was having none of this and announced that we would take the car up to the slopes on the next days, which we did. and what a relief... A friend suggested that maybe the business with not driving the car had to do with the people there being very environmentally conscience and wanting people to use cars as little as possible. Who knows?!
And the skiing? What about that? Well.... looks like I'm improving. I managed to stay on my skis without falling the entire time we were there. But more importantly, I got the hang of this parallel skiing thing (no more snow plow is allowed...) and skied quite well (i.e. for someone who has been skiing for about two weeks altogether...) down blue routes. The red ones are harder, but I managed a few of them. The first one I tried was really scary, and Israel had to be extra supportive for me to manage to get down it without dying of fright. What seems to be frightening is the angle of the piste, especially if you've got a bit of fear of heights - like me. To explain, the routes are divided into three or four types - green, very easy (in Val Gardena there are none of these, they all belong in the next group), blue - easy, red - scary, black - very scary. When you're a beginner you have to go down the harder pistes pretending they are really blue ones - both mentally and in the technique to negotiate down them - you don't look down and you go forward (or downwards really) making these "s" forms along the route which keep you to a certain extent on the same plain (instead of going fast, headlong down the scary piste - which is what more advanced skiers do). To learn and do all this we signed me up for some more skiing lessons. This time with a guy named Hans, a veteran ski instructor from St. Cristina. He is an excellent instructor although very German in his approach, in the sense that we kept going again and again up the slopes for learners doing various exercises to improve our skiing abilities and style. This procedure was very effective but got sort of tedious after the third day. Obviously, like when one studies the piano (which I did, for many years when I was in school), the only way is to practice and practice and practice, but it can get a bit tiring and boring after a while. Also, the lessons in Val Gardena are longer than those in Courchevel which also tires one out more. However, I think, all in all, that the learning experience was a good one, the learners' slopes are not too difficult to negotiate and the views around are fantastic. On the fourth day we were deemed advanced enough to proceed up to the Alpe di Suisi - lovely. We were also lucky with the weather - except for one day when it snowed, the rest of the time the skies were blue and it was lovely to be outside for so many hours (one gets sort of used to being cooped up in an office for all the hours of the day - it's a pleasure to be out instead...).
And what was Israel doing while all this learning was going on?! He was skiing happily down all the pistes he could find and having the time of his life. He announced towards the end of the ski vacation that he thinks all in all that the skiing is better in the Dolomites than in France (a statement much appreciated by my staff who kept asking me how come we keep going to France and don't prefer Italian sites for skiing - like good Europeans, Italians are very proud of their country especially when compared with France...).Even though he was enjoying the pistes near St. Cristina, what Israel really wanted to do during this ski trip is the Sella Ronda circuit. This is a 40 km circular ski route in the Dolomites with magnificent views and lots of scary and difficult ski routes.... The thing was - I was not up to doing this route and we were trying to figure out who he could go with on this route. Luckily, we went to visit some friends of Israel - the Ga'ash family - one evening, and when we asked them, what are you doing tomorrow? they answered - the Sella Ronda... So off Israel went with them the next morning and had even more of the time of his life. Here are some pictures that he took during this day (the picture on the top left is one of the Ga'ash family):
What else did we do? We walked the streets of St. Cristina and ate a lot of apple strudel. Did we enjoy the vacation? Yes!! For Israel - this is easy to say, he loves to be outside, he loves the cold, he loves the skiing and the adrenalin rush that goes with it. For me - it's more a learning experience, since I'm not a big one for cold weather, but surprisingly - with the right company (and clothing...) it turns out to be a lot of fun. Also, I really enjoy doing sporty things and being outside, so the combination is wonderful. Will we go again?! absolutely.... Where? who knows....I'll leave you with a few more pictures from the trip and I wish you a very nice weekend:
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