1/ Farewell to our "height challenged Zini Apartment!"Isn't it always the way? The last day of a visit is often the best?
The morning was spent saying farewell to the Zini Family and our comfy but "height challenged" apartment. Loading the car with our gear, we set out on foot to explore the streets of Livigno in depth. Our room at the B&B -"Chalet Moon" will not be ready until mid morning.
My husband is a very lucky man. Not only do I share his passion for skiing, but I suspect that I'm the only woman in the world not enthralled by "retail therapy". Mind you, if I was going to change my "spots", Livigno might just be the place that could tempt me. The shopping is mind blowing. A tax-free haven, the shops are bristling with all the best brands. Clothing, shoes, jewellery, stylish homewares and of course ski, bike and outdoor equipment from all corners of the globe. All at very reasonable tax free prices.
But we were on a mission. Not only were my gloves worn out, somehow I managed to lose them the day before yesterday. I have memories of putting them down in the carpark before our ski tour. I can't honestly remember picking them up again!! Fortunately, the weather has been positively balmy and I have been surviving on some spare fleece gloves, but given it will be winter again in NZ, I really do need a new pair. The feature list was very specific. My gloves needed - 1/A Goretex outer and removable inners. 2/ They have to be long and reach over my wrist with an adjustable wrist strap. Should be easy enough to find?
After searching the length and breadth of Livigno ski shops, we learned that finding the perfect combination of all these features, was severely limited. I was seriously losing interest after our 3rd ski shop. Luckily for me, Graeme comes from a long line of professional shoppers and took over the task. Somehow along the way, I was distracted by the most beautiful pair of patent leather black boots you ever did see. A pair of utilitarian gloves no longer held any appeal once I had tried on the "Cinderella boots"- their soft shiny leather was all I could think about. But alas, the budget could only stretch to one choice...the gloves or the boots....sigh!! What to do?
By late morning we had made our purchase and returned to meet Roberta at Chalet Moon. As expected (given Genni's glowing recommendation) our room was perfect. We didn't have much time to spare however, we were due to meet an English bloke called Philip at the top of the Carosella gondola. We made it and met up again with Fritz the swiss mountain guide and some german guys, Franz and Christian for some more ...you guessed it ...telemarking!
2/ An unusual position for Fritz - he is normally an outstanding telemark skier.. but those misery sticks can catch out even the professionals!!
I can't say that I shared the blokes passion for this form of skiing, but it was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon and it was fun to be out on the hill. Suddenly, when I let go all the "instructions" and just kept up with the boys, something seemed to "click". Finally, I was making it down the slope without the usual thigh burn. Maybe I was getting the hang of this telemark skiing? A small glimmer of hope wedged in my brain and was growing bigger after each run. I was getting good at this....at least until I tripped over my new telemark ego and landed in a messy pile of skis mid-way through our last run. I managed to skewer my left buttock on a ski tip. I can't even begin to imagine the yoga pose I had to perform in mid air to achieve this feat!! I will surely be sporting a good bruise on my bottom over the next few days.
3/ In true telemark tradition - it was soon "Beer O'Clock"
The end of the day was drawing near, and in true La Skieda fashion, free pasta and a band were on offer at one of the mountain cafes. Well, it would be rude not to accept such hospitality. N'est pas?
The band was another classic Italian music experience. Headed up by one of the most unkempt Italian's we've seen so far, it was a repertoire of heavy metal classics, ZZ-Top, Kiss, AC-DC, Lynard Skynard... the list went on. He couldn't sing for nuts, but his guitar playing was great and he really had the Angus Young, ZZ-Top hair flick thing going!
But the true highlight of the afternoon on the bar terrace was the masterful skiing of Luigi Martinelli - largely credited as the founding father of La Skieda. Hurtling down the heavily moguled slope above the bar on his tele's, he stopped abruptly to send a huge wave of spring snow cascading over the band. Not content with his first trick, he then continued to ski down at warp speed, launch off a snow bank, land on a table, jump off that and arrive on stage to join the chorus. John Falkiner in his Jame Bond stuntman mode couldn't have done better! The crowd roared approval!
3/ Check out that hair!!
The afternoon's entertainment was hard to beat, but we wound up the day with a great pasta meal in the evening with the Blokes!
One of the most memorable stories of the evening was of course from Fritz the Swiss Mountain guide. Despite being of more mature years (he's 57) and his conservative Swiss demeanour, he was sporting an unusual earring in his left ear. It was a small gold cow. I couldn't resist asking him about it. His story was a good one.
Fritz's passion is ice-climbing and it turns out that one day he was out friendly climbing with two german women. Arriving at their first pitch there was much debate about the integrity of a very beautiful looking ice column. The women were adamant that the column was broken and shouldn't be climbed. Fritz was equally adamant that it was fine. The debate continued for some time until finally "bets were laid". The bet was that whoever was wrong had to get a "body piercing". The mind boggles how on earth a bet involving "piercing" came about at the bottom of an ice-climb? But there you go....I'm not a climber?
Fritz admitted to me, that while he was pretty sure about the ice-column, he thought he'd put in a bit of rock protection too...just in case! He's very proud of his earring. He reckons the bet saved his life. About 20 m up, the whole ice-column collapsed leaving him dangling from the rock! He was more than happy to get the piercing but baulked at the initial suggested location by the girls! Understandable...he is Swiss and married after all.
Swapping email addresses, we were sad to being saying good-bye to Livigno, La Skieda and all the wonderful people we have met this week. Perhaps with the power of the internet we'll manage to stay in touch. Fritz, Franz, Philip and Christian are all very keen for us to create a NZ version of La Skieda....hmmmm?
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