Christmas in Italy

One of my most memorable grade school assignments was a holiday project that required us to write about Christmas in another country.  I chose Holland and did a stellar report on the traditions and customs of the Dutch.  Ironically, my partner for this project was none other than the person who taught me all I knew about Italian Christmases- Seven fishes dinner on Christmas Eve, Panettone- all that good stuff.  I didn't think this information would come in handy because I never really thought I would be away from my beloved Q on Dec. 25th.  We made a smart decision to stay put this year given the mess that was European airports this past week.  Here are a few things I learned about Christmas in Italy...

Merry Christmas from (just outside) Venice.

1. Christmas is a very religious holiday.  Seems like this should be a given, but compared to the good old USA, Christmas here in the church had a more religious feel to it.  Sure, I bet they had their CAPE Catholics (those who only set foot in a church on Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Easter) in attendance, but the whole week before took on a very Easter-like atmosphere.  Eucharistic adoration took place all week and on Christmas Eve, the church had all day confession.  In Italy, Catholics are not suppose to receive communion unless they have been to confession.  Not sure how they "check" this, but it works out great for me since I can't go to communion and have lots of company in the pews.  (It also makes me look like a big sinner...)  We attended Mass on Christmas Eve at 11pm at the nearby Italian church.  We stood out like sore thumbs for a number of reasons, chief among them being that we were not wearing any fur.  There was so much fur at Mass....boots with the fur, coats with the fur, children with the fur, men in fur....fur everywhere.  Although we had no idea what was going on most of the time, the choir sang some lovely versions of "The First Noel" and "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" (thank goodness I learned that in Latin).  The homily was something about Pakistan and Iraq...those were the only words we recognized.

One of the many manger scenes in our town.

Are the wise men Italian now?  Who is this?

Another interesting thing about Italians at Mass is that we have noticed they don't particularly dress for it.  Sure, some folks were in nice outfits, but many were in jeans.  We've also noticed this is very common at funerals. (Living next to a church, these are the things you notice). If an Italian can explain this to me, I'd love to learn about it...

2. Light displays are smaller.  This makes sense since everything in Europe is smaller.  Italians seem to limit their outside lights to one tree, one balcony or one door.  Nothing is too ostentatious.  The town we live in decorated the light poles with some cute lights and I would have a picture if it were not pouring rain every night this week.  The shooting star is very popular here and many churches and businesses display a star with a tail. One light display, however, looked like it was designed by Clark Griswold.  Downtown Vicenza was a light explosion as you can see here.



This isn't tacky or anything...



Piazza Signori, Downtown Vicenza

3. Still not sure if Christmas Trees are only an American thing.  They sell trees here (fake and real), but I'm not sure if Italians put them in their homes and children expect gifts under them.  I've heard Jan. 6 is the gift day and that there is a witch (La Befana) who delivers the gifts.  My German co-worker did confirm that stockings are a very American tradition.  I actually tried to find a real Christmas tree and had all intentions of getting one.  I went to a store that advertised them and had high hopes that it would be set up in our living room that night.  Unfortunately, the store I went to didn't resemble the one-stop Christmas tree shop that is the parking lot on the Southern Artery.  I found the trees here...but that's just what they were.  The tree literally looked like it had just been pulled out of the ground, roots and all.  Apparently, you buy a bucket and have to almost plant the tree in your house.  I panicked and realized that I wouldn't know what to do with this tree. It likely would not have fit in my car, it would have been a mess and what would I do with it after Christmas?  I really didn't want to get kicked out of Italy for failing to dispose of a Christmas tree properly.  Instead, we took the easy route and got a (gasp) fake tree.  I know...I know...

"We're kicking off our fun old fashion family Christmas by heading out into the country in the old front-wheel drive sleigh to embrace the frosty majesty of the winter landscape and select that most important of Christmas symbols..."-Clark W. Griswold

4. Buon Natale is not used as frequently as Merry Christmas is at home.  Merry Christmas translates to Buon Natale in Italian, but it doesn't seem to appear on greeting cards, in light displays or on any holiday signage.  I think it's used more in the religious scene because it translates to Happy Birth of Christ.  More commonly are the phrases Buone Feste and Auguri (wishes).

The Christmas Market in town...notice the little bit of snow we got!!!

5.  American Christmas culture is alive and well here.  Unfortunately, Italians seem to adopt some of our most unsightly and harmful inventions...Crocs, McDonalds, and even inflatable holiday lawn decorations.  Although they were few and far between, they are sadly here.  On the plus side, I did hear some Mariah Carey on the Italian radio and was grateful that Italians can experience the greatest Christmas song ever.

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a gramatically incorrect Winnie the Pooh ornament.

6.  Panettone is everywhere.  It's the Italian version of fruit cake at the holidays and it is everywhere.  Stores sell it in countless varieties and pasticcerias make their own.   I only know what this crazy bread/cake is because of my aforementioned Italian friend.  Her family would give us one every year and my poor American mother would struggle to make sense of what exactly it was.  She'd pop it in the toaster and melt butter on it and even tried to make french toast with it one year.  I received one as a gift this year and although I can't enjoy it, it still looked pretty.

Our Christmas

Christmas here at Hotel Hart was relaxing and enjoyable.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and as it has done for the past month and a half, it rained...poured rain to the point that there were concerns that the rivers were going to overflow and the city would flood again.  Luckily, it did not, but that just gives you an idea of how much rain we have been getting here.  After a delish breakfast, we enjoyed the comforts of our living room and a nice Christmas movie marathon and indulged in several games of my new favorite card game Monopoly Deal (seriously, go buy this...now!).  The day took a turn for the interesting when our American neighbors invited us to their place for dinner.  This was very nice of them, especially since we have really only exchanged pleasantries.  To prepare for spending Christmas with total strangers, I made a lasagna...which is funny because I couldn't eat it and I can't really cook.  Our neighbors (from the San Diego area) were very hospitable and it was so kind of them to invite us to their home.  Our only flop of the evening was the fact that we brought a bottle of wine, only to find out that they don't drink...and that our hostess was pregnant.  Oops. 

The moral of this story is that there's nothing like a Quincy Christmas.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

If you've been following the news across the pond lately, then you know that a good portion of Europe has been receiving snow for the past week.  While that has caused travel nightmares for many trying to get home for the holidays, it has also brought an early Christmas present for the skiers here!  Euro Shawn made the wise decision to stick around Italy for a few days after school ended for him in Milan and we had quite the weekend ski adventure.

Sorry your flight is delayed- the snow here is great!

The real adventure started Friday night here in the Vicenza area when the steady snow that had been falling throughout the afternoon began to accumulate.  The roads were a bit slick since the Italians out here in the countryside use tractors to plow and being that this is Italy...they got around to plowing when they felt like it.  We got a few inches of snow, which I find confusing.  They say that snow is not that common here, but this is the second time since Thanksgiving that we've had measurable snowfall.  No complaints here, I love the snow and it looked festive on the Christmas lights...and palm trees.


Our ski plan involved chasing the snow.  Whichever mountain had the most snow and open trails was where we were headed on Saturday.  We booked a hotel in the middle of the mountains so that we'd have easy access to any mountain in the Dolomites.  We rose early Saturday and piled into our trusty rear-wheel drive BMW 316i (Remember this...it will be important later).  The beemer was the only car choice we had since the backseat of H1 folds down in one piece and we needed three sets of skis and three people to fit in the car.  We reasoned that once we figured out how to cram  all of Shawn's luggage and toiletries in the car, we'd be all set.

To get to views like this...we had to scale the mountain in our car

Saturday at Alta Badia
We hit the road anticipating about a three hour drive to a Northern ski town.  The first few hours flew by as we cruised along the autostrada.  If you're familiar with the Dolomite mountain range, you know that there is no easy way to get there.  Unlike us good Americans, the Europeans typically don't blow up a mountain and build a highway through it.  Here, you must drive up and over the mountain.  At about hour three on our adventure, we found ourselves on uphill roads covered in snow with frequent signs reminding drivers to have snow chains.  (You'll be happy to know that we bought ourselves snow chains for Christmas today.)  And while I don't speak much Italian, I realized that our quest to go to Alta Badia probably meant we were headed up higher and higher into the mountains.


As we climbed, we noticed very few cars on the road.  What did all these people know that we didn't?  We quickly figured it out as that trusty, rear-wheel BMW 316i fishtailed all over the road on each turn up the hill at the blazing speed of 10 kph.  The car did its best Little Engine That Could impression as it sputtered, spun and slid up the mountain.  On the plus side, I didn't get car sick this week ...but I think that's because I was too busy fearing for my life.

We finally made it to Alta Badia and hit the slopes later than we would have liked, but got plenty of skiing in.  The place was massive and we did not wait in a lift line all day.  To be honest, I don't even think we took the same lift twice all day!  With the Dolomite Super Ski lift ticket (a bargain at 34 Euro/day), you can ski at any of the 12 associated mountains, many of which are interconnected.  Take that silly seven peaks of Sunday River (kidding...I <3 SR).

After a day of skiing, we headed back to that trusty real-wheel drive BMW 316i  for the trek to the hotel.  Since we were so high up in the mountains, the temperature dropped considerably after the sun went down.  Our skilled driver failed to mention that the heat in the car only works when you are at high speeds...which as you know, we were not as we descended the mountain like an out of control bobsled.  For almost an hour, Euro Shawn shivered in the backseat, still dressed in all his ski gear (well, almost all of it...ask him about this if you see him).  My internal body temperature must have dropped a few degrees and even the Eskimo driver needed gloves.  I would recommend the lovely hotel we stayed in and the delightful pizzeria we ate dinner at, but I can't even think of a reason you'd be anywhere near where we were....ever.  If you want to get off the beaten path in Italy, let me know.


Sunday at Cortina
We woke on Sunday to a balmy -27 degrees Celsius.  That post I had last week about it not being that cold skiing in Italy?  Definitely a lie.  Since Shawn "Bode Miller" Kelly was not challenged enough by Alta Badia's trails, he insisted we head to the posh town of Cortina to ski there.  It was only an hour away, so it seemed like a logical choice.  As mentioned, that trusty rear-wheel drive BMW 316i lacks heat unless she is at high speeds, so not only was it -27 outside, it was the same for about an hour in the car.  Awesome.

The drive to Cortina looked easy on the map and the roads had cleared a bit from the day before.  Unfortunately, our GPS decided that the most direct route from the middle of nowhere Italy to Cortina was over a mountain.  This time, we found ourselves on a mountain pass that is probably only suppose to be used in the summer.  There were no cars on the road and we found ourselves staring at feet of pristine,untouched snow looking at  mountain tops that seemed fake.  Shawn compared it to the epic old school computer game Ski Free where you try to out-ski the abominable snow monster that eventually eats you.

Something tells me we weren't suppose to be on this road...

The town of Cortina was easy to find (once we survived the mountain pass), but the skiing was not.  This sounds really stupid, but we made it to the most famous ski town in Italy and literally could not find the skiing. Thanks to a total lack of signs in the town, we drove in circles for a good half hour. Although we were all frozen, tempers started to heat up in the car....one person wanted to stop at the tourist information point, another wanted to search the GPS for an address and one threatened to drive home out of frustration.  Once we figured it all out, we got out a bit later than we would have liked, but enjoyed the amazing snow at Cortina.  After a good, but cold, day on the slopes, we finally had clear roads on the way home and were able to get enough speed in the car to generate heat.  Next time, we're taking the Honda.

Some of the Best Things About Skiing in Italy

No rules- while at Cortina, we came across the sign for a closed trail.  We actually really needed to go down the trail to get to where we wanted to be.  While we stood around and contemplated risking our temporary ability to live in Italy, a group of Italian skiers came upon the same trail.  In true Italian fashion, they saw the sign, looked at each other and headed down the slopes.  When in Cortina...

Lots of snow- Both days featured trails covered in snow...more snow than I've ever seen at home skiing.  The top of Tofana (a part of Cortina) is a big snow bowl where it's so white, you can't even tell where you are going.  Awesome conditions for mid-December.

Huttes and ski races- Unlike home, there are no "ski lodges" here.  Instead, there are several huttes, chalets, rifugios, snack bars, etc.  Most look like log cabins and serve a variety of food (very expensive food in some instances).  At Alta Badia, we ate at a very cute hutte that was packed with skiers watching a World Cup ski race...the irony!  Turns out Alta Badia hosted the Men's World Cup ski race this weekend, where an American won!  How we did not even realize this race was going on just shows how massive the mountain was.

Olympic History- Cortina hosted the 1958 Winter Olympics.  If you didn't know, I'm obsessed with the Olympics, a hobby I picked up as a kid when my sister and I would pretend to be athletes from the "Unified Team" (truly a sign of growing up in the early 1990s).  At Cortina, we actually skied the 1956 Olympic run!  Epic!  Unfortunately, I only took home the silver.  We also parked for free in the Olympic Stadium parking lot.  No big deal.

Gondolas- European skiers love gondolas!  They also seem to like lifts in general. Alta Badia and Cortina each probably had five different gondolas going to different parts of the mountain...followed by chair lifts bringing you further up the mountain. I never really ride gondolas at home...Loon's is too crowded, Cannon's might bring you to the top of a mountain without any snow and the Chondola at Sunday River turned my favorite part of the mountain into a traffic nightmare.

Crazy Trails- It was always an adventure on the slopes both days.  Trails seemed to go on forever in any direction.  One trail at Alta Badia featured two-way skiing...up and down hill!   At Cortina, we took one trail that required us to cross at least 5 streets and a small bridge over a river.  Yes, we crossed streets on skis...

 That's it from the slopes.  Until next time (which should be very soon!)...

It's Ski Time!

As promised, this post will be about skiing in Italy.  Fortunately, I was able to ski for the second consecutive weekend...unfortunately, I forgot my camera for the second consecutive weekend.  Luckily, a ski buddy brought hers and I snagged some pictures she posted. 

Last weekend, I skied with "work", which basically meant I made sure no kids got seriously injured or lost going down the slopes.  We spent the day in Arabba, a ski resort overlooking the small town.  It's the highest point in the Dolomites and is adjacent to the glacier Marmolada.  Being that the town is so high up, they had plenty of snow for the first week and December and conditions were great.  Conditions on the bus ride up were not so great.  Since childhood, car rides have given me serious carsickness. Imagine my horror as I sat on a bus slowly making its way up switchbacks on the face of a mountain.  Luckily, my mother taught me to always travel with a plastic bag handy.  Once on the mountain, I fared much better and enjoyed myself and the views.  Unlike skiing at home, there was no wind, so the temperature felt very comfortable.  I vow to return with a camera as the scene of freshly fallen snow on a small Italian town in the mountains was breathtaking.

This weekend, we decided to stay local and hit up the closest ski resort to us.  Only an hour and a half away, Folgaria provided plenty of slopes and lifts for an early season day.  The mountain was not as quaint or beautiful as last weekend, but it had decent trails and a variety of terrain. (Unfortunately, it was also up some switchbacks and I had my plastic bag ready on my lap.)  Saturday was the best day weather wise we have had in more than a month.  No joke, the sun hasn't been out since October, but as you can see, it was a bluebird day.

The first thing you notice in this picture is not the handsome man on the left, but the tube that seems oddly out of place.  The Italians seemed to have mastered the lift system.  This tunnel is actually an enclosed magic carpet at the top of a lift.  Instead of trekking uphill to another section of the mountain, this magic carpet will take you there! 

Speaking of lifts, the lift lines here would put Cindy, LoriAnn and Norman out of jobs if installed in Bethel, Maine.  Your lift ticket is actually a card that goes in your left jacket pocket.  To get into the lift line area, you stand next to an scanner and it reads your card and lets you through a turnstile. I'm still not sure if I like this system because it's difficult and awkward to get through a turnstile on skis, but it seems efficient.  You then enter no man's land and use the Italian line system to get on the lift.  As I've mentioned before, Italians are allergic to line formation, so this also creates chaos.  Since it's been early in the season, we've lucked out and haven't waited in many lines or assaulted any Italians with our poles...yet.

The scanner system used to check lift tickets.  Picture stolen from Caitlin Robbie.

Not to knock my winter home of Sunday River, Maine, but skiing in Italy has been very enjoyable the past two weekends.  The weather is perfect and the snow and conditions pretty good for early December.  Last weekend, I ate lunch outside and this weekend, we stopped for a drink with friends (because there are bars on the side of the trails here!) and sat at picnic tables.  Most times at home, we are scurrying into the North Peak Lodge to get hot chocolate because we can't feel our toes, hands, faces and noses.  As mom would say, "it's (always) a double hand-warmer day."

Lately, I've been having several "I wish I spoke Italian" moments....like when I went shopping at the mall last week and had to ask for something behind a glass case....or when I picked up pizza at our local shop and the cook decided to have a conversation with me...or when our GPS gave us the wrong directions when leaving the mountain and we encountered a closed road (and lots of signage) and chose to drive up it as it was covered in snow...only to have to turn around when the road became impassable.  We can laugh about it now. (Language side note- the word for ski in Italian is sci (pronounced she) and the verb "to ski" is sciare (pronounced she-ah-ray).  It's become my least favorite Italian word because it just sounds so wrong.)

There will be more about ski adventures next week.  This weekend, we have Euro Shawn coming by for a last visit before he heads home.  We will be headed to some of the Dolomites finest slopes.  It'll be an early day on Saturday, but I'm planning to wake-up to the sounds of Jon Secada. (Oh, Brookside humor!)  Until then, I'll be doing my snow dance.

Our ski group for the day striking a pose.

Castle + Costumes + Good Food & Drinks= Pirate Party!

December is here and that can mean only one thing...SKI SEASON! (You thought I was going to say Christmas...) On Saturday, I had to work, but by work I mean chaperoning middle and high school kids on a ski trip!  Unfortunately, I did not have my camera to show the beautiful scenes from the Dolomites, but fear not, I am probably skiing this coming weekend too.  More on skiing in the next post.

So one of the first things we learned about when we got to Italy was the infamous Pirate Party.  Our friends Frank and Silvia told us great tales of this epic party where you dress like pirates, do ropes courses and sleep in a castle.  How could we not get excited?!  Since I was on the slopes all day, I got a late start on the party and costume making, but made it nonetheless.  As you can see, my costume kinda sucked...it was a combination of a ninja outfit I wore for Halloween (had to dress up for work) and some sweet pink Under Armour from my day on the slopes.  Since the party was in an unheated castle, the long johns came in handy.  Brenden spent his Saturday preparing his awesome costume, complete with a foam fun sword that he used way more often than he should have all night.

I was an Asian inspired pirate.  Nobody seemed to mind.

 The Castello di Galeazza dates from the 13th century.  The tower was the original part and other rooms were added in the 16th and 17th centuries.  Some parts of it have been updated, but it still has a very old feel to it...and no heat in most rooms.  As a result, we had electric blankets on our beds that proved to be very effective.  The last time I saw an electric blanket was at Woodcliff Road when my parents likely used one to keep the oil bill down.  The temperatures have been dropping in Italy and I was a bit skeptical about the blanket's ability to keep me warm all night.  To my surprise, I slept very comfortably, although I did have three shirts and two pairs of pants on.

The Castle is currently run by an American named Clark.  He rents most of the place and maintains the rooms and the grounds (which include a little farm with goats and chickens).  To raise money for upkeep, Clark and his staff host events throughout the year.  They run parties in the winter...Halloween, Pirates, New Year's, Mexican Fiesta, and St. Patty's Day and host reading retreats during the spring and summer.  The castle functions like a bed and breakfast.  With our night stay came dinner (potatoes and sausage), dessert (muffins and candy) and breakfast (bacon and eggs), as well as copious amounts of wine and rum.  Ironically, one of the girls who was working the event was from Acton, MA and was taking a "gap year" (someone please explain the point of this!) in Europe before attending Fordham next year.  The castle is located somewhere between Ferrara and Bologna in a very rural part of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.  Not really sure who this castle was built to protect because it's in the middle of nowhere and nearly impossible to find without GPS.

The castle was all decorated for the Pirate Party.  This sign lead the way to the beginning of the ropes course.  The staff flooded the barn area and actually had a pretty legit ropes course over water and fire!  There was also a working cannon that was set off every so often and lots of firecrackers!

 The party was pretty much like a costumed barbecue.  It was very informal and casual and people helped themselves to food and drinks all night.  The American contingent consisted of a small group of folks that we know from the clinic and all 9 of us spent the night at the castle.  We also had the pleasure of meeting some Italians from the area, as well as a few Dutch folks.  We enjoyed ourselves by completing the ropes course several times (some of us more than others!) and chatting with friends around the fire pits.  Pirate Hart was an expert on the ropes, as you can see.

 He had so much fun that we found him fully in costume (eye patch included) asleep in his warm, electric blanketed bed.  Pretty impressive.  Great success.

We are now members of the castle club and can go back to attend any of their events or parties.  When else are we going to be able to sleep in a castle?