Thursday evening one of the students and I made cookies for the villa staff, while some of the other students made them cards.
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| Cookies for the villa staff |
Cristina also had a sweet surprise for us for lunch on Friday, the most delicious, adorable heart shaped ravioli (can ravioli be adorable?)
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| Heart shaped ravioli |
This weekend our friends Nate and Rebecca arrived for a week long stay. We joined them on Friday evening in Milano as this is where our trip to the Swiss Alps left from. After a train, metro and tram ride, we finally arrived at the apartment they rent. We set out for some apertivo, we finally found a small bar to duck into where we enjoyed some birra and prosecco. We walked around Milano fur a little bit, visiting the Arche Della Pache and then grabbing some pizzas and vino for dinner.
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| Milano |
Our evening was an early one as we had to meet the bus at 6:45 the next morning! After failing multiple times to call a cab we luckily were able to jump on the tram and make it to our destination just in time. We boarded a bus full of Italians with an Italian tour guide – this was going to make for an interesting day 🙂 We made our way to a small town in Northern Italy, Tirano. Here we visited their basilica, where the miracle of Madonna occurred.
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| Tirano |
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| Tirano Basilica |
After a delicious, tradition Tirano lunch at Al Portici, we boarded the
Bernina Express headed for St. Moritz, Switzerland!
We saw the most amazing views along the way. From lakes half frozen to beautiful (sometimes frozen) waterfalls and of course lots of mountains and SNOW! This railway is only the 3rd to be named an UNESCO world heritage site.
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| Beautiful waterfalls |
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| Nick enjoying the Swiss Alps |
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| Absolutely Beautiful |
We successfully wound our way through these gorgeous mountains and arrived in St Moritz, we stood on their frozen lake, window shopped at Jimmy Choo, Valentino and Roberto Cavali before grabbing some Swiss chocolate at Hanselmans and then we boarded a bus that would take us to our hotel. But our trip to the hotel was not without incident. I woke to find us struggling to get up the road due to ice and white out conditions. After emergency assistance arrived, placed chains on the tires, we were slowly off again….
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| How many people does it take to get us unstuck? |
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| Snow removal |
It was unreal to see the snow along side the road up over the top of the bus. I haven’t seen that much snow in a long time. Four hours later we finally arrived at our hotel in the mountains of Taglina, where we were treated to a delicious, local cuisine (how could I forget to take pictures?!?!?), and unlimited wine.
After a good nights rest and breakfast at the hotel we set off for Bormio. On today’s agenda was a day of rest and relaxation, and Bormio Terme did not disappoint! The thermal baths and saunas were such a great way to end this weekend. My favorite was the Turkish baths, and I hate to admit but at the age of 33 I rode my first water slide. While researching I thought this was going to be more like a YMCA, but in reality it was part aquatic Y, but more health spa, complete with thermal pools outside. Floating in the warm water with a mist coming down, staring at the snowy mountains was just awesome!
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| Bormio Terme |
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| Post spa drinks |
Even with some occasional speed bumps it was a great weekend, now back to Genova for a week packed full of fun, including trips to the Renzo Piano Workshop, Cinque Terre, Milano and the villa party . Those of you who were upset last semester that your invite got lost, here’s your chance to book those flights 😉
