The week after Christmas Jonathan and I took a trip to Chiavenna, Italy with our good friends The Harpers. We stayed in a charming chalet owned by a charming Italian named Luciano. Luciano spoke little English, and we spoke no Italian, so checking in was interesting. Luciano showed us the "down-a-side" (downstairs) and "up-a-side" (upstairs) of our chalet and even brought us the leftovers of his families Panettone (traditional Christmas Italian cake/bread).
The highlight of our trip was the skiing. Although, I have to admit, that I was the weakest link when it came to ski-skills. We spent our first day at Modesimo. Modesimo was a pretty nice ski resort, though very icy and therefore difficult for non-practiced skiers (like myself). I would brag that I didn't actually yard sale and I did not fall on any runs down the slope, but the fact that I collapsed on the ground while standing still on the top of the mountain makes any boast completely illegitimate. Thanks to J for taking a picture of that moment.
For our second, and BEST, day of skiing we headed to Switzerland to ski the Engadin Mountains at St Moritz. An Italian highly recommended St Moritz to us saying that it was where all the rich and famous go, but that it was "freaking cold". He was right. It was freezing at the bottom of the mountain. He was also right that the rich and famous go there. Many of the ski lodges on the slope required reservations for lunch. If you wanted to eat a la carte, a bowl of chile con carne was 24 euro. Being the classy, yet crafty, Americans that we are, we packed homemade sandwiches into our coat pockets. Any attempt at fitting in with the rich crowd was spoiled as we pulled the flattened sandwiches from our pockets and tore open the saran wrap. We somehow scraped together enough money to buy a round of beers. Priorities, people. During lunch we spotted many trophy wives following their 30+ year older husbands down the slope. I guess Holly and I don't classify as trophy wives.....
Embarrassingly, after two days of skiing my knees and body were exhausted. We rounded off the rest of our week with plenty of wine, beer, reading by the fire and playing games. All in all, an awesome trip with no yard sales (except for maybe the one Holly had when she slid halfway down the mountain upside down on her back). Ha.
