Pila – Ski in the Sky

Heavy gray sky and mild rain.  The view from our train as I’m writing this makes me realize it’s probably the perfect weather for this occasion – leaving Italy yet again. If it had been clear blue skies, snow and wind still, as it has up until this point, we wouldn’t be strong enough to leave.

Jovi invited us to stay in his family’s house in Ivrea. 40 minutes north of Turin and 40 minutes south of Aosta – a great starting point for the Italian Alps. Simon, Maria and I gladly accepted and landed in Bergamo on the Thursday and spent the day in Milan and Turin while awaiting Jovi.

We decided to try Pila. A relatively big skiing resort with a cabin lift departing right from Valle D’Aosta. It turned out to be so good so we decided not to risk our second and last day trying a new place so we went back. I made the safe choice to rent a snowboard the first day, but the second day I rented skis which actually worked out much better than expected. It was fun and definitely not a one-time thing.

Breakfasts were consumed each morning in the quaint village of Ivrea. There was a big carnival this weekend and you could tell the whole town was preparing for it. The climax of the carnival was going to be the great orange fight, why they were covering buildings in plastic. Unfortunately we were going to miss this spectacle since it would be saved until last when we already would have left for Stockholm.

But on the Saturday evening we did go to see the parade where the two teams in the orange fight tried to show who was strongest and could put the most fear into the enemy by making different noises, wearing colored clothes and acting randomly. Actually, after a while, we realized everything seemed pretty random and we were beginning to think the seemingly intended unsynchronized show was not so intended after all, but just genuine Italian unorganization.

Fortunately, I was warmed in the cold winter night by Vin Brulé, which is the Italian label for glögg.

The parade was ended by a spectacular firework show which also kind of put the ending dot into the magical sentence that constituted this trip.

Sweden has been so dark and cold for the past few weeks. This trip has been extremely refreshing, and thank you Jovi for taking care of us. E ringrazi I tuoi genoriti. We are very thankful. For me, next milestone is Switzerland and Andermatt.