Here are the photos from our heliskiing a few days back.
This morning we woke up early to try to get a quick run in before breakfast. It was about 28 degrees F but with all the Italian food we have been eating, we wanted to make sure to keep in shape after all of the good skiing. We ran for about a half hour and decided that we had enough. After running, we headed back to our place and took quick showers and packed up our stuff. We headed out on the town one last time to get some croissants and focaccia and a coffee for Sara from one of the small cafes. We tried to get pesto crossiants, but couldn’t find any.
After we had breakfast it was time to hit the road. If you recall from yesterday, getting in to town was a big pain and parking even worse. Turns out where we parked was 41 euro for the one night. When Dave tried to pay, it turns out that anything over 25 euro needed to be paid with a 50. After getting about 30 euro in the machine in bills, the machine stopped accepting. Dave had to hit the cancel button which ended up working like a slot machine spitting out many coins to make up the 30 euro. After getting the car out of the garage, Dave pulled the car up illegally in one of the squares and we loaded up.
Today was Sara’s opportunity to drive. Being a Tuesday morning, traffic on the streets of Genoa was quite congested. Once we got out of Genoa, the view was spectacular. We weren’t able to check-in to our Airbnb until 4pm so we decided to take the back roads instead of the toll road (autostrada). The road winded through the coast from sea level to high above the cliffs. At one point we crested a pass of 800 m, a far cry from the Alps where we were driving near 3000 m.
As we approached La Spezia, both Sara and Dave were starving. We found a small restaurant on the side of the road and decided to stop in. The sign on the place indicated it was food like your mother would make. Dave had the Tagllini with Pesto and Sara had Raviloli with Walnut sauce. Surprisingly, it was one of the best meals we have had in Italy yet.
After getting a bit of shopping done in La Spezia, we headed up the hill to Caste where our Airbnb was located. Gianluca and his parter met us and showed us our new digs for the next two days. They even provided us a bottle of wine made by their neighbor.
A 13th century village that consists of about 15 people. The apartment is all stone and quite beautiful. We didn’t take many pictures today but promise we will get some up tomorrow. It is stunning.
Tomorrow, weather dependent, we hope to get some hiking in on the 5 Terre.
Here is a video of our drive today:
Saturday night we partied alla Milanese. Well, maybe not but after the soccer match we did go to a bar where everyone was doing Italian karaoke-style sing alongs and drinking Vevue while wearing designer clothes. It was a very fun evening and Sunday morning started late. And cold. Even though we’d just left the Alps after 3 weeks we were freezing walking around in Milan on Sunday. We had an American style brunch in the Naviglio district and then walked to the Duomo. If we had more time and it was a little warmer we would have spent more time wandering around the Naviglio district because it has really cool shops and there was an antiques market going on.
The Duomo has both a museum and the church. We wandered around the museum and looked at the assorted treasures of the church then explored the Duomo itself which is massive and very beautiful inside. The entry fee also includes an elevator ride up to the roof so we walked around the roof and checked out the view too. It’s interesting because we’ve both been in office and apartment buildings taller than the Duomo but for some reason being up on the roof with all the spires and scaffolding gives a sense of vertigo.
We headed to the castle after the Duomo but after a pit stop at a lovely bar called Van Bol e Feste to have a snack and warm up we decided to wrap up our sight seeing and go back to the apartment to relax before dinner. Christine, Nate, Jeff and Karen walked around the castle grounds and we ran a quick errand before meeting back at the Airbnb. Also, kudos to Nate and Christine for finding an awesome rental in the Milan- great location on Via Savona near many shops and restaurants and a super cool loft layout.
For our last supper we decided to splurge and go to Langosteria, a very chic seafood restaurant that was amazingly declious. Afterward we grabbed gelato depsite the cold.
This morning we said goodbye to Jeff and Karen who were on their way to Rome, where by the way, the airports were closed this morning due to a freak snow storm that is blanketing Southern Italy! We heard it took them quite a while to make it to the Eternal City. We helped Nate and Christine to the airport as they had graciously agreed to take all of our ski stuff back to California for us. After saying goodbye to them we went back into Milano and picked up our new rental car.
It was sad to say goodbye to our friends, we had so much fun this week and it was awesome to share the experiences together. We can’t wait for Anna and Matt to meet us in Rome in a few weeks! If anyone else wants to come and see us, shoot us a note, we’d be happy to have you!
From Milano we headed south to the Italian Rivera and Genova. At first the drive was a little repetitive, the area surrounding Milano is quite industrial and grey but as we crossed back into Piemonte and then into the foothills of the Appennini mountains that run north-south and seperate Liguria from Piemonte the scenery became very stunning. The Appennini are not as dramatic as the Alps but today were covered in a light dusting of snow and dotted with very picturesque little towns, castles and old churches. Coming down into Genova is a bit of hairy drive; there is a ton of commercial truck traffic to and from the port and the roads are narrow and windy. But wow, coming through the tunnels and having the pink and gold houses from the city appear before and below you with the sea beyond is incredbile. We dropped down into the city and Dave had to navigate the city streets all the way to our hotel which was a bit complicated with the limited traffic and pedestrian zones. We ended up going in a few big, chaotic, congested circles around the downtown trying to figure out how to get to our hotel before finally just parking the car in a public lot and walking a few blocks with our suitcases. Since we hadn’t eaten anything all day this wasn’t a very fun moment. Especially when we got to the hotel and realized that it was actually a small bed and breakfast that was locked up tight. Luckily the building where the B&B is located had a very nice doorman who agreed to watch our bags so we could go next door and grab sandwiches and a much needed (and deserved) glass of wine for Dave after all the crazy Italian city driving. The sandwich place is called ‘Signor Kiwi’s’ and they had a few really good veggie options.
Even after lunch the hotel doors were still closed so Dave waited with the bags while Sara went to get an Italian SIM card. Finally we were able to get ahold of the hotel owner to come and let us in because a very nice lady from the building offered Dave to call him directly. Once settled we set out to explore the historic center of Genova which reminds us of Porto, Portugual, the old quarter of Barcelona and a little bit of Venice and Naples. It’s really beautiful with pink and yellow palazzos squeezed in tight around tiny piazzas and also a little gritty which makes it interesting. Everyone we’ve met here was at first a little standoffish but then once engaged, very lovely and extremely welcoming.
Tonight we are off to do the Lord’s work and eat tons of pesto (Genova is the birthplace of this green gold which also happens to be Sara’s favorite food in the whole world) and also maybe some ravioli with walnut sauce which is another local speciality. We even read that Genovese cuisine is particularly vegetarian friendly because there isn’t much land in Liguria for cows or pigs to graze. YAYA!
Footnote: The restaurant where we are in Genova is called San Matteo Osteria. It was right next to our hotel and run by a very nice family, I think their last name is Migone. They also run the attached wine store next door and gave great recommendations for local wines and also Italian wine in general.
Saturday morning we said good bye for now to the Alps as we will surely be back. The whole group agreed that Monterosa and Aosta Valley are truly beautiful and a great place to visit, we all want to go back again. In the morning when we woke up there was about 6 inches of fresh light powder on the cars which made it even harder for us to close the skiing chapter of our trip. Originally when we booked the trip we thought 3 weeks of skiing may be too much but after 15 days on the mountain we still weren’t over it, especially with 6 inches of beautiful powder. But Milan was calling so off we went.
The drive down from the Alps was very beautiful until we got into the periphery of Milan which is quite industrial. As expected, Milan was quite hectic getting in to town. As we may or may not have mentioned, Alitalia had lost Nate’s bag. After a week of promising to deliver it in Champoluc, he had to drive back to the airport to retrieve it. The initial plan was to have Nate, Christine, Jeff, and Karen head to the airport to grab Nate’s bag and to drop off their car, while Sara and Dave headed to the apartment to check in and drop off everybody’s bag.
When Sara and Dave got to the apartment, we got all checked in and started bringing the bags in. We thought the elevator would work but unfortunately with the bags in the elevator, it would not go to the second floor. Therefore, Dave carried everybody’s bags up to the second floor. It was exhausting. After unloading the bags, we were going to wait for Nate, Christine, Jeff, and Karen to get back; however, there was no place to park the car without a permit. Instead, Sara and Dave headed to drop-off the car at the Train Station. This drive took us all the way across the city. The map said 15 minutes but it took closer to 45 minutes. After dropping off the car, we decided to instead take the Subway back.
Once we got back to the apartment we ate a quick Pizza and headed off to the Duomo.
While visiting the Duomo, we saw a far right fascist speaker’s stage getting taken down from an earlier rally in the square. While we were there, we also thought we saw Batman:
After checking out the outside, we headed to the Inter Store to get our tickets for the evening. With tickets for the game in hand, we had some serious business to take care of including Spritz.
Arriving at the stadium, we were in awe of how large it is. It holds 86,000 people. Even though the game was not that croweded, there were still of a ton of people there.
Inter Milan won out over Benevento 2-0. The game was exciting and the goals happened right in front of our seats which were great. After we got back to our neighborhood it was close to midnight. We headed to a bar in search of refreshments and snacks. After a few glasses of wine, we called it a night.
Today we plan to enjoy some siteseeing around town.
This morning, we woke up to about 6-inches of snow on top of the car. It is really hard to leave a ski mountain when you know the conditions are going to be really good. That being said, it is time for us to move on to Milan.
We are making the post this morning because we have quite a busy day. After making the approximately 2-hour drive to Milan, we need to unload the large quantity of bags we have then get the car returned to the train station. The plan for the afternoon is to do a bit of siteseeing followed by heading over to see Inter Milan vs Benevento.
Now that we are done skiing, we should be able to take many more photos which will hopefully keep our loyal following of the blog thirsty for more.
So today was our last day skiing. Luckily for us, it snowed all night and it was a powder day. While visibility was low, we were able to find a great area of rocks and trees that helped provide perspective. The snow was great. Really light and around knee deep. After we had our fill of skiing the powder, it was time to head back towards Champoluc to meet Karen at the top of the funicular for lunch.
After lunch, Dave took a ride up the magic carpet to get one last powder run before taking it up again to take the funicular down.
After skiing, Sara and Dave headed to the Spa for a very painful massage to try to mend our sore legs after three weeks of skiing. Tonight we are going to have a nice Mountain dinner and pack up for our move from the mountains to the city.
We also had some other exciting news to celebrate!
We appologize for the lack of photos today. Due to the heavy snow we were bundled up pretty tight.
Also if you thought we could say ‘until next time’ Alps without a Julie Andrews meme, you were sorely mistaken.
So we were pretty tired yesterday, so we left a very short post. Sorry about that, we were really tired. So here is how yesterday went.
Jeff, Sara, and Dave woke up and were all nervously excited about our day ahead. We got dressed and under Dave’s direction showed up to our first lift 30 minutes early. We took the funicular up followed by two chairs. Once we got to the top, we had a short hike to reach the area where the helicopter picks us up. We met our guide Loris and he took all of our skis and tied them in to a bundle. As the helicopter arrived our skis were placed in the rack and we all jumped aboard. Within seconds, the helicopter was off. As we pulled away, the force of acceleration and turning was quite intense and we all looked at each other in excitement. The video yesterday doesn’t really do justice to how amazing the view was, weaving in and out of the peaks just below 14K feet. Once we got to the top, we quickly unloaded and dropped to the ground to allow for the helicopter to take off. The whole process was quite organized with the helicopter only on the ground for pickup/drop off for no longer than 15 seconds. The ride was so short we thought there might have been a mix up and that we weren’t actually going to drop down into Zermatt but we were actually in the right place, high up along a ridge line separating Italy and Switzerland.
From there, we clipped into our skis and started a very long traverse around the peak to reach the Col that drops into Zermatt. At the top of the Col as the resort came into view, we realized how much higher we were than the Klien Matterhorn Tram which is the highest ski lift in Europe (3800m). Once we finished our traverse the wide open Col was somewhat chopped up but the snow conditions were quite nice. The powder was maybe mid shin deep. Once we got a bit lower, our guide took us off the beaten path to an area of wide open untracked powder. He said he preferred not to follow the tracks. We said that was fine by us.
There wasn’t anywhere to place a Jake sticker in all that wide open but we brought one just the same.
Once we got to the bottom of the glacier we were back in Zermatt where had we started our trip back on February 2nd. It was quite surreal to be back on the lifts where we started this trip. We took the Matterhorn Glacier Express and the Klien Matterhorn backup to the top and headed towards Cervinia to ski back to Champoluc. As this area sits in the sun all day, the snow was quite crunchy. Also, it was quite cold at -24C. We ended up deciding to skip lunch to try to take advantage of what good conditions remained. We chowed down a cliff bar and after a brief pause at the edge of Cervinia headed back down the hill. While the snow conditions weren’t great, the skiing was still very fun and the terrain stunning. We crossed glaciers, frozen rivers, forests, abandoned stone buildings and an old aqueduct. The end of the run was a very long traverse that took us back to the last town in the Ayas valley, Saint Jacques, just above Champoluc. By this time, Dave’s legs were completely destroyed and quite tired from all the long days of skiing. Luckily we made it to the bottom of the hill unscathed. At the bottom, we walked over to the bar to grab a spritz to finish out the day. With the purchase of the spritz came a ride in the Fiat Panda back to the parking lot where we had left the car. All in all we skied 40 Km across two countries and three resorts. Pretty rad day!
Overall, heliskiing was amazing. If we had unlimited funds, it would definitely be our new preferred way to access ski terrain.
Today we had a fun, mellow day on piste with Jeff, Christine and Nate. It’s snowing pretty hard so visibility was low. Took it easy cruising around and then enjoyed a nice lunch. We love this place and it will be hard to leave.
Photos to come…
Today we all took the day off from skiing to do a little sightseeing and wine tasting around the Valley.
We started the day with a coffee and pastry at a bar across from the apartment (very traditional Italian breakfast) and then jumped in the car and headed down the valley. A bluebird day, much different than the wintry mix we drove up under, made the valley look a lot different and more inviting. At the base of the Ayas valley where we are staying is the town of Verres. There’s a pretty cool castle there you can see from the road so we decided to check it out. The drive took us through the old part of the town which was small but cute and still decorated from Carnivale. The castle sits above the old town on a hill (if you recall from a previous post you can see the neighboring castles along the valley so they sit up a little above the towns). The visit was very reasonable so we decided to go in. Glad we did, it was really well preserved and very cool. Nice view of the mountains too.
From the castle we took the autostrada to the regional capital Aosta. We had a nice walk through the historic area which includes the old Roman city walls and then had lunch. The mountains are visible all around the city.
Leaving Aosta after lunch we headed to a wine tasting appointment Jeff made for a winery called Grosjean. The winery is family run and one of the original modern day wineries in the Aosta region. The grandfather, Dauphine, started making wine in the late 60s, reviving a wine business in the region that had gone away in the previous century. Our visit was hosted by Simone, one of the grandchildren still active in running the family business. He was very knowledgeable and it was fascinating afternoon. The family, along with others in the region, are dedicated to bringing back many of the indignious grapes to the area that haven’t been cultivated in a long time. Their wine is available in the US (one of their whites is on the menu at Al’s Place in SF) so check it out!
We spent a while at the winery chatting with Simone and tasting the wines so when we finally left we decided to grab stuff for dinner at the grocery store down in the valley and cook a simple dinner at home. Dave, Sara and Jeff are confirmed on their helicopter tomorrow morning early so it’s a quiet night in Champoluc. Karen is headed to a spa and Christine and Nate have another day planned on the slopes.
Here are all the photos from our ski guide the first two days at Monterosa.