Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Italy Trip #2: Cortina D’Ampezzo!!

Beautiful Cortina, Magnificient Dolomites, Lovely Villa Gaia!


the lovely view frm our breakfast table.
breakfast was good at villa gaia. our favourite Villa Gaia (sung)!

Our stay at Cortina D’Ampezzo was the highlight of our trip! We love this small, quaint town that is set against the stunning backdrop of the Dolomites. It was an extremely nice and relaxing place to be in, with friendly people and clean-well kept streets.


wat beautiful colors. my camera rocks!


the lovely small town which very much reminds me of my homeland japan.
somehow i’ve converted to being japanese n soon u’ll get used to this hah.

we visited the cathedral. check out the lovely blue blue sky..


us exploring e small (but not exactly that small) town..


our cosy hotel room in e style of a cottage.


us actin stupid haha


xing xing chilled his heineken simply by placin it in e balcony!

Xiao xing enjoyed the skiing most! While I enjoyed it too, I was more traumatised by a near death experience!


me all geared up for a good ski session! haha
it was sooo warm, it din feel like winter. i hadda take off many layers of clothes haha

we had a short 1 hr ski lesson wif a really frenly instructor called fausto. he taught us n encouraged us jus like how he wld when instructin kids. well i suppose no one there goes for beginner class except for kids. after all it’s not a touristy place like e alps.


we decided to be heroes n went on e chair lift up e slope!


that’s us at e top of e slope, which was the gentlest part of it!


uh-oh xing xing fell down! but his falls were minor compared to mine!


me lookin cool before any accident happened


n then we hit e pt of no return..

u see no slope beyond? yah that’s how steep e slope was. this was e GENTLEST beginner slope, n i discovered afterwards tt when they say “beginner”, it meant there’re no sharp bends n wateva tricky paths, but the slopes r still very steep, unlike those asian slopes i’ve been to. damn damn.

there was this particular part of e slope where e snow was somehow damn powdery/slippery n i’d always lose control of my skis n jus zoom down e slope. usually i’d make myself fall but there was one time i told myself tt it’s fine.. i jus needa maintain e posture + balance n i can try to brake when e slope flattens..

but tried as i might, i cldnt brake at all!! AND THEN it was another of those drop like tt one in e pic.. n EVEN STEEPER SLOPE after that!! so i dashed down REALLY fast n e feelin was like bein on a roller coaster. i was jus at e side of e slope n there was no railing or watsoever protection n i cld simply have flown into e woods. boohoo…

so i steadily bent my legs to crash brake, prayin hard tt i wont flip cos of e speed i was gg at n i wont roll down e steep slope.. it was sucha traumatisin experience. boohoo.

It was dark by e time we left. I wasnt sure if i’d ski again after this near-death experience. Xing xing says we shld ski every yr to help me get rid of my phobia of slopes!


we decided to have a good meal after a tirin day out on e slopes.

xing xing had some penne arrabiata while i had tagliatele wif salmon n asparagus, n then we shared this chef pizza which had a sunny side up in e middle. tasted a bit gross tho, since im not a fan of gooey egg yolk.


n then i had yummy apple strudel to calm my nerves..

Yup that’s abt all for Cortina. A truly lovely and beautiful place which i wont mind visiting regularly, if not for e fact tt it’s pretty inaccessible. it’s 3 hrs by train frm venice/florence, afterwhich we have to transfer to bus for 1 hr to go up e mountain. perhaps we’ll only visit the place again in future after we have kids. haha!

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