Skiing in Italy

In February, we went skiing for a week in Italy. How would we afford something like this you may ask? (As we are barely scraping by as you may know). Well, Meade was the chaperone for the school ski trip, so he was free and we tagged along (with 17 students and another chaperone teacher) at a discounted rate. Sound like fun? Well, there were disadvantages and advantages as you might imagine, but all in all was a fantastic trip.

Paso del Tonale is located northeast of Milan in the Italian Alps. We flew into Milan and then took a 3 hour bus to Paso del Tonale, which is a ski resort that encompasses several mountains. We stayed in a quaint, eccentric hotel full of kids’ on school trips. Meals were included and eaten in a large dining room. The food was, well, not fabulous but good most nights. Each meal started with a big plate of pasta, often followed by “mystery meat,” potatoes, and a veggie.

Meade’s role for the trip was to ski with the advanced skiers. Aaron and Linnea and I were on our own to get to the ski mountain, as the normal way involved a bus/gondola and ski down a steep hill. So, we rented a big ‘ol van and managed. Aaron and Linnea did group ski lessons daily from 9-11am, while I skied with Meade and his 5 high school kids. We met for lunch and then had some time to ski all together, generally followed by Aaron and Linnea and I playing at the kiddie play area or them going to the babysitter while I skied a bit more with Meade and the big kids. All in all it worked out.

Aaron and Linnea enjoyed spending time with the big kids, a few of which they knew from babysitting after school. They charmed pretty much all of them. See photo of Linnea flirting with student Nick at the pizzeria.

The ski resort had not had any snow for over a month, so initially it was a bit crusty and hard, but it snowed! A lot! So, we enjoyed a few days of powder, up to a couple feet deep in places. Aaron and Linnea had their lesson as usual on the day that it pretty much dumped snow. Not a word from them about being cold, wet, etc. But, on the last day when the sun was shining and it was actually pretty warm, man did they (especially Linnea) complain about being too hot and the sun too bright. Seattle kids all the way. J

By the end of the week, Linnea and Aaron were going up the palma life by themselves (on the seriously big beginner hill) and skiing down the mountain, turning around the flags, and making it look so easy! They absolutely loved it, which made Meade and I so happy, as we of course love to ski and plan to do a lot of it as a family in the future.

Also, if you want to see Aaron and Linnea skiing- go to you tube and type in Linnea ski italy and you will get to their videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXocJXBdI4w&feature=related