Alpine Update

Today was absolutely magnificent. I am staying in the Italian Alps, near a village called Stafel, a bit north of Grissoney. To get to my hotel, which is actually a ski lodge, I had to take a train to Pont St. Martin, at the base of the mountain range, and then a bus as deep into the mountains as the road could go (about 45 minutes, slowly but steadily climbing dozens of hairpin turns). At the end of that road, I took a cable car a few kilometers vertically up the mountain, and then I had to hike two more kilometers, also practically straight uphill. It is very remote and very beautiful. And the altitude is so high that for the past two afternoons, the clouds have settled around the lodge just before sunset. Amazing. It looks like the set to the Sound of Music.

Yesterday, I arrived around 4 pm, and I wasn't in the best condition for hiking, having hurt my knee earlier in the day (nothing serious, I just bashed it into a wooden chair hard enough to take my breath away and leave a really ugly bruise, but nothing some ice and time won't fix). When I made it to the ski lodge, I took a fairly gentle hike up to the top of the nearest hill and had a look around before it started getting dark. These are serious peaks: the Matterhorn is just barely out of sight, but there are several other snow-covered rock peaks in the vicinity that are close in altitude.

I returned to the lodge for dinner (included in the price of the hotel, which is fortunate because there is nothing nearby except for mountain grasses, a waterfall, and a small flock of sheep--pretty to look at, but not very promising as dining options). Just when I thought it couldn't get better, the food came. Yum! Each night we are given three or four options each for the first course, second course, vegetable, and dessert. Last night, I had a four cheese lasagna for the pasta course, beef strips in a red wine sauce for the second course, and some delicious sauteed spinach. Dessert was a shortbread cookie topped with a mound of chocolate chestnut paste covered with whipped cream and drizzled in hot fudge sauce, constructed to look like a mountain. AND it came with a flaming sugar cube! Deliciousness and drama all in one! ;) Tonight's meal was even better: homemade ricotta and spinach ravioli in a fresh tomato sauce, beef tips in a butter, lemon, and olive oil served over a bed of artichoke hearts, and a white chocolate torte. Wow. I plan to steal some of these ideas when I get home. Unapologetically.

This morning, my knee was doing a little better, and I was able to take good advantage of the day.  The hotel owner happened to be driving down the mountan at the same time I was ready to go explore, so he was kind enough to drop me off in Grissoney St. James, a nearby village where the German influence is plain to see. I walked through the town to an old castle where the Queen of Italy used to vacation at the turn of the last century. After a short tour of the castle, I hopped on one of the hiking trails and followed it for about five hours.

Pretty much the entire walk was jaw-droppingly beautiful. I took so many pictures: evergreen trees, waterfalls, churches clinging to steep slopes, a lone white cabin aloft near the top of a mountain in a lush green field, wildflowers, boulders the size of houses that had rolled to the bottom of the valley who knows how long ago. Wow.

The whole time, I was marveling at my good fortune. I feel so incredibly lucky and grateful to be able to do this, to be where I am, doing what I am doing. I spent a lot of time with my own thoughts in the woods and on the trails today, and I was realizing how much happier I am now than I was three months ago. I feel like that contentment and happiness is just spilling out of me in all kinds of ways. A few days ago in Ivrea, I was passing an elderly couple who looked really sweet. I gave the lady a big smile and greeted them in a friendly way, and out of nowhere, she rushed up to me, laughing and speaking a blue streak of Italian, and she enveloped me in a bear hug and kissed me on the cheek. Then she continued on her way.  We were both laughing the whole time. I have no idea why she did it, but it was absolutely delightful. It was like the opposite of getting mugged. :) Somehow, it just seemed to fit with where my mood and state of mind are these days. It turns out that two months off work, in stimulating places, doing interesting things and meeting fascinating people is really good for destressing and recentering priorities. Who knew????

I am having wifi issues, and I am using the hotel computer to write tonight. I think the owner is hoping to finish up his work quickly, so I am going to sign off now. Good night!