Advertisement
Published: April 15th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Glorious Mountains!
Heading into the Alps from Torino. It took a while to get this posted. We went on spring break the last week of March. Just as I started to download photos my last battery went dead. We went through the futile exercise of trying to find batteries for the camera in town. Life here ain’t about convenience! Prior to our departure, out good friend Muhammed at Piazza di Vino told us that the USA is the most convenient place to live in the world. He wasn’t kidding. So anyway, I went online and ordered batteries from a place in the UK.
Our trip went off without a hitch. We would have liked to have departed on Friday evening, but flights are limited out of Brindisi. We flew Alitalia to Rome then to Torino and then drove to La Thuile. The flights were 50 minutes long and the driving time was about 1 hour and 45 minutes. We encountered tolls for the first time since arriving it Italy. It was 14.20 euro for that stretch between Torino and Aosta; that isn’t exactly cheap. La Thuile is located high up in the mountains and the climb up from the valley floor was steep and full of switchbacks. We
What do you mean
no eggs, hashbrowns, or ham? also happened to be in the middle of a road rally that was in the process of going downhill.
We drove into La Thuile (via tunnel) and found a picturesque alpine village situated at the base of the ski mountain. It is a neat, clean, and tidy village of about 600 full time residents. Most of the buildings are condos and apartments for tourists. It is hard to imagine that humans made their way up to these high alpine locations to live in bygone times. They had to be tough hardy people. La Thuile is located on the border with France and subsequently signs are bi-lingual, Italian and French. An interesting side note is that I can understand their Italian much better than in the south. It tends to be crisp and hard vowels up her in the north.
We stayed at the B&B Le Thovex. We had a meticulously clean studio with private bath (a must). The proprietors were very friendly and helpful. They provided us with information on the local shuttle and places to rent equipment. The shuttle stopped in front of the place and then dropped us off in front of the lift - how convenient was
Alpine Decor
Lots of rock, tile, and wood. that! They also furnished breakfast with the room and in addition had a restaurant. We ate dinner there the first night and found it to be very good.
Although we skiied for 6 days in a row, we were hampered by cloudy overcast conditions for most of the week. Skiing at large European resorts is to be experienced. The places are immense, the vistas are staggering, and best of all, great food is available for lunch. La Thuile is a back-to-back ski area. One can ski into the French side (La Rosiere) and/or do some helicopter skiing. We had two days of full sunshine and the helicopters were busy ferrying skiers up to the local glaciers (pronounced glah-see-errs). We lucked out because the snow arrived just before we did and I got to score some excellent pow-pow. In fact, it snowed while we were there just to keep things fresh.
There were no lift-lines, but we were impressed by how many skiers were still coming to ski. This is understandable because the snow was late in coming. There were lots of Brits on holiday and as has been our previous experience, not many Americans. We brought our heavy ski gear
It's Still Winter
in the Alps this time of the year. with us to Italy and boy were we glad. The temps were not balmy. We laughed about last year’s experience when we came to Gressoney. We brought layers and wore all of them, especially at night when we walked to evening dinner. We didn’t make that mistake again. I was only sorry that I couldn’t wear my light gear for some “spring skiing.”
As I mentioned before, we skied for 6 days. I don’t imagine that we skied more than a fraction of the available terrain. The ski runs are incredibly long and there is a ton of off-piste skiing available. Our friends Stephen and Judy would have gone nuts at this place, especially because there was so much fresh snow. Still, skiing was a blast and the highlight was skiing a World Cup downhill course. After laying down some serious arcs I came away with greater respect for those boys that blitz these runs. For my skier buds, I have an amusing story about harshing on a group of German guys on this run which I will share when we see each other again. One big guy tried shifting gears with me and ended up “talking to Jesus.” Har
Ick...Fog!
Cold, damp, thick Alp for, at that. dee har har!!!
And last, but certainly not least, we did hit some good eateries. My main observation is that the big three of the north’s cuisine, or at least in the mountains, tends to be pork, polenta, and potatoes (the 3 p’s). I’m sorry to say that I turned down the polenta with a polite but firm “No thank you, I had plenty last year.”
Our most unusual dining experience was a place called “La Pepita.” It was billed as authentic Tex-Mex! I thought the same thing…”Are you kidding me?” So off we went to have some Tex-Mex. We sat down and as the waitress took our order I told her that I grew up on Tex-Mex dishes and furthermore my parents were from Texas. A look of sudden fright emanated from the waitresses’ face and she said, “Well this will be quite a test.” Apparently the idea that someone familiar with this cuisine would actually stroll in was not something they had contemplated. I later learned that the owners had lived in Denver for some time and had developed a taste for Tex-Mex cuisine.
We had guacamole and tortilla chips, a fajita, and buffalo steak. Well…the steak was
Weather Report
I liked this big board detailing the conditions on the different peaks in the resort area. very tender and juicy and we had an excellent Piedmont to accompany it. The amusing part was that the waitress scurried back to the front and I could hear her telling the rest of the staff that there was an authentic Mexican-American in the place whose parents were from Texas and he speaks Italian as well!!! Each of the staff members came by trying to act nonchalant and take a peek at me while they pretended to do some work. They were anxious to hear what I thought about the dishes and were greatly relieved when I told them that the food was good. I didn’t have the heart to harsh on them. They were particularly pleased when we returned; we ate just the buffalo again, however. The owner’s wife (I think) was Argentinean and asked me if I spoke Spanish. We chatted in Spanish about La Thuile and skiing in Argentina. There is skiing in Patagonia - I did not know that. All in all, I would recommend La Pepita should you find yourself in La Thuile.
The other place that we revisited was the restaurant La Bricole. It was the best restaurant in La Thuile. The restaurant is
Sun breaking through
Our reaction when the fog lifted, "Whoa, look at that peak!" an old converted farmhouse and has lots of atmosphere. While the menu leans heavily towards the alpine diet, the preparation is done with the “slow food” philosophy. The first evening, Beth had “carne misto” (mixed grilled meats), it was presented on a hot black rock. The meat was still sizzling when it arrived at the table. We thought was quite interesting. I had lamb that was quite tasty. They had a nice wine list and I picked a pinot noir that was quite good.
My overall impression of northern alpine cuisine is that it is light on vegetables and too heavy on meats and cheese. Although I’m tired of pasta, I think that I greatly prefer the cuisine in the south as compared to the north.
All in all it was another successful venture in our continuing adventure in Italy. Best of all, I just recently learned that our landlord’s son-in-law owns a house in La Thuile. I could see us coming back for a ski trip to this place.
Next up, a trip to the Gargano Peninsula just north of Brindisi.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.064s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0341s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb