As I write this we are walking along side a road, probably 2 miles outside courmayeur. we think. Stefania drove us to Skyway (a cable car to the top of Monte Blanc) and we were supposed to take the bus back but waiting on a bus in Italy is like “waiting for rain in a drought: useless and disappointing.” (*gag* Anna made me say this) And so we we walk.
Our time in Courmayeur passed too quickly. Something about gelato twice a day makes the day go by fast. On our second day, Anna scouted out the best bakery in town “Mario’s” and proceeded to walk the 10 minutes there every morning to get a chocolate brioche (with Lydia and Grace, I normally stayed behind to blow dry my hair [see previous post on blow dryers in italy]). She wanted one in the afternoon too, but when the croissants are gone, they’re gone, so in the afternoon she settled for gelato. In fact one morning she didn’t get to Mario’s until 10:50AM and all the brioches were gone so she “had to get” a gelato instead. Gelato for breakfast!
For New Years friends of Stefania invited us to their house. It is always difficult, and more than a little awkward, walking into a party of strangers, but particularly when the strangers speak a foreign language. I was proud of the way Anna and Grace immediately jumped into a game of hide n seek with the other Italian children, most of whom knew ZERO English. Lydia and I also were outside our comfort zone, but by the year’s end we were sad to say goodbye to our new friends! We left right after midnight so that the little girls could go to sleep and I could, let’s just say, not get a good nights sleep. Stefania’s nephew invited me out with him and his friends and we had a great time at the Disco!!!
Earlier in the day we went to skyway. We ate lunch and toasted to the new year with a glass of Prosecco 4,000 feet up with a view over looking Courmayeur. Lydia and I had prosciutto and some-kind of cheese-sandwiches. The bread was like a focaccia and they were delicious!!! After lunch Anna and Grace skipped and danced and laughed through a few feet of snow for awhile to get used to the altitude (they both got altitude sickness at the Grand Canyon so they were worried about the height) We then took the skyline another 7,000 feet up to the top of the tallest mountain in all of Europe!!!!!! Skyline advertises that Monte Blanc is the 8th world wonder. Lydia pointed out that Monte Blanc is the 8th world wonder of 7 world wonders. World wonder or not, the experience was spectacular. Being on top of Monte Blanc is like being on an island in the sky. You stand eye level with the birds soaring through the sky and pray that the biting wind doesn’t blow a bird into your face 😂😂. When we got down the mountain, Anna ran to the bar to ask if they had chocolate croissants. Something got lost in translation because they served her a mediocre hot chocolate and served me a ridiculously expensive check.
reflecting on courmayeur it’s hard to say how we filled up a day in the small, but anything but quaint, mountain village. We ice skated and went sledding, shopped and ate. And ate. Anna will miss Mario’s very much. In the words of Annaliese, “if the trip ended with Courmayeur, I’d be happy.”
We are now on a train leaving Florence to Siena, but Florence deserves a post of itself, and I am too tired to write one. Somehow we all got horrible sore throats and headaches so our first stop in Siena will be the Farmacia! Here’s to putting my Italian to the test with the the pharmacist 🤣🤣
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