March 17th, 2010: To The Alps!

Fuoripista: in piemontese e' quella strada sulla neve che ciascuno ha la liberta' di tracciare a piacere con un tratto continuo, a serpentina o anche a salti.

Off-piste: in Piedmont-ese is the path on snow that each individual has the freedom to track to their liking with a continuous path, like a serpent or with jumps.

In the Milan train station I was reminded of Italy's abundance of mountains and ski heritage. The two main advertising campaigns in the Milano Centrale train station were for Armani, featuring Megan Fox and Christiano Ronaldo, and for the Piedmont region of Northern Italy, featuring skiers and snowboarders. I boarded a train with my skis, boots, poles, and the rest and headed for Verona to meet Elena, Renzo, and Alberta before continuing on to Switzerland.

Renzo and Alberta, Elena's aunt and uncle, have a beautiful apartment that looks out over the town of Sent, Switzerland in the Lower Engadine Valley. This would serve as our base camp for the next few days as we set out to explore the snow-capped Alps. Sent proved to be a beautiful, quiet mountain town, despite the fact that this long exposure makes it look "like New York City" (according to Renzo and Alberta).