My best friend since I was born has been studying in Dublin for a month and a half now. At the end of January she managed to get a flight to come see me and we arrange to go snowboarding for my cousin’s birthday.
After negotiating transportation and finally arriving together at Varazze train station, Sergio picked up Emma and me. We went out for some dinner and had a great time. I was the translator and we laughed and talked and caught up after way too long of not talking.
Then, after a rather stomach-curdling ride back home—Sergio was taking the hair-pin turns and narrow streets at tire-screeching speed, probably showing off for Emma—we arrived home and got ready for bed.
Early the next gray and gloomy morning we got up, arranged to drive up to Prato Nevoso to go snowboarding. We had to stop to get party provisions—it was Sergio’s birthday party after all. We met up with two more friend and all crammed into Sergio’s car.
We finally got up the hill to go snowboarding and only to find the visibility near non-existant. It was snowing and foggy. We could not even see the ski lifts from the parking lot.When we got to the ski lifts, we could not see most of the hill.
So what do you do when you find yourself stuck in a snowstorm? Well you go geat a drink obviously!
We spent the better half of the afternoon in a bar, drinking a beer or two and eating. We laughed and joked and made quite a raucous. Emma and I had an opportunity to catch up and Sergio and I had an opportunity to bond. Anyone who was there, unaware of Sergio and my relationship as cousins, might have suspected we were an item. We shared our sandwiches, joked, threw a few punches, and had a grand old time.Then the boys went and played "billiards." Emma and I talked and talked and laughed and talked.
After that we decided it was time to head to our various hotels. Maybe take a nap before getting ready for the night. Well, the minor hotel crisis had put Emma and I at a hotel down the hill a ways. And by a ways, I mean like 30 minutes by bus on a narrow, windy, snow-covered road. It was nothing of extraordinary consequence, however, because there was a shuttle that would take us from the hotel back up to Prato where the party would be that night. So we were not concerned.
The shuttle ride was un-eventful, even though the snow was still coming down. We made a few friends on the shuttle and discovered they were going to be in the same hotel as us. We parted ways to take our naps.
After napping, Emma and I got all ready to go out, came down the stairs to see when the next shuttle would be, only to discover that it had just left and was full. But, the friends we had made on our way there came down the stairs only a few minutes later. We were all in high spirits, excited about the night to come. We sat and talked with them, waiting for the next shuttle. They both knew a bit of English, especially the guy, and so that made it easier for Emma, and fun for all of us.
Still snow, lots and lots of snow.
After an hour we began to get antsy, realizing that the shuttle was not coming back any time soon. We were also all hungry. Next door there was a pizza place with such a tantalizing smell poring through its doors that we decided to follow our noses. The two Italians, Emma, and I sat at a table together and swapped interesting stories and phrases. It become more and more apparent that the excessive snow (which had not let up all day) was creating problems for transportation up the hill. The shuttle driver had stopped answering the various people’s calls to pick us up. Some people were getting incredibly frustrated. We all just wanted to get to the party for which we had already paid.
Emma and I just sat back and relaxed. We decided it was not worth the stress to be concerned. We were together, talking, laughing, and being overly entertained by our new Italian friends.
We turned in early and decided we would just snowboard the next morning.
At about seven the next morning, my screechy alarm went off reminding us that we wanted to snowboard that day. I opened the window slightly to see if the snow had let up and discovered a winter wonderland. There was easily 4 feet of snow on the car roofs, and still more was pilling up on top. No sun, but lots of fresh beautiful snow!
We did not know how the busses might work, so we decided to ask the lady at the hotel. She was little help and rather tired of people expecting her to know how the busses worked. We started asking around.
We learned that a bus passed by and that if we went out to some un-designated area we may be able to catch it. The directions and instructions were all rather hazy and un-helpful. So, we asked a friendly man if he was going up the hill and if he had space in his car for us and our few bags. He said that if he had space he would be pleased to take us up the hill. About 30 minutes later he was ready.
He asked us to grab our stuff, and his 6 year old boy looked at his dad with a shocked expression, “What are you doing?”. His dad said that there was nothing to worry about; if we were not nice girls then he would just kick us out. This made me snicker as I explained it to Emma.
This man turned out to be our hero of the day. He had a nice large car, snow tires, four-wheel drive, and knew how to drive in the snow. This road, covered in snow, and still more snow coming down, was made more perilous by the presence of hair pin turns, stupid drives, busses, and snow plows. But, even when the car would not necessarily take to the road, this man knew exactly what to do.
All the while, the man was asking us about why Californian’s were up skiing at Prato Nevoso. He was also asking his son to use as many of the words in English as he could remember. It was absolutely adorable. I guess Emma and I turned out to be nice girls because we never got kicked out of the car.
Emma and I made it up the hill, safe and sound. The snow was still coming down hard, but it was only about 10:30am and the visibility was better than the day before. We had a ski pass and decided it was worth it. We figured we could get in a few good runs before 3pm. We rented gear and took off. Shortly after we realized just how COLD it was and Emma decided she need to get some goggles after all.
So by about 11:30 we were actually set up and ready to go. And boy did we go. Emma went through the initial shock of the strange atomized ski system that I experience my first time. Prato is actually a huge mountain, but do to poor visibility we decided to stick to only one run that day. We must have gone about 50 times. By 1pm it felt like we had spent an ENTIRE day on the hill. There was no line, hardly any traffic on the hill, and a fast ride up. We estimated that we were doing the whole up and down in about 8 minutes or less. We were loving it.
The fresh snow made us feel more confident and less afraid of falling. We even tried a few jumps. The first two times I tried, I chickened out and so fell into the soft snow and had to scoot my way out of the hole I made. But the last time I managed to rock it.
At about 2pm we realized that at the top of the lift we could see next to nothing. So, it was time to turn in. That, and we had a train to catch.
We met up with Sergio and his friends. Sergio apologized profusely for the fact that we ended up at a hotel so far away and couldn’t make it to the party. I told him not to worry, we still had a great time and got to go snowboarding.
We drove down the hill at a crawl because Sergio was terrified, the snow was STILL falling, the ground was slippery, and the chains weren’t helping. I was beginning to think we were not going to make it to the train station in time. The snow was falling nearly the whole car ride, admittedly it was more like a light sleet at the end, but nonetheless falling. I figured we had to be a ways away from Varazze if the snow was still coming down. And then we rounded a corner, and I saw a huge flying cruise ship. I was completely perplexed until I realized that it was floating on water and we were closer to Varazze than I was anticipating.
We got to the train station and dropped off Sergio’s friends. Sergio thought it would be great fun to start wrestling with me, but I quickly showed him I was a worthy match. We called a truce, but then he threw a snowball at me (there was at least 5 inches of snow on top of his car). I chased him around for a few seconds and then decided that was silly. I ended up getting him back when he was pretending to be sad about something and I was telling him he was a poor dear, my hand on his face, and then I “smacked” him. After that we had a truce.
Emma’s and my train was not due for another 45 minutes, so we went to get some pizza. At this point I had a bad stomach ache, but I figured it was from all the snowboarding, tight pants, not having eaten real food all day, and the like. So we ate some dinner. We went to the station to discover that our train was not going to pass through Varazze due to a strike. Sergio was so kind and said he would just drive us to Genova.
Well the whole ride Sergio and I talked and joked. I was doing everything to take my mind off my massive stomachache. I figured I just had not had enough water or that I was over-reacting and it would go back to normal in a little bit. We pulled into the station and I realized that what felt like a normal tummy ache from over exertion was much more—more like the flue.
Emma went home that night. I went back to Varazze, sicker than I have been in years. But, still full of all the great memories of that weekend.
Though the plan for the weekend had been, snowboard Saturday, party Saturday night, wake up late Sunday, take the train back Sunday night, we end up doing a bit of the opposite. And I learned one of the best ways to pass my time in a snowstorm, eat, drink, and be merry!
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