Home for the holidays

Our flight home for the holidays started from Verona (a 45 minute drive) was scheduled for 6:30 am. So we started our journey bright and early Saturday morning at 3:00 am (9 pm EST). Ugh. We woke to a light dusting of snow. Once we hit the autostrade the snow got a bit heavier, and our 45 minute drive was quickly becoming much longer. Upon exiting the autostrade, we were greeted by a hearty layer of snow on the roads. As I drove, we hit a bend and began to skid and slide. Hello Mr. Guardrail, how are you? Despite traveling very slowly, the A3 took the brunt of the impact.

But nevermind the damage to the headlight, fender, and door, we had a flight to catch! We entered the airport and discovered absolute chaos. As we waited in line, we began to worry that we might miss our flight, so I sent Dana up to ask about getting checked in. We were told not to worry because the airport was shut down until mid-day. Since the Italians don’t get much snow, they didn’t know what to do. They took their snow plows out on the runway to clear the snow. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the plows down and just created ice on the runway. So our 6:30 am flight ended up being cancelled, and we got re-booked on a 2:15 pm flight. Of course this flight was delayed until close to 4 pm. Since our connecting flight for Charlotte left Frankfurt at 11:40 am, we knew that we were going to have to find an alternate flight home.

We arrived in Frankfurt to an even greater level of chaos. A huge snowstorm had resulted in hundreds of delays and canceled flights. We headed to the Lufthansa ticketing desk and were told our options: 6:20 am flight from Frankfurt to Lisbon, Lisbon to Newark, Newark to Charlotte on Sunday or a direct flight from Frankfurt to Charlotte on Monday. Dana had read about the imminent snowstorm in the northeast, so we opted to spend an extra day in Frankfurt and depart on Monday. We figured that we would just visit Frankfurt and take in the sites. Turns out that -11 Celsius is really cold. 45 minutes outside and both my feet were numb.

On Monday morning, we headed to the airport fairly early thanks to Dana and her worrisomeness; please note obvious foreshadowing. At the Lufthansa desk, we were told that we needed to head to the US Air desk because it was a US Air flight. At the US Air desk, we were told that we needed to go the Lufthansa ticketing desk because they didn’t have our reservation for the flight. At the Lufthansa ticketing desk, we were told that the reservation was showing up in their system, but that didn’t really matter and we needed to find a solution. Solution: flight to Chicago leaving in 35 minutes, and as long as our bags are checked within 11 minutes, we and they would make it to Chicago. From Chicago we’d catch a flight to Charlotte. So I took off to check the bags, while Dana waited for the tickets to be printed. In an over zealous effort to get to the baggage drop off, I head to the escalator with our loaded cart of bags. I hit the downslope, and one of our bags headed on down ahead of me. Luckily, the escalator was clear all the way down to the bottom. Where an elderly couple were riding. LOOOOOOK OUTTTTT!!!!! The bag just missed the lady, and the old man braced his luggage for impact. Broken hip: dodged! So I checked our breakables in the bag, reloaded the cart, and made a quick dash for the baggage check.

Dana quickly caught up with me, and we got our bags checked (thanks to an off duty Lufthansa agent with a very kind heart) and sprinted for our gate. Frankfurt is the second largest airport in the world and our sprint turned out to be a 5k. Passport check. Cleared. Security check. Cleared. Second security check. Cleared. We arrived at the gate to find the majority of passengers still in line to board the plane. Hot, sweaty, and totally gassed is an awesome way to start a flight. As an added insult to injury, our flight ended up not leaving for another hour. Turns out we sprinted unnecessarily.

We arrived in Chicago and found out that our flight to Charlotte was delayed. Considering our luck to this point, we were not fazed. We headed to the lounge to recharge our batteries–quite literally, Dana’s laptop was dead.

Our flight finally departed at 7:30 pm and we touched down in Charlotte shortly after 9:30. All-in-all, 72 hours of travel. Nothing like being home for the holidays.

Festiva del Torrone

A few weekends ago, Dana and I ventured to Cremona for a Torrone festival. Torrone is an incredibly amazing desert (that Dana doesn’t like). The best way that I can describe it is to imagine a Rice Krispie treat. Take the treat part, make it harder and a heck of a lot better, then throw away the Rice Krispies and replace them with pistachios or any other nut (see photo below). Delicious.

The city was packed with event goers and a number of stores were open despite it being a Sunday. While we walked around the city a bit, we didn’t visit many of the sites (Cremona is famous for making violins). Instead we focused on stuffing our faces with the amplitude of free torrone samples. But we did see one violin while walking. Here’s Dana in her new hat (purchase mere minutes prior to the photo) near the violin:

We did stop for a minute in the main square so that I could snap a photo of the church:

But at the end of the day, it’s all about the festival loot. Here’s what we got starting in the top left: fondente, torrone with pistachios (consumed by Mark), walnut “cracker jacks”, chocolate with cayenne, chocolate with hazelnuts, chocolate with cinnamon (can you tell we like chocolate?), and the beefy monster in the front is fondente:

Milano

Our friends Andrea and Pepe have wanted to take us to Milano for a few weeks, so on a recent Saturday we headed to Milano for shopping, eating, and clubbing.

One of our first stops was an outlet; Gucci, Prada, Versace, etc. all on steep discounts. While I searched the men’s section, Andrea and Pepe helped Dana. I found a pretty sweet jacket, but couldn’t justify the purchase since I had recently purchased a coat. So with my search ending up empty, I headed downstairs to find the others. Andrea promptly brought a pair of shoes to my attention asking if I liked them. I thought that they were okay. Image low cut Chuck Taylors combined with Roos; okay, maybe that’s not a great description, but it is accurate. When I told him I didn’t like them, he quickly reminded me that, and I quote, “When your two gay friends tell you that something is fabulous, trust them that it is fabulous”. How can you respond to that? I immediately looked for my size, but drew a blank. Only people with tiny feet will rock those shoes.

After shopping at the outlet, we headed to the Quadrangle of Fashion. Here you’ll find Gucci, Prada, Versace, Tod’s, D&G, Louis Vuitton, etc. I typically don’t get excited by these stores, but I do get excited by the Porsche GT3s, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley, Aston Martin, and other exotic cars you see. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos because I didn’t want to embarrass the group. Next trip, I will.

Since we hadn’t made any purchases, we headed over to Zara and H&M for some more reasonably priced shopping. Along the way, I saw a Diesel store and told the group that I wanted to head in for a quick look. According to Andrea, this store selection confirmed my straightness and I decided that it will be my new go to brand.

At the conclusion of shopping, we headed to Georgio Armani’s store/restaurant/bar. We enjoyed a few bottles of wine and Japanese appetizers. We’re told that Georgio, himself, is often there and you can meet him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in that night, but we did see a famous Italian couple. I, of course, have no idea who they were, but she was very attractive.

Once Madame, or Paolo, met us, we headed on to get a pizza. Here’s a shot of the group. From left to right, Dana, Madame, Andrea, and Pepe.

With dinner complete, we headed to our first Italian night club. Although it was more bar than night club, it was a pretty cool place. Dana ordered a pineapple juice, which turned out to be 10 euro. Apparently, everything in there costs ten euro. Wine, liquor, beer, fruit juice, water. 10 euro each. We quickly made for the exit and headed back to Brescia. All in all, a very enjoyable night.

Quadrangle of Fashion

Life’s Checklist

I think that we all have checklists in life that we want to accomplish. It might be to run in a marathon or to visit a certain place. Little goals that we set for ourselves to ensure that we live a “full” life–a bucket list if you will.

I think we also have another list. A list of things we don’t want to do, but know we have to do. Cut back on bacon wrapped foods or visiting the dentist or proctologist are just a few examples. Unpleasant things that we sometimes just have to suck up and do. If given the option of driving through the Alps during a blizzard or not, I’d always opt out. Unfortunately, last night, I didn’t have the option.

Dana and I were heading back to Brescia after having Thanksgiving in Lausanne with Adam (look for a post on this later). About two hours into the trip, we started the climb to Simplonpasse. The temperature steadily dropped and the snow started to fall. As we started our descent, the snow started to fall harder and harder. I’d use the term blizzard; the locals would probably say light dusting. Either way, there was a lot of snow on the road and we were sliding quite a bit even at just 15 kph. I had visions of holing up for the night in a snow drift. Or being that person who ends up a half mile from the road with no idea of which way to begin hiking. Frostbitten toes and fingers. But slow and steady wins the race, and after about an hour of tense driving we had made our 15 km descent out of the snow and into rainy Italia. I’ve never been so happy to drive in a monsoon…

Italia Open

Last weekend, I played in the first ever disc golf tournament in Italy. Since I had only played 1 round since last November, I expected it to be an adventure. And an adventure is exactly what I got. I was joined by 4 Finns (or I joined 4 Finns) for a trip to Toscana. We arrived in Pistoia shortly after lunch and decided to take a look at the course prior to taking in some cultural activities. A guide was sent to show us the short route to the course. After about 50 turns and 45 minutes of travel, we arrived at the course. Luckily, I had brought our GPS so travel for the rest of the weekend was a breeze. Had we not had that little device we would have been lost.

The course had just been set up earlier in the day on a golf course. It was a very beautiful piece of property surrounded by olive trees and grape vines. The course, unfortunately, was a poor lay out and had a number of major safety issues. We discussed the matter with the TD later that night and were given the green light to re-design some of the holes Friday morning. We ended up changing 12 of the holes, and the course went from boring to fun.

One of the best things about playing at a golf course is that they have a restaurant on site. Pasta? Check. Cafe? Check. Hot shower at the conclusion of the tournament? Check. Want a bottle of beer or a glass of wine? They’ve got you covered. Plus, the view from the clubhouse is incredible. Here’s the view from the clubhouse out over hole 18. You can see the basket to the left of the green through the tree close on the left. You can just barely see the tee in the upper right hand corner.

While my play on the weekend was pretty terrible (finished well of out the cash), I had a blast with Jussi, Janne, Janne, and Juho. We shared a lot of laughs throughout the course of the weekend. I’m even inspired to head up to Tampere next year to play in an event.