Yippee in Europe! - 13 June 2005

Once again it’s been a while since I did one of these things! I must do them more often…

It doesn’t take too long to read, but if you’re in a hurry, look at the pictures!

I didn’t drive my car for a week… Somewhere under here is an Accord Wagon. It took an hour to dig it out!

Powder, powder every where and not a season in sight…

When I last sent an ePostcard it looked like snowing again. Well it did. And did. It snowed every 2 – 3 days until the end of the season. Mostly just top ups, with the occasional bigger fall of about 10 – 15 cms.

Not the huge amounts of snow that Canada if famous for but enough to put a serious smile on everyone’s face! Enough for some of us to hire powder skis for a few days… I went as far as getting some demo powder skis from the Prior stable (boutique board & ski makers) and headed for my fav trees. Uncompromising powder boards make a huge difference in the soft deep stuff. Just don’t try and use them on groomers…

Would you believe it? This is the day after the season closed.

There was one last huge dump on its way, not that we got to enjoy it. We got 40cms of fresh powder the day AFTER the season closed.

Oh cruel fate, what have you done!

The bitching, moaning and complaining could be heard in the Southern Hemisphere… Even worse, because the season had closed they didn’t clear the road so we had to drive down in deep snow. Exciting without chains or snow tyres!

Banff, again

What was the Okanogan’s loss was Banff’s gain. Many of British Colombia’s ski fields closed on the same day and most got the big dump. This left many skiers and boarders hankering for more. The Banff season went for another month so a heap of us headed off there. Unfortunately Lake Louise was well into spring skiing and I got to watch boarders wake board up to the lift across a 5m pond. Predictably some didn’t go fast enough :-) Sunshine, while still very cold, was hard and icy. After the awesome skiing we had just had most of us were over skiing in “unfriendly” snow. Banff itself was warming up and most days were about16 degrees, so we broke out the hiking boots and did a bunch of walks. In summer the place is a hikers paradise. There are trails everywhere.

58 days skiing in a season, not bad! Nearly the 60 I was aiming for. It wasn’t worth spending the money to achieve a number on snow I didn’t like! What a contrast from my last New Zealand season: if it was snow you skied it and enjoyed doing so.

In hindsight Banff was only an interlude before we had to move into the new real world - summer. I guess many of us simply weren’t ready for the ski season to end. While some headed off to Jasper to explore the Icefields Parkway I headed to Vancouver to get ready to leave.

I decided then that I was coming back for the next season so hanging on to the car was a good idea and backpacking many kilos of ski gear around Europe was a bad idea. Suitable homes were found for the ski gear and car and I was ready for the reason that kicked off this trip.

A trip to Tuscany for the week long wedding of a great friend.

If I was to go to Europe then I really had to look up some old friends along the way.

So London then?

An old haunt. Hands up who has been here?

After all the glorious clear cool weather of Canada I wasn’t looking forward to the cold, damp and grey reception that is London in May.

The sun was out and it was 20 degrees when I arrived! Maybe miracles still occur! Maybe this was an English summer come early…

I had quite a bit to do in London. My laptop was ailing and it made sense to get it fixed in the UK. Be warned, going on a trip with a laptop is addictive – I felt naked and out of touch without it!

Because of my decision to do another season in Canada I had started looking for work. My lack of work visa was putting people off in Canada so I decided I would work in the UK for the summer. Not the same environment as Canada but much better money.

Her Majesties Immigration Service had other ideas. My “Indefinite leave to remain in the UK” visa was anything but. It was completely definite, they cancelled it and gave me a six month visitors visa. Damn. Not good. Very bad even.

Something else to sort out during my two weeks in London. So much for a cruisey visit.

Tuscany, Italy

Finally something went right, my laptop came back before I left for Italy, even if it was only 1/3 fixed.

It had to be done… I liked the Japanese who were trying to push the tower down!

Time to head off to Stansted to catch a £29 flight to Pisa with Ryan Air. Something made me check the baggage weight limits, sure enough 15kg checked and 10kg carry on, damn, glad I checked. Time to shed more weight and find somewhere to leave it. I now have little dumps of stuff stashed in Auckland, Oxford and Vancouver. Collecting it all up could be fun.

Stansted and I’m 4kg over for my checked luggage. They even insisted on weighing my carry on luggage. 2kg under, great. I was first in the queue, which is good, as it enables you to score a decent seat during the boarding free for all. Unfortunately the Nazi on check in decided to mess with me. She says that I can be a total of 2kg over provided I move 2kg from my checked luggage into my carry on… Please leave the queue, repack then rejoin the now one hour long queue. Nice. Not sure what it achieved except perhaps some vicious pleasure on her part.

The tower area of Pisa is beautiful and the whole of Pisa is quite small. You can walk from the airport to the centre in about 30 minutes. For a change I’m visiting a “destination” out of the main tourist season and I almost had the place to myself. The tower is quite bent, the photos really don’t do it justice. Only in Italy…

I was recommended a Pizzeria by the campground staff and apart from fantastic food their claim to fame was 1 metre pizzas! Do not attempt on your own…

Siena is my destination and I have been talked into getting a hire car by the bride and groom to be.

One wing of Villa Catignano

Driving in Italy isn’t as bad as some would have you believe, but the signage is seriously dodgy. Siena took this concept to new heights then dashed it to the ground. I arrived in Siena early so I decided to do some exploring… After pointlessly driving around for about 30 minutes I gave up when I found an open shop – fortunately one that sold maps.

Once I figured that North wasn’t “up” on the map (a small detail they left out) I headed for “Villa Catignano”. Comparing war stories I found out that only one group managed to get to the villa without getting lost. The girlie swats had cheated and printed out the detailed instructions that had been provided on the wedding web site.

Villa Catignano is a restored Italian country side residence that sleeps about 80 people about 10km out of Siena. Historically it was the residence of the Sergardi family, one of the local names. While it is still in their ownership it is now used for upmarket accommodation. It is booked up for weddings over a year in advance.

Our setup was to be a week long party at the villa with a wedding in Siena sandwiched in the middle. Suffice to say it was an awesome week, helped in no small part by the endless supply of tap beer. I’m embarrassed to say that the Irish contingent made far more use of this service than did the Kiwi crowd!

Marriage Ceremony Room – El Campo

The wedding itself was impressive. We were bussed to the edge of the walled part of Siena and walked from there to El Campo, in the centre of town. 50 odd people walking through Siena in 30 degree heat in their Sunday best made for quite a sight. The tourists, Italian and foreign, stopped, stepped aside and watched in amazement as we trooped past. Fortunately the streets are quite narrow so we weren’t walking in direct sunlight.

The wedding was held in the Civic centre in El Campo in a room set aside for weddings. Unfortunately no one had a wide angle lens with their camera so it wasn’t possible to get a picture that did this amazing room justice. You’ll have to cope with a shot of the ceiling!

I give you …. Graham and Caroline Cluley!!!

There was no music, the congregation had to “sing” the wedding march and departure song (help, I don’t know what this is called). To my surprise the congregation rose to the occasion and the music was very moving. Caroline (the bride) obviously wasn’t expecting the singing and was quite blown away. She wasn’t the only one.

The ceremony was short and in Italian. Fortunately there was an English translation, which gave me some idea of what was happening! It was still typically Italian, which just added to the occasion.

Ok, I’m having difficulty here – I’m trying to put into words something that was an amazing experience, with quite a bit of emotion thrown in. It’s cliché time – It really is impossible to put into words. Nuff said.

Leaving Villa Catignano was quite sad, it had been an intense week of partying, visiting amazing Tuscan villages, making new friends and doing the wedding thing.

This wasn’t the end of my Italian experience, there is more to come! However this ePostcard is finished, so you will have to wait until the next instalment…

Take care, have fun!

Cheers

Mark