Happy NYE 🥳. Writing this from Italy.
I’m currently in the midst of a ~10 day trip in Italy, with two friends from high school, one of which lives with his family in Alessandria. This will mostly be a dump of my favorite photos so far and some random thoughts/stories from my first 2 days there.
View from a friend’s house in Valtournenche.
For some reason, this Italian village decides to celebrate the new year 2 days early. None of the Italians with us seemed to know why, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Italy in the small amount of time I’ve spent here, it’s that they take every opportunity they can to celebrate, slow down, and enjoy plenty of food and drink.
We (read: the Italians) cooked polenta with a beautiful meat sauce, then made our way to the night market where the celebrations continued with hot wine, génépi (local alcohol made from fermented wildflowers), and bombardino (think spiced rum mixed with whipped cream).
They followed this up with an insane firework show… all on the 29th of December.
Italian dish called stinco (roasted pork shank). All the Italians we were with insisted this was mediocre stinco… but it’s far better than anything I’ve ever eaten at a ski resort before. Now to learn how to cook it…
So far all of the cliches of heard about Italian culture really are true. From the ski house, the ski lift, locally produced sausage and cheese, and a bakery were all within walking distance.
Regardless of what they’re doing, people here simply refuse to not eat incredible food for every meal (except for breakfast… which is typically only bread or cookies).
Random updates:
Taking an avalanche course over MLK weekend, excited for ski season 😃
Reading the gene, it is *really* good. I didn’t realize how much progress we have made in the field over the last 50 years.
Attempting to read war & peace. Enjoying it but it’s a marathon so no guarantees if I’ll actually finish it.
Have a lot of ideas I want to write about 🤞
Interesting co’s:
Thank you all that have made 2019 great. I have no idea what twists and turns 2020 will bring. My only goal for the coming year is to keep finding ways to get lost… and to share a bit of that with y’all.
Happi (almost) 2020. I wish you all the absolute best.
with love,
Taylor