Skiing in Corvara, (Alta Badia) Italy

Saturday, February 21

Another Saturday we decided to make a day trip to go skiing. This time we decided to go to Corvara, Alta Badia in Italy. Which is only about 2.5 hours away.

We started the day off at a restaurant called Boobe's to get a little breakfast before we hit the road. Our friend's had done this the last time they left so we decided we would try it too with them. Preston and I split a breakfast of toast, eggs, hash browns, sausage and bacon. Now time to hit the road!

(Weird lighting inside Boobe's)

When we got there, there were  already a pretty good amount of people there, so we were interested to see how crowded the slopes actually were. The only bad thing about this place was that the lift tickets were a little more expensive than the other places we had been too.

We all road the gondola up to the top of the mountain. I was so excited to be skiing again!

After skiing down one section of the mountain we went back up a chair lift and all got a drink to start off our morning. I got a spritz.

(Spritz)

Now time to really ski!

The views as usual were beautiful (at least in the morning before it started to get cloudy).

For lunch we stopped at one of the restaurants on top of the mountain. Preston got spaghetti, which was probably the biggest portion of spaghetti I've seen given to someone in Italy. While I got lasagna. (Forgot to take a picture of them)

By the time we got back to skiing it started to snow a lot, plus getting a little more cloudy and foggy. This made it a little difficult at some points to see the snow, it all just blended in.

(Preston and I)

(Bryce)

(Started to get a little foggy)

(Mary and Corey)

At the end of the day we all sat a one of the local bars to get a drink before we headed home. My friend had me try two different types of shots, one was a pear shot and one was the eggnog one, Vov. Both were very interesting. Like I had said in a different post, some places in Italy make Vov a little differently because this one actually didn't taste as bad as the first one I had tried on New Year's Eve.

After relaxing for a little it was time to head home after another fun time skiing. Little did we know we would get stuck in a snow storm...

Valentine's Day

Saturday, February 14

I usually wouldn't post this as a blog but, I thought I had to share more than just a picture I would put on my Ristorantes page.

I had heard about a place from one of my Italian friend's where you can cook your own steaks. Of course I needed to know where this place was because I love a good steak! It ended up being not too far from our house, which made it even better. The name of the ristorante is Al Cavaliere Perso and is located near the church in Pordenone. There is also a "parking lot" right by this place which makes super convenient if your only going to the ristorante. It is owned and run by four Italian women. If you want to make sure you can get a seat I would recommend calling in advance and telling them the day, time and how many people are in the party because they fill up fast! I don't know how many people we saw walk in and have to turn around and walk out. Another thing to know is they don't speak English very well, so make sure you know some basic Italian phrases.

(Witches everywhere!)

Preston and I got a table to ourselves by a window, which was nice. I ordered a glass of Prosecco, why not we're celebrating, and Preston got his usual Coke.

To start we ordered gnocchi with rabbit sauce/meat. (Does not sound very appetizing but it is better than you think) Plus, it was one of the biggest bowls of gnocchi we have gotten in Italy.

Next, we ordered the cook your own steak. You can choose from 3 different types. We ended up ordering the Argentina one; it also comes with vegetables or potatoes, we choose vegetables since we already had gnocchi (which is potatoes). I was so excited to get our food because you get to cook it at your table on a mini cast iron grill.

Both of our steaks and vegetables came out on a big plate along with the separate mini cast iron grill. I felt like a little kid with how excited I got, knowing we would be cooking our own steaks in front of us.

After devouring our meals they came over and gave us complementary glasses of dessert wine with heart shaped lemon flavored cookies.

I'm so glad our friend told us about this place because it was definitely worth trying! I would definitely go back again!

To continue our Valentine's Day dinner/dessert we wanted to stop at one of our favorite gelato places, Il Gelato in Aviano. I'm not sure if it was special for Valentine's Day but they had a flavor called "Love", which basically was fior di latte with pieces of red velvet cake. Delicious!

This was probably one of the best Valentine's Day ever!!

Carnivale in Aviano

Sunday, February 8

Today my friend, Kimberly and I decided to go to Aviano's Carnivale. Every year around this time most of the towns host their own mini Carnivale, similar to the well known one in Venice.

In the center of Aviano they had a few different stands with toys/balloons, food, pastries and different kinds of sweets. There was also a big blow up slide for kids to go down and a stage they played music from. Some people came in costumes; there were no specific type of costume people wore, we say everything! People on stilts, people in fat people costumes, princesses, clowns and so many more.

The main parade was out in the streets around Aviano. There were multiple floats that went by with people dressed in costumes on the float and some dancing down the streets near their float. Unfortunately, we missed the first float go by which was Bugs Bunny. But the next ones were still cool to see.

Some of the people would walk by throwing confetti. Sometimes they would come right up to you and throw it directly on you. Little to say we got covered!

After the floats all went by we wanted to try and find this place in Aviano called Desiree, that we've heard multiple people say has really good hot chocolate. It actually ended up being closer to the square than I had thought. Plus, while walking over there we got to actually see the beginning of the parade since it came back through some of the side streets in Aviano. We were happy we got to actually see the Bugs Bunny float. This float the people like attached us with confetti! We were covered! We felt bad then walking into Desiree's after since we were dropping confetti everywhere we walked, but I guess a lot of other people in there were too.

Attack of the bunny...

We sat down by a window to relax a little and get a pastry plus the hot chocolate. They have so many different flavors to choose from! There was a book of all the different kinds they could make, which made it even harder for me to decide. If you're a coffee/espresso lover you can add one of these it into your hot chocolate as well. Plus, you can add whipped cream on top too. I ended up going with the Sweet Almond Hot Chocolate with whipped cream. It was delicious!!

I can't wait to go back and try even more from the hot chocolate menu! :)