milano, cortina, and a whole lot of snow

ciao!

a mini-tour can be considered a success if 5 of the following 6 things occur:
1. no one breaks a leg skiing.
2. the main paper in milano writes an article calling you "la stella del Texas."
3. the snow holds off long enough for you to make it north in good time.
4. you spend less than 200 euro on gas.
5. you get to stop at an autogrill no fewer than 10 times.
6. no one loses their keys.

we woke up wednesday morning to find castiglion fiorentino blanketed in snow. it was lovely - but unfortunately, it was lovely at the wrong time, because we needed to leave for milano. the autostrada was clean, but the small winding road that you take to get from cast. f.no to the autostrada was less so. after much waffling and weighing of consequences we decided to go for it - and long story short, we made it.

the drive to milano was beautiful - seeing the rolling hills of tuscany covered in thick white powder was a pleasant first for me. it would have been more pleasant if we weren't panicked about arriving to milan on time - but we did, and our show that night at nidaba theatre was tons of fun. massimo, the head honcho, was super kind and went out of his way to do publicity for us...as a result, there was an article in the corriere della sera, milano's main paper, called la stella del Texas about the band and I. I am trying to find the link but it is eluding me at the moment.

after our show we drove to bergamo to spend the night...we drove...we drove...we drove...and after circling bergamo for an hour, we landed at 4 am. yeesh. up and out the door at 10 am to get to cortina, which is where all the fun really began. we were treated like royalty at villa resy - if you ever make it to cortina, i highly recommend staying there and letting Lai and his fantastic staff take care of you. we played thursday night in the hotel pub, smokey joe's, to an audience of brits, australians, italians, and germans. possibly my most diverse crowd ever. and one of the kindest.

the next morning we hit the slopes, thanks to Lai, who made a few phone calls around town. i heard him on the phone with a few different folks, saying the words "grandissima cantante di Texas" and the next thing I knew we all had free ski passes and skis for the day. incredible! good thing to note, should you ever go skiing in the Dolomites - the green trails are actually the ungroomed trails - the most dangerous. blue, red, then black, then green is the order, in case you are keeping track of these things.

our drive home was long and uneventful, except for the keys that were left on top of the van as we pulled out of villa resy and that are now somewhere on a mountain bend. oh well.

autogrill count: 11. not bad for 3 days.
kilometres traveled: 1400.
euro spent on gas and autostrada: at least 140 euro.

AND we were traveling with a fuel-efficient type of van that uses gas (like propane) instead of petroleum. If we had been using benzina (like American gas, which most cars here use) it would have been double. Consider that 1400 km is about 850 miles. With my Civic, I spent $50 to go 850 miles. We spent 140 euro, which is close to $200. WOW.

anyhow, more shows this week. check back for photos, and go visit the new ICOM site when you have time - sign the guestbook and let Aaron know how much he rocks.
lots of love and pastries,
vanessa