Ruby's Roamings

After a train ride and a bus trek up into the mountains, we arrived at our home in the Dolomites for the next 21 days! We had a one bedroom flat in the charming town of Ortisei (St. Ulrich), a mix of German/Austrian and Italian cultures and cuisine. Signs were in German, Italian and Ladin (a local dialect) and almost everyone we met also spoke English (I loved being called “bellissima”).

One of the wonderful things about staying for a longer period of time in one place is getting to live like a local and people come to recognize you and your humans. Going to the grocery store was a bit daunting at first, but Prime and Spare eventually got the hang of it. Almost all businesses shut down for a few hours every afternoon, so we had to plan accordingly for shopping and dining out. Ortisei is a very hilly place at a higher altitude, so walking was a great workout. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking and I enjoyed walking around to take it all in! Here are some shots from around the town…

One of the main reasons Spare picked this location was the access to a variety of ski resorts. Unlike skiing in the States, all the resorts are connected and you can ski from village to village. Spare took full advantage of this, skiing the Sella Ronda and many other runs. Since Prime is new to the whole skiing gig, she signed up for a week of ski school (prompted by a day when Spare overestimated her abilities and took her on more advanced runs than she felt qualified for… a lot of cursing ensued). At first the snow was mostly man made (you can see all the bare spots on the mountains), but we ended up getting quite a bit of snow in the last week. Here are some pictures my humans took from the mountains…

My humans and I made friends from around the world during our stay. They went out to celebrate Spare’s last official day of work and met a group from Brighton, England. Paula and her friend Danny were skiing with her nephew Oliver and his girlfriend Jamie and they shared many laughs and drinks throughout the evening (while watching others make bad decisions like dancing on tables). Oliver and Jamie invited my humans to meet them at a crazy après-ski party in Santa Cristina a couple of days later and all sorts of debauchery ensued (Jaeger bombs are never a good idea, but especially not over the age of 50)!

Prime made a lot of new friends at ski school! Eva from Frankfurt, Germany unfortunately had to go home after day 2 because her husband broke his leg on the mountain which was a huge bummer. We are still in touch and hope to see each other again! Susan is from the Netherlands but lives in Aruba and met her parents, Ed and Lilian, in Ortisei to ski (they still live in Europe). We ended up having drinks with Susan every day after the lesson (Spare would walk me into town to meet up with them for at least one cocktail). There were 3 Italians in the group, Desiree was the only one that spoke some English. My humans ran into her and her boyfriend Fabrizio in town and had drinks. Desiree and Fabrizio are military police (Carbinieri) in their hometown of Bologna. Bob from Bulgaria (it was revealed on the last day that Bob isn’t actually his name….HUGE plot twist!) spent a good portion of ski school smoking and then catching up with everyone randomly. He was a hoot and quite the sport being the only guy in our group! There was a Brazilian named Fabio in class for a bit, but he decided he was more advanced than the rest of us (poor Bob). Giulia was the best instructor ever and made us all comfortable on the mountain (Prime wanted Spencer to marry her, but alas, she has a boyfriend). She is fluent in 3 languages and could translate so we all understood each other. Such a great experience for all the humans involved! We’ll see how much of Prime’s progress remains when my humans ski in Andorra…

We then met Georgia and John from Cornwall, England (they wanted to pet me and hang out, so my humans invited them to sit with us…worked out amazing for everyone!). Georgia is the same age as Spencer and is finishing up university in Bournemouth. They were meeting up with another family (from Windsor, England) to ski for the week and we saw them many times for drinks and laughs (and lots of pets for me!). My humans went to the crazy Santa Cristina après-ski party again (but made better choices this time) where they met some crazy Romanians and even crazier Norwegians (who had stolen quite a bit of paraphernalia from the bar).

We met only a few Americans during our time in Ortisei, one person from Idaho and a couple from Boston. Aussies, Brits, Germans and Italians were the majority of tourists it seemed. The surprising question we got when people learned we were American (most thought we were Brits) was “why are you here? Don’t you have great skiing in the States?” This was usually followed by something like “oh, how’s it going over there?” or “what the hell is happening over there?” Skiing in Europe is exponentially cheaper than skiing in North America (even with travel and lodging expenses), but the Dolomites seem to be off the radar for Americans at this point (this may change after the Olympics). We found everyone to be very friendly and not overly interested in political conversation which was refreshing (and a relief).

The food was divine, a mix of traditional Italian (pizza, pasta, limoncello at the end of every meal) and German (spaetzle, schnitzel, German beer). The wine from the Südtirol (Alto Adige) region was delightful (and oh so cheap) and my humans enjoyed many a meal of speck, cheese, bread, pickles and a bottle of St. Magdelener at the flat after a day on the slopes. When ordering a drink, there were always small plates of snacks provided (for free), but you had to ask for water and buy a bottle for the table (which was usually more expensive than ordering wine or beer). My humans always gave me some of their snacks at après-ski, it was my favorite time of day. There was a fresh produce market across the street from our flat and an Alimentari below us (Spare would pick up wine, cheese and chocolate on the regular). The price of food is much less than the US and there are no processed foods/preservatives so everything is very fresh. My humans would occasionally take a bus to the gondola or another town (the public transportation, even in the small towns, is phenomenal), but mostly walked everywhere (helpful when you are eating so much cheese and bread). Spare really wants Prime to enjoy skiing, so would always carry her skis up and down the hill (this earned him HUGE points).

We have nothing but positive things to say about our stay in Ortisei, it is a magical place. We will most definitely be back, but arrivederci for now!