we breakfasted thoroughly and well. salume e fromaggio- babybel. alpen jogurt. succo de arancia. cappuccino and a donut. we headed over to the ski office and got outfitted. i bought a compression underarmor type shirt and chris bought some shades and a warm. the guys there hooked us up further with rentals- skis and boots. once we were hooked up we headed towards the funicular- the cable car type thing that takes skiers above the town and to falovia and the lifts. we had to take two funiculars, switching to another halfway up the side of the mountain face. we had to return to falovia at the end of the day so we could ride the right funicular down to cortina. so we left our shoes in a locker at the funicular office and headed towards the pistes(slopes). all these ski pics are taken with my phone- i didn't want to take my big bulky regular camera. the first lift at falovia was interesting. something i've never encountered before. each lift looked like a large disk hung by a rope attached to the center of the disk- much like a tree swing. the tree swings were about 10 yards apart and circulating- like a normal lift. at first i thought- well, we just grab it and hold on. but then the disks farther up the hill were dangling 20 feet from the ground so i nixed that idea. we sat back and watched until someone else did it to see what to do. the man just waited for a circulating tree swing, grabbed the rope just above the disk, and held on. the rope then extended, like one of those retractable dog leashes when the dog bolts after something. once it had accepted his weight it became tight and pulled him, skiing, up the hill. so we hopped on. once i was comfortable i straddled the rope and sat on it- like a tree swing! i let it pull me up the hill- and i took a few pics of chris behind me.
the first run was terrible! SO foggy! i hadn't gotten my bearings yet- i was NOT comfortable opening up and speeding along yet- so what else was there to do? go slow. and going slow = falling for me. and fall alot! which i did. everything was white and it was so foggy i couldn't read the terrain, minor bumps shocked me, big bumps shattered me. i was ready for this to be over.
either my eyes adjusted to the glare and fog or the fog cleared up a bit, because after that i was comfortable. i started to open up. it was fun skiing fast with chris- or at least faster than we typically ski with the kids.
we headed over to another big mountain once we did falovia a couple times. we ate il zuppo di giorno which was yummy and warm barley and ham at rifugio di rio gere. in the rifugio bar they were selling swiss chocolate bars. i bought a bar-since nothing else convenient was sold for fuel- i stowed it in my jacket. from rio gere we took a lift and then another up to san forco.
after doing that ride and returning we decided to take a lift from there that went all the way to the top- excpet the top was closed so we had to unload midway- which was as high as i was wanting to go anyway. 
we asked a guy to take a pic of us at the top- we could be anywhere. but i guarantee we were high up in the dolomites. i heard a jet and looked up. it looked big and close and the fluffy white streamers the jets left behind looked so close i could touch them.every piste from the top looked too vertical for my liking, even from midway lift drop, i thought "this can't be happening". my legs were already shot- all i wanted was a fluffy "so-long cortina" run. we made it down the difficult part without too many falls. i was getting sloppy and tired. i didn't want to get hurt so i started doing controlled falls. poor chris kept on having to wait for me. back at rio gere we learned from a japanese ski/tourist group that the lift to get us back to falovia and our locker was shut down due to fog. chris decided that instead of waiting at rio gere for a bus with a bunch of other skiers- we should take the lift from rio gere, ski down to below falovia, then take off our skis and hike up to the falovia funicular- the only way to get there without the lift or bus. so we headed out. when we got to the broken lift there was a short line of about 10 people. the caribinieri were carting people up the hill on snowmobiles. i got to go for my first snowmobile ride- behind a caribinieri and in front of a swiss lady. i had to hold on with my arms AND legs to make sure i wasn't thrown off when we hit a bump- which was often. it was so much FUN! and MUCH better than hiking. once back down in cortina we returned our rental stuff and headed(hobbled) back to the room and to warm showers and warm pj's and molto acua naturale! now my stomach is growling and i am hungry- chris needs to wake up from his nap and take me someplace where the food is "slap your momma" good.
we walked a little ways and in the same block that the church of cortina's church tower is on we ate at a pizzeria called porto rotundo. i ordered this pizze that was called "rugby". the description was- artichoke, mozerella, olives, prochiuto, uovo- which i figured was egg. i thought that it was interesting sounding. true to the description it had artichokes, whole black olives, and an over easy egg in the middle. i popped the egg and spread the yolk around the pizze and split the white about it evenly. it was SO tasty! then i had a salad- which was an insalate miste- mixed. with hardboiled egg, olives, corn- it was tasty as well. as i ate the salad, a couple guys were seated at the table immediately next to us. we began talking- luca and evgheni. luca is from sardenia- he told us the owner was sardenian as well- based on the name of the ristorante. evgheni was from bulgaria and was in town for a kite-boarding competition(like kite surfing but snowboarding). luca ordered these little pieces of food- it tasted like smoked dehydrated salty fish. he said it was a traditional dish from sardenia- and i found it rather savory. luca told us he was originally from modena. i immediately reached for the balsamico on the table- "like this modena?" he nodded but then also disagreed. he called the aceto on our table a word i won't repeat here. he recounted the LONG process his ancestors used to make aceto balsamico- how it takes 25 years, moving 200 litres down to 5 along casks of decreasing sizes and varying woods. he said he ended up in sardenia because he was a professional wind surfer- he showed us a picture of him windsurfing just yesterday off sardenia- it looked beautiful there! he told us of the emnity between kite surfers and wind surfers- probably like auburn and alabama fans. then luca ordered us a traditional sardenese drink- called mirto. it came in tall shot glasses and was accompanied by a bown of ice. you throw a piece of ice into the glass and then drink it. chris said it tasted like jaeger mixed with wine and evgheni said it tasted like jaeger mixed with sherry. i thought it was sweet and kind of syrupy.
i don't know how talk turned to kids but luca told us he had one- he asked us if we had kids. we told them we have 7 kids. evgheni clarified "you have a 7 year old boy?" it took them awhile to understand that we were, in fact, parents of 7 children. they were so amazed- asking us all kinds of questions- what car do we drive? do we need a special license to drive our van? what does chris do because we surely must be millionaires. what do we do when they want to eat something other than what is served? what do we do if they want to wear stylish clothes and not hand-me-downs? i guess we'd have to be millionaires if we felt the need to cater to every little whim of the kids. good thing i don't feel that need, nor do the kids often express those desires. i told them alot of that "need to fit in with other kids" isn't something we have to deal with because we home school. he said homeschooling is illegal in italy- your child MUST show up to school- the consequence of not showing up? i'm not sure but i'm glad i don't have to find out:)
luca is also a big rugby player- and a very passionate one at that. he argued that all the worlds problems would be easily solved if everyone payed rugby. he says in a rugby match there are 3 parts. the first two parts are the 80 minutes played out rough on the field. the third part is located at the bar- where tht two teams mix seamlessly and everything is peace and harmony. all disagreement is left on the field. indeed, many rugby stadiums have a bar between the locker rooms for this very purpose.
it was a nice evening- and the first real time we conversed on a deeper level with someone since our arrival. luca gave us his card and made us promise to look him up if ever we are in sardenia.
chris and i returned to the hotel and played gin at one of the various card tables in the lobby. at the other tables were older italian couples drinking and playing cards like us- and listening to the italian lounge singer. i think the only songs i recognized were "beseme mucho" and "i did it my way"- which he sang all but the chorus in italian.
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