If you ever get the chance to visit Predazzo, Italy, you should definitely stay at Hotel Touring. No, I wasn’t paid to say that. I just think it’s true. The hotel staff is super nice and it’s a great place to be training and recovering in, and it’s right in town. Right now it’s just me, Liz, Matt and Noah here since the rest of the team is in Czech racing the sprints, and Kik and Holly are recovering elsewheres with friends and family.
The view from our balcony, looking down main street
After the Tour I took a little mental break and pretty much shut down – I wasn’t super good about checking email, or getting back to people. I needed a little break to re-charge, and I got it! Which felt really good.
We got to go skiing up on the Passo Lavaze, which was absolutely beautiful, on the tops of the mountains, and sunny. It went down in the books as one of the most beautiful and fun skis ever, for me.
Liz's Birthday Card!
And it was Liz’s 26th Birthday! The team got her a painting, called “Pigs in Shit”, by Hannah Dreissigacker. She was SO PSYCHED and it made me super, super happy to see her so pumped about it!
So here’s a short list of things I’ve picked up on about Predazzo/Italy in general. You’ll probably hear a lot more about this town since we’ll be staying here for World Champs in a month, but why not get started now?
- I learned from our waiter that in some jobs (hotel workers, for example) you work for 90 days straight, then get 2 months off. Because Predazzo is such a seasonal town with winter skiing and summer hiking/climbing being the main attractions, the hotel straight up shuts down in the spring and fall.
- There is a Main Street, which will get you to where you need to go, but that isn’t very exciting. If you take the shortcuts through the houses and twisting alleyways, you see so many cool buildings with laundry flapping out the windows and crumbling cobblestones barely wide enough to get a car through.
- They LOVE their tricycle-trucks here. I snagged this picture of one from Google, because they are impossible to describe. They are also impossibly loud and slow, because I think they have the same engine as a chainsaw. But they are everywhere! And they’re pretty sweet.
Yep. That's it!
Tomorrow we’re driving to La Clusaz, France, where we’ll meet up with the rest of the team and race the following weekend. This year I’ve gotten to see a ton of new places and this is yet another first time at a venue for me. SWEET!
