Thursday, September 12, 2013

Bardonecchia

As you may have figured out I'm now in Italy, and finally here is a post set in Italy! Not in Milan though, I'll get round to that one eventually.

Not long after I arrived my landlord invited me to go with her and her children to their holiday house near the French border. Bardonecchia is a ski town but it's still beautiful in summer and it's nice to escape the heat of the city in August! You kiwis scoff but there's something to be said for having a summer house in cooler climes (or a winter house in the Caribbean!)

We packed into the car after much child wrangling and off we went. With a quick stop at some outlets and a surprisingly police-filled highway detour we made it.

Entering mountain country
Once we were settled we went wandering to explore the town.






We had an easy evening, I watched a Disney movie with one of the boys in Italian with English subtitles.

The next morning we went exploring again, and played around. One of Donatella's friends came for lunch. Very relaxed.

This is a type of light doughnut with a chocolate center (traditionally jam though) called a 'krafen' - it's Italian so I had to try at least three!


In the evening we to one of her friends restaurants to try a special tasting menu they had.

It began with fried crackers and a vinegar dip.
 Then we had a plate with crumbed chicken drumstick, white fish, an oyster, shrimp, semolina and a pumpkin roll, all of which was delicious!

 We moved on to dessert.
 This included a peach poached in it's own syrup, a sugar coated pastry of some kind (technical term), battered and fried chocolate - the chocolate becomes a viscous goop (another technical term) inside which is delicious and not so hot as to burn you, and another krafen, this time jam. All of this was washed down with sparkling wine - not a bad night!
 The next day was my last in Bardonecchia and it was another relaxed affair. We checked out a market, got some baked treats, and popped by a park so the kids could play.

The berries were very tart but the filling was sweet - a good mix if you ate them together.


Everything is overshadowed by the mountains. I loved it - Milan is very flat.

Fountains like this are common in Italy (so far as I can tell) and you can stop on the roadside for a drink from one.

I've heard a couple different names for this but I think it is a caffe crema fredda - one of my new favourite drinks! It's kind of cold coffee ice cream and very creamy, light and sweet.
The French Alps.
In the afternoon I grabbed the train back to Milan to spend one night before I jumped on an 18 hour bus to Sicily. Long bus trips are becoming a bad habit of mine!


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