Author: sanborn

I’m now home.

How to describe this situation? Plus it’s so huge and changes all the time… It’s taken me a long time to start writing. So distracting, so distressing.

When Italy started falling apart, I was in Aosta (far west corner near France). My first clue was during my drive up on March 4: an almost empty service station cafe on the highway, usually full of people cars trucks. Nothing! It was near a town where two new cases had been diagnosed. And that was was ten days ago.

Cogne, in the Aosta valley, was on my calendar to compete in the Masters World Cup XC ski races. I’d trained since November for them, but they had been cancelled. Most people had bailed out (originally 100+ americans as part of a total of 1500 racers), but since I could just drive there, I decided to go anyhow. The trip was great, the scenery awesome, and I’ll post about it next.

When I came down for breakfast the first morning in Cogne, I discovered that there were only three of us in the entire hotel. How lucky for me that the other two were women skiers from Alaska who had arrived a week earlier to prep for the races. Hey, I’d have company!

We skied together and had a great time, but gradually everything broke down across Italy, eventually reaching even this village far up a valley in the Italians Alps. The hotels shut down, the shops closed, the bars were only open until 6pm. Few travelers joined us, although Friday and Saturday nights were busier, with people from Milan and other areas driving up.

My Alaskan friends were affected: Cindy’s Air France flight home from Milan was abruptly cancelled when the airport closed and Dorothy decided to change her later flight to go home with Cindy. But from where? They first thought of taking a bus to Geneva, but finally decided to leave Tuesday and drive down to Rome and fly from there. The highway went through the “red zone” around Milan so they needed a formal document to get past any police on the road. The hotel prepared the docs for them. (Btw, I’ve been in touch and they got home fine. Nobody asked them anything about their travels when they landed in the US despite coming from Italy.)

Monday morning I was told that I’d need to move to another hotel because this one was shutting down. Okay. I packed my bags and went skiing at a XC place (Etroubles/Saint Rhemy) across the Aosta valley. I skied a couple hours and then, when I got back to my car, there was a big “CLOSED” sign across the trail. Sigh. That’s it. Might as well plan on going home. No point sticking around.

This was serious. I stopped at a Conad Supermarket in Aosta on the way home. There were 15-20 people outside and a guard at the door. Only 50 people allowed inside at once. We had to wait until people came out. It was very calm inside, and yes, I bought an extra package of TP but only one. Nobody seemed worried.

When I got back to Cogne, I discovered that the ski trails there were also closed. In fact, the entire valley was closed. Sigh. Okay, throw in the towel. Weds morning I hiked a couple hours up the local valley on the snow walking trail. Very beautiful.

By now, Tuesday night, there was the new decree of the countrywide lockdown. The hotel prepared a travel doc for me too, so I could travel home but my drive was uneventful, although this time the service station cafe was even more deserted. I couldn’t even see any staff.

Thursday was tough. I felt trapped, a prisoner. The limitations of the lockdown freaked me out. I must stay within my local town’s boundaries. I’m not allowed even to drive to the next town five minutes away. OMG. If I do go anywhere, on foot, in my car, on my bike, I must carry a self-authorizing document stating why I am outside my home and the only acceptable reasons are: to go to work, to purchase food and necessities of life, for medical reasons (pharmacy or doctor’s appt), or to return home from a vacation or trip.

Nonetheless, I had to figure out a way to get out of the house. I’m allowed to travel to shops within my town’s boundaries, so I rode my town bike to the supermarket. Felt like a criminal. But when I got there and saw the long line of 50-60 people, I rode back home. Rode over a freeway (autostrada) that was completely empty in both directions. Later I went for a run up into the hills behind my house, again feeling like a criminal, wondering if someone who saw me run past would report me or if I’d see a policeman. Unpleasant.

Yesterday it was better and today more so. They have clarified the decree and I’m allowed to walk or run near my house. I’m definitely also allowed to go to the store. Whew. Today when I came back from the store. the roundabout right next to my house hingad a small black Carabinieri car and several uniformed policemen there hauling cars in for a check. They barely glanced at me. Whew.

Now I’m settling in… I ride around on my bike to get the newspaper (tabacchi are open) and to go to the store by the most circuitous route I can find. I run in the hills above the house. I work out indoors. I talk with friends and do video chats. This evening, I had dinner with my brother and his wife in Todi and two friends in Pietrasanta… on Whatsapp. and it worked great! We’re doing it again next Sunday. We’ve all laid bets as to when the lockdown will lift and when the cases will level off. The most pessimistic had the lockdown continuing until May 31. Yikes. I am hopeful that the total lockdown will end in March. We’ll see!

This a terrible situation. There was an article in the paper saying that Bergamo is so overwhelmed that they now have a protocol that means that anyone over 70 who has a secondary complication will only be given palliative care. They simply don’t have ventilators and doctors/nurses available for intensive care. The numbers here in Tuscany are still low: 614 cases, 10 recovered, 6 dead, all of whom were over 80. They are bringing doctors and nurses out of retirement. Everyone is working endless hours. It’s overwhelmed the hospitals and their staff.

All parks with fences have been closed. Newspapers print how many people are already in intensive therapy and how many beds are available here in Tuscany. So far, so good. Lucca has 30 people already and beds for 213. Pisa has 58 beds occupied and 473 available. Versilia, where I live, has only 8 people already in the hospital, but only 53 beds. Agriturismo hotels are being pressed into use as quarantine sites. Lots of people here are doing cool things together, like applauding or singing at their windows at a specific time like a flash mob. Lots of rainbow banners saying “Andra tutto bene” (All will work out).

Everyone I’ve spoken with is supportive. When you look out across the country, the far right wing parties are not happy, but everyone else is.

Everybody I know who was coming to Italy has cancelled their plans. The spring might be very very quiet. The italian economy is going to suffer horrendously. Easter is a huge tourist time, but not this year. Ouch!

Done! Mission accomplished!!!

Marcialonga translates as “long march” and it was just that for me today. It’s in the Dolomites and starts from Moena. There are two versions: 70km and 45km. I did the shorter one, thank goodness. It’s a classic ski race, which translates in cross country skiing as the one that uses those two tracks in the snow (the other style of XC skiing is skating, which is a bit like roller skating).

Since I live in Italy now, it seemed right to try this race. I signed up last year and booked an apartment. Well, turned out the apartment is right next to the race start. Very handy this morning!

My wave didn’t start until almost 9am, so I had plenty of time to watch earlier racers. I got to see the elite women power up a hill, all in a line, double-poling. They made it look easy, and fluid! A nice start to the day. Later I watched the first waves of men fight their way uphill.

We dropped our clothing bags off in trucks and then made our way to the start pens. They checked my number off on a list. All good. This race tends to have 7,500-7,900 people. My pen held maybe 500 skiers.

Finally they sent us out. For each of us, the race began when our chip (built into our race bibs) went over the start line.

And I’m off! Uphill. That is, uphill for 18km (~11 miles), some of it very steep. Here’s the first big climb: it’s called “leg buster” and goes up for half a kilometer.

The race course goes up a valley and then turns around and comes back down. The day was overcast, which kept me from overheating most of the time. I skied some sections without gloves to keep the sweat down.

There was a feeding station after 10km, and a few (very few) later. It’s not like America with poles of pretzels, chips, energy bars, M&Ms, bananas, boiled potatoes, salt pills, etc. Here in Europe is much simpler: squares of sugar, chunks of chocolate, and raisins. Fortunately I brought some of my own race snacks. To drink they had warm energy drink and warm sweet tea, which hit the spot.

After the first 18km, the rest was pretty much downhill. But that 18km was tough. I was very slow.

The turnaround is in the town of Canazei and skiers make a small loop around the main square. As I approached, I knew I was close to the cutoff time of 12:30. In fact, I’m pretty sure I was past it but not by much. I was very happy when the official waved me through. I was one of the last people through. Yikes!

As I headed down the valley, I was pleased, but already my feet and legs hurt from the unstable course. Who cared? I was on my way to the finish. Fewer skiers still on the trails, but enough for me not to feel I was alone, but not to feel crowded.

There were a few hills on the return. Here’s one, the “endless one.”

Oddly, on this race, I liked the uphills (they weren’t hard at my end of the pack because we could only step up slowly one behind the other) but disliked the downhills. In fact, right at the beginning when the trail zigs and zags up and down through the village of Moena, I joined a lot of other skiers and took my skis off and walked along a hillside rather than deal with the steep down and up on the trail. Felt strange.

The weather was perfect on the descent. Still overcast but a little warmer so I stayed warm enough. But 27km is still a long way, even if most of it tilts down. I did okay, passing quite a few people, which cheered me. I had good energy until the last 10km when I got cold and had to stop to put my jacket on because I wasn’t moving hard enough.

The snow was so slippery and unstable that I double-poled most of the race. I figure I double-poled about 25-30km. Yikes.

The last kilometer through the town of Predazzo was very challenging. There was snow piled up over a straight street leading to the church at the center of town. There were still people on the side of the route clapping us on and calling out encouragingly “Brava” and “Forza!” I smiled, but I was ready to be done and I still had to keep going. Sigh. I passed under the banner just before 4pm, so I was out on my skis for 7 hours (6:50 to be precise).

Once I was done, there was a finisher’s medal and a plate of pasta. We’re in Italy!

Then a bus home and a video chat with my niece Perry and her daughter Alice. A lovely transition back to real life. 🙂

I’m here in the Dolomites to do a ski marathon on Sunday, but I got here on Wednesday to give me some time to settle in. The race begins in Moena, which is the town where I’m staying. It’s in a narrow valley below steep mountains. This is the Sudtirol part of Italy, called Alto Adige in Italian. The signs are in German and Italian and lots of the foods in the supermarkets are typical of this area: speck, canderli, spaetzle, and several other tasty things that I don’t know the names for.

Yesterday I drove 15-20 minutes up into the mountains (Passo San Pellegrino) and found 20km of beautifully groomed talks with excellent snow. The first 10km was free but I had to buy a ticket for the rest: €3. OMG!! The cappuccino I got just before I skied the second half cost €2.30.

Today I drove 35 minutes way up into another set of mountains, on the other side of the valley, and found endless trails with sunshine and views of the valley towards Bolzano. This was Passo  Lavasè and it cost all of €8.50.
Amazing snow, incredible views, and tons of very excellent skiers from Germany, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Czech Republic, and who knows where else. I barely heard Italian. I was quite intimidated. I switched to skate skiing to be out of their way. They’d come fitting by in the tracks and blow past me. Sheesh!


I ended up getting lost and skiing a lot of extra kilometres but eventually found a restaurant near the tracks way out on a ridge and was able to recover enough to get myself up the hill to the parking lot. I’m so not in shape!

The views as I skated around the mountain sides were absolutely incredible.

And to finish,  the best shot from today. View it sideways if you can to get the full impression.

My very short ride to France ended yesterday when I did a combo of train and riding to get back home. The day started with an early walk around town to see the cathedral and the sunrise.

The basilica has two churches on a small square high up above town. The early morning light makes them look unreal.

Then down to the beach, where I caught furled umbrellas with the sun bright against them, vivid red, and then with the sun behind them, dark outlines.

As I headed back to the hotel to have breakfast with my two friends, I passed the town market. Bright lines of color against the zebra stripes.

Breakfast was a perfect combination: English tea and croissant!

I took the train to Ventimiglia (20 mile), just over the border. Wandered there for an hour before catching the Genoa train. The town was lively with the Saturday market busy and energetic.

Got off the train at La Spezia and rode the rest of the way home. Incredible light and warm colors. Popped down into the village of San Terenzo for an ice cream. They have done a great job with their small seaside piazza, it’s very inviting and comfortable.

Got home just before it became too dark to ride. Very strange to be done with my adventure and be home again. Felt like I’d left weeks ago, but it was only five days!

Today we arrived in Menton France. The border guards couldn’t even be bothered to look at us…

Tomorrow I head home and Diane and Slavica head north to Macon, eventually to Paris. I get croissants for breakfast, they get new adventures.

The ride today took us along an amazing 24km bike path, complete with good bike path tunnels. A couple were almost 2km long, but well lit, so fine.

Endless paths, with cafes along the way. Check out this cafe fence!

We started the day in Imperia with a lovely sunrise.

I saw a cool cathedral so made my way there only to find it looks better from the distance. So then I got to play “hill town street bingo” for quite a while before I could figure it how to get out of town.

Eventually we arrived in Menton where nobody got the memo that summer ended several weeks ago. It’s lovely here!

Menton is a very comfortable place. We love it here. Walked all around.

In the evening, we walked down to the beach. It’s like Disneyland for adults…

Great place for watching the sunset with a drink in hand.

We’re off to sleep now. Enjoy!

In Italy, just next to Cinque Terre, at Levanto. Day Two of a self-supported ride to France. I’m with two delightful women, one Serbian one Canadian. We ride all day, buy food at the supermarket, cook and eat together. Repeat.

We started at Carrara, rode through La Spezia, then took a road above Cinque Terre with almost no cars. Hard but good. Here’s Vernazza from above.

Then we dropped down into Levanto for the night. Strange place, like a youth hostel but with a great outside patio for eating. The next morning we wandered into the town before heading off.

Saw a lovely black and white church, inside and out.

A couple colorful shots: balcony fence and the beach-side place where we took coffee to start the day.

Very colorful new paint job! Near the train station in Sestri Levante.

A beautiful morning glory on the side of the road…

Near the top of the Passo del Bracco, there was the Cyclist’s Fountain, with crystal clear cold water. Wonderful. We refilled everything.

xx Xxx

Finally we dropped down into Rapallo, a fairly large town, famous and impressive throughout the centuries. Here’s an old port tower.

We’ve ended up in a good apartment, but it’s high on a hill and the owners building come to let us in until 7:30pm, but we arrived there at 6:15. So we sat outside for ages…

Tomorrow we fight our way through the Genoa megalopolis and spend the night in Varazze or somewhere over there. Stay tuned!

My good friends Anne and Davide are here in Milan visiting Davide’s mother, who lives in a suburb, Gallarate, so I decided I’d just drive up and hang with them for a couple days.

Yesterday Anne and I had an afternoon wandering the city. It was a blast! I hadn’t been in Milan for maybe 40-45 years.

We took in the Duomo, that froth of bright gothic spires. Completely over the top. And when we were there, there was an organized event going on to raise money for food in Africa. Each donation put a balloon on an empty plate.

Then we walked the streets and came across this sculpture outside the office of the Financial Administration. It looks like someone giving the finger, but the other fingers are broken off, not bent. A very fine distinction.

Around the corner was the church of Saint Maurizio (San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore). Turns out our two church chapels together. The religious could stay private in the inside church and the public could sit in the outside church. The church we saw was incredible. A square shape with every centimeter painted.

While we were there, a Bach violin concerto got underway in the inside church. We started for a while and listened. Loved it!

Then out once more. I wanted to see the Saint Ambrogio buildings. As we approached, we could hear organ music. How wonderful again! We entered to find a service just starting. We padded silently along the side corridor and listened for a while. A surprising amount of people in attendance.

Making our way outside, we discovered a classic monastery loggia. The light was going but what remained was rich and warm. It was incredibly beautiful and I wanted to stay there forever. Just perfect!

Today we’ll have lunch with Davide’s mom and cousins, and then we might go to Lago Maggiore. I’ll drive home tomorrow…

Day before yesterday, I finally got to hike with some friends who are big hikers. I’ve been it out town or they’ve been busy, but finally we did it. I’m hoping we do a lot more!

Mara and Chris chose a wonderful loop hike above Camaiore, which is the next town towards Lucca from where I live. They know all the hikes and history of the area, and there’s a lot (of both).

Right at the start of our hike (if I recall correctly) was this memorial spot. It’s still visited and kept up.

Once we got up away from road, the first place we came to was Castello Montecastrese, an important lookout village in the 1100s. The Lucchese conquered it in the 1200s and broke the tower in two, which you can see lying on its side.

You can see the walls of the houses and the walls around the village, some of which are now terraces.

Of course the views are incredible.

Further along was a cross that is lot every three years when the area has a night of illumination for Easter. Next one 2022. The small jars will be filled with oil and are visible for miles.

After that, we walked down to a stream and up the other side.

This area, called Candalla, was an important manufacturing area, with gunpowder factories using the stream’s water to power their machines. Abandoned now, the walls remain.

It’s very strange to hike along mountain trails, with steep jagged peaks towering above, and yet to be reminded of three people who have lived here for venture centuries. I felt like I was an explorer in the Amazon jungle.

Further along was also an old pastificio factory (pasta making) and it too has been left to nature. Hey, this was a happening place in the 1500s!

Our goal was to get to the village of Casoli for a caffè, which we did. I’d ridden my bike to this town but hadn’t ever walked around. Turns out 10 or so years ago, the locals (one of whom was an important painter) decided to create their own mural paintings. Now they are scattered all over town.

The artistic atmosphere encouraged other odds and ends.

Altogether lovely. We had coffee on a terrace looking down the valley and up into the mountains. Happy.

In Pont D’Alleyras, we stayed at a hotel whose restaurant had a Michelin star. The food was incredible. This was our first course.

Across the road was this fellow:

Fifteen minutes up the road was the delightful village of Alleyras.

But it was inside the town that was so incredible. For some reason nobody knew, there are stuffed animals and people propped up all around town. Check these out!