A Night in the Italian Alps

Pre Snow Storm in Cortina :|

I've been so busy launching the Saule Boutique Spring Line that I've completely been neglecting my blog! Last month, D had a couple days off and we decided to take an overnight trip to the mountains a couple hours away. One of the most amazing things about living in Italy, and Venice in particular, is how close we are to so many amazing places. We're three hours from the hustle & bustle of Rome, just over two to the art haven of Florence, half an hour away from some of Italy's biggest vineyards, and under two hours from the Italian Alps! Being from flat & humid Florida, I'm always in awe of anywhere mountainous and on a clear day here in Venice, you can actually see the Alps in the distance. Cortina is one of the main ski villages of Italy and it's about an hour and 45 minutes from us. I've been wanting to go all Winter so it was a no brainer when we actually had time to do so. 

So Saturday morning rolled around and D told me to pack my things and we'd take a road trip there for the night. I checked the weather on my iPhone Weather App and was surprised to see it would be 50 degrees. I shared the weather report with D and we both packed accordingly. Imagine our surprise when we arrived to Cortina to find ourselves amongst a snowstorm with under 30 degree weather. Growing up with snow and severe winters, D is very cautious about driving in the snow and being prepared with winter tires, so he was less than thrilled about the surprise conditions. Moral of the story: the iPhone weather app is BS.

Tucker checking out the view from our balcony

Cortina is a cute, small ski village with an adorable downtown area. The mountains are absolutely beautiful and according to our friend, it's the "Vail of Europe" which we continuously (jokingly) referred to it as all weekend.  There were so many Americans on vacation there that I couldn't believe I had never heard of the place before. We stayed at an adorable hotel with a huge balcony that overlooked the mountains and it felt unreal that we were just two hours from Venice.

The only two idiots not in ski gear in Downtown Cortina

As neither D nor I ski, we decided to take the gondola up to the top of the mountain for the view. Of course when we finally got up there, it had turned into a full blown snowstorm and was too foggy for me to see my hand in front of me. "50 degrees my ass" my dear husband said to me and after debating stealing people's ski equipment for a photo opp (we were the only losers on the mountain not skiing, I of course was wearing heels), we decided to all it a day and head back. 

So.Much. Snow.

Little chilly..

I feel so lucky that we've gotten the opportunity to experience so many cool places in Italy thus far and for a relatively small country, it has so much variety to offer. D's team is still doing great and remains in second place in the standings. We're excited for some visitors in the Spring and for the warmer weather to start coming around.

Beautiful ride home

'll have a new Recipe coming on the blog this week, I couldn't believe how many people wrote me that they tried my last one! So cool! Hope everyone has a wonderful March <3

XOXO