23hrs of flying and 7 plane meals later, and I’ve finally arrived in Italy! The flight was anything but cruisey but it all quickly became worth it as we began our decent into Milan airport. I was greeted by the stunning view of the sun beaming down on the glistening snow capped muntains which surrounded us. See it doesn’t have to be minus a thousand degrees and miserable to have snow! Pretty sure someone should have told Canberra this.
So I was great at the airport by soigny extraordinaire Beth Duryea in the unmistakeable AIS team van and it was only a short drive to Castronno, Varese which I will be calling home for the next 6 weeks!
Pulling up to the house, it was nothing like I had expected! It is a 4 story ‘complex’ with self contained apartments varying in size on each level. I’m staying in room 6 which I will be sharing with Belinda Goss when she arrives on the 26th and Tiffany Cromwell who arrives on the 2nd of July but for now I’m in here all by myself! Lauren Kitchen is sharing with Amber Halliday and Carlee Taylor, Shara Gillow and Chloe Hosking are bunking together. We are each responsible for cooking/preparing our own meals for the length of the stay which is good as it teaches us to still become independent whilst away racing and gives us the challenge of trying to fend for ourselves in a country where we have no idea what is going on! But fear not, I have come equipped with my Italian phrasebook and dictionary on my Ipod touch and have been informed that we will be having Italian lessons twice a week for the duration of our stay!
After unloading all of my gear, I was faced with my first challenge of a trip to the supermarket to buy some essentials for lunch (so I could eat something which actually resembled real food!). I only had a couple of minutes in the shop but I was quite impressed with my efforts and came out with all the essentials to make probably one of the tastyest sandwiches to date. I would give myself an A for effort in this challenge :)
In the afternoon, I went out with the girls for their second session of the day to spin out the legs. It was about 28 degrees and you couldn’t have wiped the smile off my face! I think it was just after we’d ridden through the middle of Varese and then out pass the Lindt factory onto the windy undulating roads when I said to myself “yeah, I could get use to this :)”
The day was capped off by a trip to the Gelati store which is literally just across the street! The owner hand makes it fresh every morning and it’s safe to say that he will be seeing a hell of a lot more of me whilst I’m here!! Equipped with my Italian dictionary, I was able to decipher all of the flavours and settled for a mixture of stracciatella, banana and coconut. Oh my. I’m pretty sure I’m never going to eat gelati in Canberra ever again! The taste in your mouth as the ice slowly melts on your tongue and the refreshing feeling it gives you as it slides its way down your throat…Jealous yet? :P
So that pretty much sums up my first day in Italia :) It is everything I could have imagined and o so much more! I will upload photos shortly of the house and where we are staying so until then stay tuned!!
Take care
xx
No comments:
Post a Comment