Broke Girl Travelling: A week in the Italian Alps

Right after New Years, my host family and I went on a ski trip to Vigo di Fassa, a village in the region of Trentino and approximately a 4.5 hour drive from Genova. We spent 6 days there and being the broke traveller that I am I couldn't afford to ski or snowboard so during those 6 days I went up the mountain to watch Emma ski, and pretty much just chill out on the mountain and take in the beauty of it, hard to complain hahaha. I spent two days visiting nearby villages such as Canazei with my host mum, Maria Rosaria, and doing short hikes between villages.

Being the last minute packer that I am, I was packing the day before we left when Emma comes into my room and hands me a stocking as in like a Christmas stocking to put in my luggage, I was confused (bear in mind that this was on New Years day) and with the language barrier between Emma and I, I just thanked Emma and took the stocking but didn't put it into my luggage since I had already overpacked and didn't really want to carry a stocking that I knew I wouldn't have use for. Turns out I needed that stocking. See the thing is that here in Italy a festive day called Epiphany, a Christian festive day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ (yes I did just copy and paste that from wikipedia) and is usually celebrated on January the 6th. According to Italian folktale an old lady called Befana visits all the children of Italy on Epiphany Eve (the night of January the 5th) and puts lollies and presents in the child's sock if they've been good or a lump of coal if they've been bad, similar to the concept of Santa Claus.

Little funny side story, on one of the days that we were heading to Canazei, a village about 12km away from Vigo di Fassa, as we were waiting for the bus at the bus stop, Maria Rosaria gets a call from Michele, my host dad, asking where we were. She tells him we're at the bus stop and he tells her to come get Emma because she was so tired she had fallen asleep on the chairlift going up the slopes. I thought that was the funniest thing I had ever heard, it still gets me!

Woah that's a lot of writing! Anywho I will be blogging again real soon about my trip to the Cinque Terre!
Til then
Flo xx