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Chamber of Commerce picture-postcard-perfect day in Zermatt

25 Sep
The last time I was in Zermatt was 43 years ago. A college girlfriend and I made the Grand Tour of Europe in the summer of 1972 following Frommer’s Europe on $5.00 a Day. Zermatt was a splurge because we had to pay $5.35 EACH just for our room and breakfast, way over budget. I think we lived on bread and cheap wine for the duration of our stay. I never forgot how beautiful it was. It still is. It’s still expensive, too.
Postcard view. The Matterhorn remained cloud free all day.
Postcard view. The Matterhorn remained cloud free all day.
We arrived the other day to cold — almost winter-cold — weather. Having worn my jeans for 3 days, they could practically stand up by themselves. I needed to wash them and had only unlined hiking pants to wear for Thursday’s planned expedition to a high elevation. If it was cold in Zermatt, 10,000+ feet was not going to be any better. I set off to see if I could find any tights to wear as insulation. At one of the many shops selling high-priced outdoor fashion, I stated my need. “We didn’t expect it to be so cold,” I told the clerk. “Neither did we,” he said. If the Swiss think it’s cold, it IS cold. Luckily they had a lovely pair of purple and black merino wool long johns for me. I guess today we do not say “long johns” nor even “long underwear;” it is a “base layer.” How elegant. And they were just the ticket.
From the Rothorn. There are other mountains, but it is hard to not focus on the Matterhorn.
From the Rothorn. There are other mountains, but it is hard to not focus on the Matterhorn.
Thursday morning we layered up with everything we could and headed out to ride the underground funicular and two gondola lifts to the Rothorn, where one get the classic postcard view of the Matterhorn. The day could not have been more perfect!  A light dusting of snow from the night before added to the beauty.
Not wishing to hike from quite that high, we headed down to the Blauherd station and set off to hike The Marmot Trail. We wanted an easy-ish hike the first day so as not to repeat our July 6 experience. I picked The Marmot Trail as it was rated for those as young as 4-years-old. I figured a couple of anziani could manage. The 4-year-olds the writer had in mind must have been mountain goats! The first third of the downhill-bound trail was marked by rocky portions waiting to twist your ankle and slippery, gooey, clay-based, green-tinged mud that made footing even on flat portions dicey.
Black & white goats, unique to the Valais, resting in a high mountain pasture.
Black & white goats, unique to the Valais, resting in a high mountain pasture.
The only sign of marmots we saw was scat.
At Sunnegga, a lift station and restaurant, we decided to take a restorative espresso while lounging on the delightful deck in full view of the Matterhorn. Switzerland is expensive, but I was shocked when our two double-espressos came to 12.40 CHF! And I had to prepare them myself from a self-service machine. I said to Ric, “And people complain about Starbucks prices.” He quipped back, “But Starbucks doesn’t have a view of the Matterhorn.” Amen.
This little guy and his friends were hanging out trailside on our path-to-lunch.
This little guy and his friends were hanging out trailside on our path-to-lunch.
There’s a trail from Sunnegga to Zermatt called the Gourmetweg. Along this trail one encounters not only several restaurants, but several  exceptional restaurants. We are used to having good meals when we hike: freshly prepared food, ceramic plates and real glasses, good wines, and so on. (No hotdogs, burgers, nor nachos with gummy cheese for the European hiker!)
More trailside companions. But no marmots.
More trailside companions. But no marmots.
Chez Vrony takes outdoor dining while hiking or skiing to a new level. It is Michelin Guide rated and outstanding in every way. The salad ingredients (forgot to take a picture!) came from Vrony’s garden. Hard to believe it is located between two ski runs. The Matterhorn looks down on the deck, and under stunningly blue and cloudless skies, we had a hard time resisting a second glass of wine knowing we had an hour-plus hike still ahead of us. For the record, we took the short Gourmetweg. There is a cut-off that practically dropped us at our front door, near the Furi lift at the south end of Zermatt. Here are a few choice shots from our lunch. Click on any photo for a larger view and slide show.
Front view of Chez Vrony.
Ric’s choice: local sausage with creamed leeks and roesti.
My choice: a baby meatloaf wrapped in pancetta served with molten-hot cheesy polenta and vegetables.
View from lunch at Chez Vrony. It was about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Another view from Chez Vrony.
Leaving Chez Vrony.
My pedometer claims the day’s walking burned over 800 calories. Yippee! But today my quads are telling me that cannot happen every day.

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Rocky Mountain high

23 Aug
We are in the Wild West now my friends. We find ourselves in beautiful Durango, Colorado for the final stage of our U.S. Megatrip. We wrapped up our Seattle visit to the tune of a rare thunderstorm, returned to Portland for some final errands and socializing, and moved on to the great state of Colorado. (Hover over or click on each picture for the caption.)
The Pacific Science Center features some over-sized instruments. Here William plays the guitar.
Elizabeth on the giant chair. The Pacific Science Center is a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.
I feel terrible that in my last post I neglected to mention Susan & Larry and Gayle & Dennis with whom we also enjoyed terrific meals during the first Portland segment. We ate our way through the city.
Upon our return to Portland for the second visit, we picked up awesome new eyeglasses – my first non-red glasses in about 30 years – and enjoyed a few more dinners with good friends. We’ve had a Lebanese mezza, Northwest salmon barbecue, sushi, more brew pub lunches, and breakfast at a very hip Portland spot, Tasty and Alder. Thanks to John & Janet, Diana and the fabulous Femmes, Jim & Wanda, and J.C. & Maarja! Notice we have not had Italian food at all (except the pizzas previously reviewed at Our Weekly Pizza).
Our temporary home, an urban apartment on the Willamette River. The Steel Bridge is incredibly busy.
Looking northeast from the apartment it was a little more serene.
I love the public art in downtown Portland. So fun to wander the streets after 3 years away!
Durango is high-altitude living. My brother’s house in the valley sits at 7500 feet/2286 meters above sea level. That takes some getting used to. That is higher than most of the hiking we do on the ridges and high meadows in the Dolomites.
We needed to spend a couple of days getting used to the elevation in this high valley with little energetic exercise, so we took a ride on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.  Thirty-one years ago Ric and I had our first vacation together and it was to Durango to ride the D&SNGRR. I am delighted to say the railroad has endured as fantastically as our relationship. The ride is a trip through time with authentic coaches, a coal-fired steam engine from the 1880s, and a narrator in character that relates stories of the era. It is an exceptionally beautiful ride through the mountains.  I am pleased to say the Animas River is more-or-less of normal color after the toxic spill a few weeks ago, and is expected to recover.
The D&SNGRR chugs along about 200 feet above the Animas River.
My rail fan companion of 31 years enjoyed the trip.
Amazing that this railroad was built in the 1880s. Maximum speed on the route about 15 mph.
Once acclimated to the altitude, my brother and sister-in-law took us on a high-elevation hike to Engineer Mountain. For the record, we hiked to “Bus Stop” which is known in our family as “The Lunch Log.” Friends, this hike started at 10,660ft/3249m, and we climbed to 11,617ft/3541m. The round trip was about 5 miles, so not a bad climb, except for the fact that these flatlanders were hiking to an elevation higher than the peak of Mount Hood in Oregon (11,250ft/3429m). We feel pretty pleased with ourselves that we did it without fainting or hyperventilating.
Engineer Mountain looms above the trail. Beautiful walk through piney woods.
Mountain lake along the trail to the ridge below Engineer Mountain.
Today we took a Path to Breakfast, enjoying a 4-mile jaunt through the valley and down into the city of Durango where we indulged in an American-style breakfast. We were fortunate to have the company of Australian Shepherds, Quip and Millie, as well as humans Jane and Susan. We have not hiked with dogs in years and it added a lot of fun to the hike. Jane spotted bear tracks on the trail – a sizable bear with a paw as big as a small human foot – a reminder that this land is still wild. Even more fortunate, we were given a ride home from Durango.
Milly and Quip on the path to breakfast, Durango.

Milly and Quip on the path to breakfast, Durango.

We have a few more days stateside. You’ll hear from me again, no doubt, as I get my head around the inevitable compare-and-contrast Italy and the U.S.
Sharon and Catherine photo bomb me.

Sharon and Catherine photo bomb me.

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Our trip so far

14 Aug
We have our Elective Residence Visas! We applied at the Italian Consulate in San Francisco on July 29 and they arrived August 3, much faster than we anticipated. We organized this trip for a month in the States to ensure there would be enough time for the visas to be processed and sent since we can’t get too far without passports. Of course, they arrived immediately. It is a relief to have that process over (although more processes await) and we are thoroughly enjoying time with family and friends.
Click on any photo in any of the following galleries for a better view or slide show.
We have been in the U.S. for almost three weeks now. Sometimes living in Italy seems very remote to us having slipped back into the American lifestyle. I am becoming used to enormous stores and selection and have enjoyed shopping for clothes in stores where I am familiar with the brands and sizing.  We run errands in borrowed cars. As it is time for end-of-summer sales, we have scored some good discounts.
Dining out continues to amaze us. We are loving the selection of ethnic and Northwest cuisine. We’ve had Thai, Peruvian, Japanese, and Mexican food, as well as fresh salmon and halibut, and the best hamburgers. I have not found halibut in Italy and I do miss it.
Prices are very high. When did it become so expensive in the U.S? It seems like a huge change in only three years. Add tax and tip and lunch or dinner out becomes an a line item on the budget. At lunch, the by-the-glass wine options are $11.00 and up. Seriously? And yet restaurants are full and reservations necessary. 
As you can tell, our visit has been a flurry of meals with friends and family.  Our Portland schedule was packed tight, but still we had time to help our son with the initial stages of his move to a new home. I did not take nearly enough pictures, at least until we got to Seattle, where we are currently wrapping up a stay with family. Mount Rainier National Park was beautiful and busy. Unfortunately, there are no rifugi to hike to and no strudel as we have when hiking in Italy. Rifugi are so civilized!
Thanks to John & Janet, Carolyn, Julie, Bernie & Peggy, Will & Gracia, Sander & Amethyst, Veronica & Barry, Susan, John & Debbie, Heather & Chris, and finally Derek for the glorious meals and good times! I highly recommend the Dale Chihuly Glass Gardens at Pacific Center in Seattle. Sono bellissimi! I will leave you with some photos from the Seattle portion of our trip. 
 Alla prossima!

 

 

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Land of giant everything

2 Aug
An embarrassment of riches aptly describes the retail scene in the U.S. What an amazing thing it is to walk into a Safeway store after 3 years’ absence and see aisle-after-aisle of options! Acres of wine, miles of frozen foods, yet a rather humble selection of pasta types. The Safeway was at least five-times the size of our “big” neighborhood grocery store, DOC Parioli, but DOC has five-times the pasta.
The wine aisle in a Safeway store. Una scelta imbarazzante! (A selection so grand it's embarrassing!)

The wine aisle in a Safeway store. Una scelta imbarazzante! (A selection so grand it’s embarrassing!)

Going for coffee at an independent coffee house in Portland, we chuckled over the large cappuccino one patron was nursing. Ric took a picture with her hands and laptop in view for perspective. I was excited to get espresso over ice without the barista cocking an eyebrow and looking down her nose at me. It just isn’t done in Italy. You can have a shakerato or a sweetened caffe’ fredo, but over ice? I had more ice in my single drink than I can even fit in my Roman freezer.
Iced, iced iced! In the foreground my iced espresso, which is a sacrilege in Italy. Ric's "small" iced coffee (rear) was not only huge but undrinkable due to a burned taste.

Iced, iced iced! In the foreground my iced espresso, which is a sacrilege in Italy. Ric’s “small” iced coffee (rear) was not only huge but undrinkable due to a burned taste.

Coffee in the U.S.  is even more expensive than I remember, and it takes a long time to make an espresso. In Roma, from ordering to drinking is the blink of an eye. At Starbucks the other day I waited at least five minutes. What takes so long to pull a shot?
Land of the giant everything, a "bowl" of cappuccino at neighboring table.

Land of the giant everything, a “bowl” of cappuccino at neighboring table.

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Stati Uniti

28 Jul
28 July 2015. Here we are in our first visit to the United States, more than 3 years after our move in May 2012. It is both familiar and foreign to be here. How wide the sidewalks! How clean the streets (compared to Roma anyway)! Customer service that is almost too friendly. It’s nice to understand most of what is going on around me.
Indulged in omelets since we had not eaten much in about 18 hours. Still too big to eat alone. We each ate only half of our portions.

Indulged in omelets since we had not eaten much in about 18 hours. Still too big to eat alone. We each ate only half of our portions.

I had forgotten how big the portions are in restaurants! We each ordered an omelet as we had not had a proper meal since lunch on Monday, and we could only eat half!  We are going to have to do more sharing like we do in Roma. 
We are starting this journey in San Francisco where the forecast high temperature is not much higher than the forecast low in Roma. Our travel was long, made longer by delays and slow customs in San Francisco that caused us to miss a connection. So we arrived at our apartment in San Francisco 26 hours after leaving our apartment in Roma. 
American style at the Bean Bag Cafe, San Francisco.

American style at the Bean Bag Cafe, San Francisco.

Tomorrow we have our visa appointment at the Italian Consulate General. We each carried along about 6 pounds of forms and documents — in triplicate — for our applications.
Will post updates!

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