Italy Proposal

This morning's Giro d'Italia Stage 14 ends in Cervinia. It is a key stage in the race as they enter the Alps and kickoff the last week of mountain stages. But for me, it has a very personal meaning which means I dug into the photo archives to help tell the story.

Mount Cervino (aka Matterhorn) - Solo Snowboarding Trip

I was working and living in Bergamo, Italy in 2000, only a few hours drive from Cervinia. I was a snowboarder at the time and would venture out on the weekends to hit the slopes. The Alps were West and the Dolomites were North, so I had plenty of options. One of my first trips was to Cervinia which is a classic European ski town and shares a ski area with Zermatt commonly called Cervino (which is the Italian name for the Matterhorn). You can reach it either from the Italian side thru Cervinia or the Swiss side thru Zermatt. The mighty Matterhorn sits right in the middle and you ski below it on wide open slopes. Breathtaking to say the least.

I was also doing recon on this 1st trip. Terry and I had met in early 2000 on the slopes in SLC and weren't officially "dating" but were doing the long distance phone & email thing with occasional weekends together as "friends". We planned for a week's vacation in October in Italy since I was already there and could take some time off from my project. We weren't cyclists yet, so the obvious activity was skiing. I really enjoyed my weekend in Cervinia and actually stayed down in the valley in Aosta so I booked lodging for October and anxiously awaited Terry's arrival so I could show him around the town and the slopes.

1st Official Engagement Photo on the Road up to Cervinia

He flew into Milan and I picked him up and we went straight to the Alps to spend our first few days skiing before heading back to Bergamo, then Venice, Florence, and Rome. I could write several blogs on all the details, but the next day, we drove up to Cervinia and after a few runs, I was engaged! The timing was classic and the story has been retold among friends and family numerous times - one of the best moments in my life.

Almost 12 years later we are watching the live feed hoping to glimpse shots of Cervinia and the approaching valley. I'm not sure if we ever would have come back to the USA if we were as crazy about cycling back in 2000. We often talk about returning to Italy for longer than 2wk vacations and for now, we wait for retirement. Seeing the beautiful scenery during the Giro d'Italia for 3 weeks in May doesn't help - the urge to pack up (or at least book another vacation) is strong. We just need to make it one more week and then it will fade some until next May.

Only 27km to go in the stage, so time to focus on the feed and relive the past with my best friend.

Other photos from the past week: