Week In Cortina

The view from Rifugio Lagazuoi

In London for the weekend. Here's a recap of the week in Cortina:
Stayed at Parc Hotel Victoria where staff were constantly sulky and grouchy (with the exception of the guy who manned reception overnight). One of the Chinese guys in our group was told by a hotel staff escorting another guest to get out of the lift, because "the lift is only for hotel guests". Breakfast was not much to write about (Hotel Ulli in Zuers gets my vote for best ski breakfast buffet spread). The junior suite was very junior (Euro310 per night including half board). We were all wishing we could have gotten a room at Hotel La Perla in Corvara as originally planned.

Skied Dolomiti Superski: Cortina, Lagazuoi, Sella Ronda (green route), Arabba/Marmolada, Alta Badia. My favourite run is Lagazuoi with a stop at Rifugio Scotoni. It has the most stunning scenery and it's a leisurely intermediate run that most skiers can do. Had blue skied throughout the week, but skied mostly on man-made snow.

Rifugio Scotoni

Skied with: Franco & Marcello, our two fun-loving, James Bond look-alike ski instructor/guides (Franco looks like Sean Connery and Marcello looks like Daniel Craig) from Scuola Sci Dolomiti Cortina. They even drive like James Bond!

Dined at (just my faves are listed here):
Baita Pie' Tofana (lunch, +39 0436 4258) -- the ginger ice cream in a crispy orange waffle bowl is scrumptuous
La Perla (lunch, +39 0436 4681) -- everything was great and make sure you go on a tour of the theatrical wine cellar
El Brite de Larieto (lunch, +39 368 7008083) -- the best bombardino (you can't get ones with espresso on the slopes!)
Leone e Anna (dinner, +39 0436 2768) -- spaghetti with dried fish roe is delish!
Snowmobile+Sledging Rifugio dinner -- sledging by moonlight is quite the experience. Franco & Marcello even brought a bottle of grappa for us all to drink before our adrenaline rush of a descent down. Can't remember the name of the rifugio (but you'll find a list of the various options here), but there was a delicious pancake dessert that was sort of like fried drizzled egg batter.

Shopped: Amidst our group, the most popular shops were Franz Kraler (Corso Italia 107, +39 0436 3197) for the luxurious Loro Piano and Kiton cashmere and Peak Performance (Via XXIX Maggio 3, +39 0436 866958) for the ski wear, in particular the jeans ski pants. And of course the Cooperativa for just about everything else.

20 Hours in Venice: Palazzo Grassi

Jeff Koons' whimsical doggie sculpture looked great outside Palazzo Grassi.

I arrived by train to a picture-perfect Venice -- blue skies, warm weather and Carnivale in full swing. I had even less time in Venice than in Rome. CM had told me to check out the recently re-opened Palazzo Grassi. Francois Pinault, owner of Gucci among other luxury lifestyle and retail businesses, had bought the palazzo from Fiat boss, Gianni Agnelli, in 2005. He then had Tadao Ando refurbish it, with the result being a well-balanced space that not only preserves the building's historical architectural elements such as its beautiful ceilings and mouldings, but also allows for simple backdrops that can show off contemporary pieces of artwork. Palazzo Grassi now houses and showcases Pinault's art collection along with temporary exhibits (Picasso: La Joie de Vivre 1945-1948 is currently on, but I actually found pieces from Pinault's collection more interesting).

24 Hours in Rome: Daphne Inn, TAD, Pantheon

By the Spanish Steps looking down Via del Babuino. What a beautiful day!

Catching up on my posts here:

It turned out to be a beautiful day (15 February) in Rome. When I checked into Daphne Inn Trevi, it was pouring. By the time, I had freshened up and headed out, the rain had stopped. By lunch time, the skies were blue.

It was a lazy laid-back day in Rome. I walked by Spanish Steps en route to checking out TAD, a trendy lifestyle store complete with hairdresser and cafe, and CM's family company Fabriano, a beautiful stationery shop a few shops down from TAD on Via del Babuino.

Just follow the McD signs on your sightseeing tour of Rome. There seems to be one at every major sight. No Starbucks in sight though. But who needs Starbucks when you've got the best espresso in the world.

My favourite view of the Pantheon. Wish I could lie on my back and bathe under the oculus' light.

From Spanish Steps, I walked down via Condotti to the Pantheon. It's the only ancient building (dating back to 125AD) from the first semester of my History of Art survey class that I like and really wanted to visit (I didn't really start paying attention until second semester when Prof Gridley McKim-Smith and Prof Steven Z. Levine, my two favourite professors, surveyed Baroque up to Contemporary). Its concrete-cast dome, with its open oculus, is mesmerising in both its beauty and its structure. CM had told me I should visit while it was still raining (because the oculus in the dome lets rain in, creating a very special atmosphere), but the rain had stopped by the time I got there.

After long nap, went to dinner at 9:30pm at Ristorante Matricianella (Via del Leone, 4; T: +39 6 6832100) with CM and her English-speaking friends. Dinner conversation was very lively and engaging, jumping from urban planning to Fascist Italians to ancient Venetian families that don't speak Italian (they speak their own dialiect) to Dante to Edward Said to Mickey Mouse (apparently, the drawings are outsourced to some town in Italy) etc. A great evening with great food, ending with a limoncello.

Daphne Inn is a B&B with very helpful staff. There's no elevator in the building, but Carl and Chris both helped me with my three pieces of luggage (difficult to pack light when one needs to pack for skiing and work meetings). I had a comfortable room with free wi-fi access, although I did have to share a bathroom. But then again, it was only Euro72 including breakfast (10% off the normal rate of Euro80 for paying in cash) and the location was perfect, right by Barberini and 5 minute's walk from the Spanish Steps.

Tuscan Retreat: La Bandita-In-Progress

Continuing along the lines of pleasant surprises (I'm a believer in serendipity), I logged into my email inbox this morning to find a gem of an email that brought a smile a flutter of excitement amidst the usual and mundane.

It was an email from a John Voigtmann. Hmmm...rings a bell, but not quite...probably junk. Just before I check the box that would banish it to the trash, I notice the subject line: John Voigtmann @ La Bandita, Tuscany. That last word caught your eye, didn't it. It sure did mine! So I clicked in and sure enough, jogged my memory of who this John was. Turns out, I had corresponded with John before. We were introduced over email by a DJ, a friend of my good family friend JL. All three of them are/or formerly were in the music biz. DJ had left to start a wine import/export biz among other things and JV had been working with him on it. He was in HK at one point, but we never managed to meet. And so the string of email correspondences, the meet that never happened, just kind of fizzled into cyberspace. But John had mentioned that he would be opening a hotel in Tuscany soon and I noted that with interest and told him to keep me posted.

Fast forward nearly 5 months later. The email reads:

"As D may have told you, I left my job at SonyBMG last year to develop a small luxury hotel property in Tuscany. We’re still finishing renovations, but we’re starting to take reservations for next summer...so I am starting to spread the word...Just like I did when I was back in the music business!

I wanted to pass on the link to the website:

www.la-bandita.com

The site is still a work in progress until we finish the guest rooms and have them photographed, but it will give you an idea of what we’re creating here."

I am a sucker for a good "follow-your-dream" story. While it's still a work-in-progress, La Bandita seems to have the heart and soul behind it to make it a great Tuscan retreat. That's what's really missing these days from all these overly-commerical, self-proclaimed "boutique" hotels -- heart and soul. I wish John and his wife all the best with La Bandita and look forward to hearing more about its opening next summer!

Dream houses

Villa Malaparte 2
Originally uploaded by picacch.

I came across this beautiful picture of Casa Malaparte while finalizing Little Cream Book: Architecture. I still remember the first time I saw a picture of this house in the 16 July, 2002 Sunday New York Times Magazine (it was an article by Herbert Muschamp). I was absolutely stunned by its beauty. And even today, after having seen many different versions of this picture, it still takes my breath away each time. But funnily enough, BKS was just telling me on Saturday that she has bad memories from staying at the house during her AA (Architectural Association) student days. Apparently, her tutor locked her and her other classmates in the house for days to measure each part of the house for her tutor's research. I thought it ironic since Malaparte actually means "he of the bad place". So it was fitting that BKS should have memories of Casa Malaparte as a "bad place".

Another dream house is Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, which unfortunately, did not make it into this edition of LCB: Architecture. I spent a whole afternoon absolutely entranced as I walked from room to room of this amazing house set in the absolutely unexceptional suburb of Paris.