White European Holidays

From summer to minus 11 in 2 weeks: another european trip for Lindsey and I

Chapter 1. Italy, from Christmas to London

Last year I spent my first Christmas abroad, in South Africa.
I’m not too sure that I should still say “abroad” when talking about South Africa, since this has been my home for the past 2 years and probably it will be for many years ahead. But thinking as Italy (or even Europe) as a faraway place that I can visit only once in a while, well, it’s still weird.

So, after the last very hot December over here (don’t forget,  December is in the middle of a very hot summer, even if Santa Claus still dresses like he’s in the north pole. Crazy old fool), it was time for Lindsey and I to travel, in the middle of a very bad economy and still sky-high prices for tickets, to Europe.

We exchanged gifts 2 days earlier, during a nice breakfast with Lindsey’s family, and I think I got the best gift of them all from my wife: a fridge to compliment my pub (it was the missing piece).

This time we tried to avoid Dubai and its 5-10 hours crazy stopover, so we decided to fly Air Qatar and land in Doha, where all we needed to wait was only 2 hours.

After an emotional goodbye for Lindsey (she doesn’t really like the idea of spending any time away from family and our dogs), we discovered that we weren’t even sitting next to each other for the long flight to Doha.
It was probably my fault: the night before I tried to reserve the seats on the online checking, but the whole system wasn’t helping me in making a reservation for two seats next to each other, so I cancelled the booking and never got an email, but somehow the system booked me in some random seat, 2 rows away from where my poor wife was sitting.

After the usual 8 hours flight to the Arab World, we landed , waited 2 hours in quite a shitty airport (where women wash their feet in the sink and men let their kids weed in the…yes, you guessed it, sinks. Muslim traditions?), and then boarded to Milan for another 7 hours flight.

We left South Africa in the evening with 25 degrees and landed in North Italy with minus 3 only 16 hours later.
Malpensa, the airport, was completely white. Apparently they reopened the connections only few hours earlier.

Olga, my sister, and Davide, my cousin, were they to wait for us, and we drove in the middle of a crazy traffic to Canegrate.

As usual, coming back to my old bedroom was strange. So many things are still there, some has been moved so my sister could use it as an office, and the little piece of forest that for 30 years was just outside my window, was gone, revealing a barren land probably soon used to add some sad house developing project.

Lindsey and I were both tired but with Christmas just before the corner we still had to do some shopping. Luckily even the craziest place in Italy cannot compare to Oxford Street the weekend before the 24th of December, so we managed to find everything we needed quite soon.
Few hours later we met with my mum and her new husband, and we spent a very nice dinner in a very posh restaurant, where I couldn’t even finish the amount of food it was served to me….

The plan for Christmas was easy: eat dinner at home with Olga, Dad and dog, then go for the midnight service just to show Lindsey what is all about, go to sleep and then wake up the next day to spend the day with the rest of my enlarged family.
The dinner was simple but nice, and Lindsey enjoyed it too (even if she had to careful avoid horse meat, delicious and too many cheesed offered to her. Luckily she had enough Parma ham to last a week or more).

I took Lindsey to the midnight service and after the usual 45 minutes service (quite boring, but hey, that’s the Catholic way, keep’em bored but not too much so they will come back to feel better about themselves), it was time for the best part of the night: the free mulled wine / Christmas cake (panettone) that was on offer outside pretty much all the churches in North Italy. It was a nice surprise for a very cold wife.

The next day we woke up quite late to go and spend the rest of the day at my cousin Renato’s house, where all the members of the family still around the area would meet and spend time basically just eating, exchanging gifts, and eating even more.

It was a food marathon, but it was great. We decided to spent time at Renato’s and his mum, Auntie Carla, simply because before people started to die or get married and move away, this was the place we spent the best Christmas’ Days when we were kids.

Yes, it wasn’t great knowing that with the recent death of my uncle now my dad was the only survivor or the three brothers, but for once it was a time to celebrate and remind ourselves that life goes on, and until you have some family, it will be ok.

I don’t know how much Lindsey ate, since her crazy metabolism helps her burn fat at an incredible rate, but I think that in 24 hours I must have accumulated a good 2kg of extra weight just be eating and drinking like there is no tomorrow (and I would regret those extra kilos once back in South Africa!).

The same evening we went for one of our visits at the usual pub, when we met with the usual faces: Beppe and Claudia (soon to be parents), Max, Mera and Luciana.

The whole evening was organized so we could decide what to do at New Year’s Eve, once we were back in Italy. My idea was to organize a party in my house, with people bringing either food or drinks. Everyone was happy about the idea and we said goodbye, for Lindsey and I was time to fly to London.

Chapter 2. London and New Year’s Eve in Italy

Once again, the terrible snow storm that hit England stopped the day before, just in time to fly from Milan to Gatwick. The original plan was to stay with Guy, but unfortunately he sold his house after many months of trying.

So we had to quickly made another decision, and luckily Lindsey’s auntie and uncle (Pamela and John, we celebrated at their house our engagement the day after I proposed) were ready to give us a place to stay somewhere in the South of London, 30km on the train from Victoria.

Originally my plan was to work 3-4 days and spend the weekend with Lindsey, but instead I managed to work only 1 morning and spend the whole week with my wife.


Just like Italy, it was strange to come back to a place that I used to call home for 6 years. There were so many memories wherever we went, even if most of the people that used to share those memories don’t live in the country anymore.

The first day we went to Greenwich , to meet Sally, Lindsey’s cousin, at her house just by the Greenwich Park. I’ve never been there before. I don’t think I did much tourism in my London years, and Greenwich always seemed too far away.

The day was cold but a great lunch and some mulled wine helped a lot.

We didn’t do much shopping over that week (mostly because we were living far from Central London), but when we tried the shops were insanely busy because of the sales, so we rather spent time relaxing and visiting the few friends that still lived there.

We met with Garth and Bronwyn and the new born son (Alex), and spent a nice afternoon in some other random park that I never visited. Then we met Lindsey’s Australian friend, Danielle, and (guess what) her new born daughter. And finally it was time to see Sian, Lindsey’s best friend in London.


The only friend I met was Guy, for a quick morning of work followed by a nice lunch with Melissa. The rest of them were either desaparecido or didn’t make it. Bastards.

It was a very different visit from my usual trips to London. We spent most of the time relaxing at home with Pamela and Jonny, who gave us food and accommodation even when we came back at them after another try at staying at Guy’s. You can always count on family!

We left few days later, saying goodbye to a very cold London to go back to Italy just in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve.


With my sister gone to Chamonix, the organisation was left in my dad’s hands. Luckily Olga left a long set of instructions and stocked up the bar so when we landed in Italy and went back home almost everything was ready to go. With only few hours left for preparation, Lindsey and I had enough time to get the drinks, the food and the tables ready.

Most of the guests invited came early, and they all brought something. Mera and Luciana brought salami and homemade breads, Giuseppe and Claudia lasagne, my cousin Renato some wine bottles, and Giamba took care of the entertainment with the full kit of Rock Band installed on the television.
Claudia and Marco brought more drinks and my dad took care of the barbecue.
I was soon behind the bar to mix drinks for everyone, and the party started soon. We waited for Max for quite a while, but apparently he got stuck at work or with a new girl. No one will ever know.

The evening was truly great. We had tons of fun showcasing our mic/guitar/drum skills at Rock Band, and in the meanwhile cocktails were served and drunk very quickly.

We assaulted the food made by my dad and soon we were all way too full or drunk to keep going at that rhythm. We waited for midnight, and then after the usual celebrations, we went back for more singing, drinking and eating.

It was great. Being surrounded by family, dog and friends on a celebration that usually ends up being lame worked very well for me. When everyone started to go back home, around 2 or 3, for Lindsey and I was once again time to relax before packing and going to yet another destination: the Alps.

Chapter 3. Andalo and goodbyes

The day after the 31st, after waking up very late, Lindsey and i visited the football grounds of my former team, where I was awared for my old services to the club with a nice shirt with my name on it.

Then, it was time to plan another trip.

My (other) Auntie and my (other) cousins decided to spend the festivities in Andalo , in the Italian Alps, and they invited me so I could show Lindsey the beautiful snowy Italian mountains.

We left the morning of the 2nd, still tired from the day before, and after a long commute (train to Milan, train to Verona, then train to Trento and finally bus to Andalo for a grand total of 5 hours) we arrived in the early evening in Andalo.


I’m not too sure how many times I went there before. Maybe 2. I remember clearly the last time I was there because it was one of my last trips before I moved to South Africa, in 2007 . It was summer and the city looked small and empty.

What a difference the season makes! With snow everywhere, all the ski resorts were full and what I remembered as a town of maybe a thousand souls was now a city of ten thousands tourists, with all the hotels booked out.


My auntie owns a place there, so we didn’t have to book in one of the expensive and crowded hotels, and we enjoyed the place even more.

Lindsey in particular spent time playing in the snow, or with the bobsleigh (she was by far the best one among us!), or in the bars drinking very hot and thick chocolate.

I had a chance to finally talk with Davide after the death of his father (my uncle), that happened few months earlier, and it was nice to talk about him. With a mission to Afghanistan on the horizon (he’s in the army), he was still sad but filled with his father virtues.

It was also great to see Tommaso, Simona’s (my cousin) and Marco’s son. The little
kid is growing so quickly…
Once again we spent most of the time eating great food and drinking great stuff (I love grappa!), an essential feat if you are minus eleven degrees and surrounded by snow.

It was a bit sad to leave the place only 2 days later, after another nice forest walk with by cousin and one more drinking session with the family, but for Lindsey and I was time to go back home and organize ourselves for our trip back to South Africa.

After we came back to Milan, we spent most of time trying to work out a way to organize our over growing luggage (we got spoiled with presents and bought even more stuff for our family and friends left behind in South Africa).

My mum took us to the airport, with 2 extra items of luggage and 10 kilos overweight, but once again we got lucky and we didn’t have to pay any extras.

15 hours later we were back in South Africa. Lindsey finally enjoyed a holiday much different from the previous one spent only in the pub or in the area but she was happy to see again her family. I was a bit sad to say goodbye to everyone and travel far away again, but with the World Cup coming in few months I hope to see some of those faces soon again…

Posted by Olaf Olgiati the 2 February 2010