Skiing and Culture

My friend Ian is pretty much doing the same thing as I. Except that Ian skipped winter and headed south of the Mason-Dixon Line. In fact, he headed south of the equator. And then he headed west and lost a day of his life to end up in Australia, "the land of the receding neck line" or some such reference to the harlots who inhabit the presumably clay abodes that comprise the shelter for most of the savagaes who live in such an uncivilized country. I was also reading Admiral Lord Nelson's History of the West Indies (HRM Press, 1806) and apparently Australia is full of criminals as well as wild natives. Bon Voyage, Ian!

Oh, and Ian is also working. He has a legal Visa, and pays for an apartment. He probably receives compensation for his services and pays taxes. Like me, Ian has a blog. It's pretty much what you'd expect from someone who beat out the likes of me to win his high school's literature award: well written, well-researched, thoroughly spellchecked, and largely self-inflating. You can find it HERE. Ian actually inspired me to start a blog, so I should probably credit him for that. While I'm at it, I'd like to thank Ian for teaching me how to dominate the Foosball table, and I'd like to apologize for being so much better than him at the aforementioned test of testicular strength.

Maybe I have a slight blog inferiority complex, and it was not helped when I received the following email from Ian:

"Hey, your blog has a lot of spelling and grammar errors; why don't you talk about things other than skiing you snow slave?"

Well, I am going to ignore the former comment and I'd like to offer a rebuttal to the subtle accusation that I all I do in Italy is ski. I have been very busy with a variety of activities that may or may not be more worthwhile than curing cancer, and I will now offer proof with photo and dictatorial documentation of said activities.

1) I have been very active in the viticultural sector of society. As a matter of fact, I just spent almost thirty euro on wine. 18 bottles of wine. You read that properly. Thank you, Eurospin.

2) I did what every stereotypical Italian does - went to the Opera. Michela and I went to the Teatro alla Scala, supposedly some big-time opera house, and saw Madama Butterfly. Don't believe that someone with such a sweet goggle tan would go to the opera? Check this:
3) My good friends Adam and Hannah were here last week, and we went on an epicurial expedition of epic proportions. We saw some major sites and ate far too much food.

So I have been doing at least three things that have nothing to do with skiing. And I swear that even if it weren't raining, I would have done at least one of these three things.