My friend Ali, who is completing a Masters in food communication in Parma, came to visit for the weekend. We were trying to decide between St.Moritz and celebrating Carnevale in Bellinzona (a town about 20 min by train). After thinking about the trek to St.Moritz we decided staying in town may be more relaxing, plus Ali had never seen the beauty of the mini alps. She arrived on Friday evening and we headed downtown to one of my favorite spots called the Spaghetti Store, guess what they have there? After enjoying some yummy pasta and a bottle of wine of course...we met my other friends Allie, Emily and Allie's italian boyfriend Emmanuele. They were ready to celebrate Carnevale in their costumes and Ali and I were the tourists...no costumes. When we arrived in Bellinzona we were surrounded by furry animals, obviously the costume of choice this year. Or maybe it's always the costume of choice, since it was about 30 degrees. Makes sense. The city was filled with confetti, crazy bands playing in matching costumes, and tons of people (all ages, even at 11pm) ready to celebrate. The party continued for 6 nights straight and the bands played until 5am. There are also all these tents set up that are pretty much turned into clubs as it gets later into the night. Friday night we ended up just getting our feet wet and decided to head back home without getting too crazy, but still didn't get home until 230am.
Saturday we spent the day basking the sun and walking all over Gentilino and Montagnola. For lunch we went to a spot I've wanted to try near the canal downtown called Antica Osteria del Porto. We enjoyed a great bottle of wine (a white merlot) and some great food and then went to meet Sally and Jeremy to head back to Carnevale for the second night. We definitely stepped it up Saturday night (maybe it was the bottle of wine and a few drinks before the train) and even though we weren't there are late we got to see a lot more and experience all different people and costumes! It was quite a fun night filled with lots of beverages and tons of laughing. It ended with a train ride home at 12:30am with a friend getting sick. That part wasn't that fun, but the stories were on Sunday.
Sunday was bittersweet since Ali was heading back to Parma. It was great having her visit and we were busy planning our next adventure, maybe St.Moritz and then Paris in April with Allie B. Can't wait!
This weekend I am skiing in Davos with my Swiss friends. I'm excited to see another one of the big resorts here. Supposedly, they also have the longest sledding course! The only sad news is that my apple computer crashed. It is now at the repair shop and I'm just hoping they are more Swiss with the timing it takes to repair and not Italian. So not much time to skype for me, except from school. :(
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