Snowed-in, Monchiero Alto, Italy.

As I mentioned in my Leaning Tower of Pisa post, we left Pisa to unknowingly drive smack-dab into a crazy snowstorm on the Mediterranean coast in Liguria. The snow was coming down so fast and so strong that emergency vehicules were being placed every mile to help stranded cars...

...and guess who still had on their summer tires.

Les Duggans.

And I quote a certain physicist who once said: "Pffft. It never snows in Italy!"

So needless to say, there are no pictures of the 6 hour drive from Pisa to Monchiero Alto as I was too busy holding my breathe, covering my eyes, and grabbing onto the oh-merde handle.

It was very pretty though.

We checked into the hotel at about 9:15 PM, and I think it was written all over our faces that we were exhausted and hungry. Our hotel was a monastery-turned-spa called Antico Borgo Monchiero, and the staff was the most attentive of any I've ever encountered. Not only that...

...but there were slippers and robes in our room. It really is the little things...

We were only scheduled to spend one night at the monastery-turned-spa (isn't that really just the best combination around?), but mother nature had other plans. Over a foot of snow was dumped on the little town of Monchiero Alto throughout the night and following day, and there was no way we were a) getting the car out of the parking lot and b) getting the car down the steep hill that we fishtailed the whole way up in the first place.

And as if I'm not thinking it as loud as I can right now, I will go ahead and say that this was not the worst place in the world to be snowed in either.

 

There were only two other people staying at Antico Borgo while we were there, and for some reason they didn't use the spa services at all, or at least not during the hours upon hours that we did.

My motto for the day was: sauna-whirlpool-repeat...

And all the while looking out the window at the snow just piling up.

It was incredibly surreal.

The deets on the place? The food was amazing and at a really great price. The staff was amazing and actually came to get us in the spa to let us know that the restaurant would be closing for lunch but "would we like a sandwich?" And the concierge even helped Doc dig us out of this mess without asking him.

 

We will definitely be staying at this hotel again, however, maybe in the fall when there's a less likely chance of snow...

 

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey