Sept 16-17 - Italy

9/16/14 Barcelona to Turin 

Got up at 7 am  to pack. Manfred is making such a fuss about his coat that I packed it in the new overflow bag. Boarding passes and passports in hand, we got a taxi on La Rambla to the Praça Calalunya to catch an aero bus to the airport. All quite easy. We checked the 2 roller bags cuz it's free. We booked the A & C seats in the back, hoping no one would want the middle one, and it worked!  First time!  Actually all 3 seats across the aisle from us were empty, as well.  Then we had to pay 5€ for coffee and oj! 

We went to the car rental place in the airport, 6 or 7 companies. Only one had a car, and that was 40€/day!  And the GPS cost mega also. We paid 283€/$382 for the car w/GPS = 48€/$65 per day, plus 1100€/$1350 deposit. We have to get a car early for Austria. Our fav credit cards were declined! We had to use the Kitsap and the Wyndham. We need to get the TravelCard working again. 

The GPS took us through fast autostradas and slow narrow-windys to the little ski village of Sestriere, high in the hills. We stopped for a snack in one of the many villages we passed through, and arrived at the resort around 5 pm. After a rest, we went to a pizza place that had no pizza. We had pasta w/shrooms and real Parmesan cheese and wine and beer. And coffee. Very good. 

The apartment is very cute, but the sofa was opened to be a bed so there was no place to sit. There is a tiny bedroom with bunk beds, but we couldn't close the sofa bed, so we slept on it.  The "partial kitchen" has gas burners, under-counter fridge, pots and dishes, dishwasher, but no blender, toaster or microwave. 

We are really seeing out-of-the-way places because of RCI. We would never get to such a place otherwise. It's quite beautiful, but so far, really foggy. 

9/17/14 RCI Sestriére Italy - PalaceResidence.com

This RCI place is so cute. There is a living-dining room with a futon-like sofa-bed, a sideboard with little TV, a table with built-in bench seating and a couple of primitive chairs. The kitchen is for 1 person only. The stove has 3 gas burners and 1 electric one. There is an under-stove fridge where the oven should be, but there is a dishwasher. 

We had them close the sofa-bed and we slept in the bunks - very sturdy and comfortable, actually. There's no room for any other furniture, so a shelf on the wall serves as a place to put things. It is very foggy and we can't see the mountains at all, sometimes we can see the valley below and sometimes we can barely see the next building. 

Manfred went to the little convenience store to get the essentials: bread & butter, ham & eggs, coffee & milk, salt & pepper. It should have been salt & sugar. The bread and butter is so delicious and so filling, I could live on it. With coffee, of course.  We paid 2€ for 2 soap cakes to wash 2 small loads of clothes. Using the 2 washers and 1 dryer is free. The laundry room is right across the hall from our apartment, so we got all our clothes washed and dried and smelling good again. 

Around 7 pm, we went back to the store to get a few more things: cheese, honey, yogurt, more butter, wine, salami. Then we went to the other pizza place where they did have pizza. Those are the only 2 restaurants open in Sestriere at this time of year. We had the pizza primavera, which was unbelievably delicious, and red wine, also delicious. 

The wifi here is not great. Upload is slow, sending mail is slower. Download takes forever, and we have to sit in the lobby.