Hiking and Trail Maintenance in the Neighborhood

My father in law Dante, on top of Cucetto peak a few years ago

This winter just hasn't really gotten off the ground like some of our winters. Mind you, I am not complaining, especially as our livelihood doesn't depend on it like so many other people in the ski industry does. That of course wasn't always the case. Snow farmers are what we use to refer to ourselves when I worked for a ski resort back in my Colorado days.

Fabrizio working on making new trail signs this winter

Anyway, I find myself looking forward to hiking the hills around our house these days since skiing and snowshoeing just aren't accessible right outside our door this year. However since I started writing this post we are waiting for a big snow storm to arrive, so I just may be dusting off the snow shoes for a romp around the neighborhood yet.

Fabrizio and Dante trail reclaiming

We have already done a search and recovery of an old circular path that has potential, in spite of some of it being lost to  the ravages of time and disuse. One of the things I love when we are tramping around in the woods here in our neighborhood, is discovering all the old rock walls and structures that are left behind to stand witness to a different time. It always make me think of what life was like back then. I am always in awe of the labor that went into all the rock structures. They must have been mighty hungry after all the days of dragging those stones around and fitting them together to last all of the years later. Always impressive.

Rock retaining walls and old stone houses left behind 

Then when you think about what they must have been eating back then, cheese, cabbage, leeks, potatoes, repeat, and repeat again. They certainly must have been happy when there were some new greens pushing up through the winter brownness to offer something fresh to eat. I have developed the theory that may be why Italians or Europeans are so fond of their bitter greens, because when something fresh use to come up after a long winter, it tastes mighty good no matter if it might be a tad bitter. I've developed a fondness for the bitter flavor as well.

Primula -harbingers of spring

Fabrizio has spent a lot of time with his father making signs for the mountain trails that meander throughout our neighborhood. These paths were once the only means of people moving about  as they took their cheeses into town to sell, or made charcoal from the abundant chestnut forests that gave themselves up for this source of heat and cooking fuel. Once our paved road came in in the early 1960's, and the car became the main mode of transportation, it didn't take long for many of the old trails to begin to disappear.

Reclaiming and signing our trails

About 5 years ago our Regione Piemonte got involved in a program with Switzerland called Vetta and then  announced a program here to help reclaim the old trails and offering equipment to map out the trails and put them on GPS. My husband Fabrizio Roncaglia and Silvano Damiano took on the challenge along with help from Silvano's two children, Valentina and Matteo, as well as Fabrizio's father and our local C.A.I. walking association, that have been cleaning and marking our local trails. Silvano has done a phenomenal job with the actual GPS mapping and photography of the paths, as well as getting it all online.  Now these local paths will be GPS mapped and won't easily disappear and will be GPS accessible. Nice job on all the hard work everyone.

Silvano Damiano

there has been a lot of effort that has gone into the cleaning and marking of our paths.  There is still much to do to tie all of this hard work together, but it is exciting to see it all progress.

Fabrizio Roncaglia painting trail markings.
These photos taken by Silvano Damiano

New signs, new connections to old paths that are easier to find.  We have paths that head up for the big views and down to the river for the idyllic idle complete with a few deep pools for splashing your hot tired feet in. We also have lots of contour paths that go round the mountain and expose all of those old rock buildings and remains of walls and fences. A bit if this and that for everyone.

Merla Peak cross and the Grandubbione pool in the river

If you like to walk in the woods and feel the healing presence that nature offers, then visiting with us is a great choice.  If we are in the middle of a path cleaning day, you are always welcome to tag along and help if you like. 

Dante and Fabrizio clearing a path and CAI sprucing up our signpost

However there is plenty of opportunity to make the most of picnicking in the mountains with trails that aren't as challenging as others.  We are situated in the mountains and that in of itself is a beauty worth discovering.  We look forward to sharing it with you when you come, so come on! 

Bella Baita View this winter

New Post for a New Year - Nearby Manta Castle

Manta Castle

Here it is past the middle of January and time's awasting.  I must make haste to keep up with some very modest goals I have set forth for myself and my blog for this year. I noticed that when I was writing a roundup of things to do in this area on my last post, that there were many interesting attractions noticeably missing from my lists.  I have been meaning to get around to writing about a few of them for a long tim. Others I thought I already had written up, but couldn't locate them perusing through my back posts, so I thought I would make it a goal to post a least once a month about some of the local attractions that we send our guests off to see and usually have taken in ourselves at least once if not a few times.

One such glaring omission is splendid Manta Castle (Castello di Manta), just past and overlooking the charming town of Saluzzo that sits where the base of the Cottian Alps (Alpi Cozie) and Po river plains unite, in the neighboring province of Cuneo.

Monviso of the Cottian Alps meets the Po river plains

Manta boasts a small castle perched on its hillside that has been returned to its former glory when the Lords of Saluzzo called it their home. The original building dates back to the 12th century and over the years the building grew with expansions and richly decorate with various additions of masterful and fantastical frescos whose handiwork still remains anonymous.  The current family descendants  enlisted the help of Italy's preservation society, FAI to help raise funds to restore the deteriorated  paintings, replace furnishings that had disappeared over the centuries and breath life back into the castle. These frescos are said to be a rare treasure of late gothic paintings still found in northern Italy. They really are worth a visit as they are so well preserved and magnificently interesting.

Héros, Heroines, and the Fountain of Youth Frescos

In addition to the main castle they have also restore an adjacent church and plans to continue to restore other surrounding buildings in the neighborhood. They really have done a fine job. I especially like that included with the very modest entrance fee of around €7.50 adults and €3.00 for children (2016 prices) is the use of complimentary headphones to insure you get the most out of your self guided visit. There are a number of different languages offered and they do periodically update the narration to reflect the ongoing historical discoveries or completion of nearby ongoing projects. 

Manta Castles' Church

 The castle is of a manageable size so that it makes for a great half day visit and suitable for children, who will enjoy the artifacts and furnishings as it is not only the paintings and church that are of interest. Nearby Saluzzo is another great place to stop also for a bit of shopping, sight seeing or eating, naturally. The grounds are peaceful and would make for a lovely picnic setting. You can also walk up through the woods or park closer and take a more direct route.

Castle life

Whatever you do, when you find yourself in northern Italy, you will want to make sure and not miss out on this local treasure, when you visit our slice of Piedmont, preferably when you come and stay with us.  We'll be waiting for you with many more suggestions.

Bella Baita BandB - Italian Alps Retreat

The castle is open Tuesdays - Sunday, closed Mondays (unless it is a holiday in which they say they are open. Always good to check)

10:00 - 18:00 March 1 through the end of September and

10:00 - 17:00 October through 27 of November.
Last entrance 1/2 before closing

Closed December through February.

Directions to Castello di Manta from Bella Baita B&B and Italian Alps Retreat

Out with 2015 and Benvenuto 2016

Part of our Bella Baita view

Greetings from the Italian Alps. 

2015 is rapidly coming to a close and 2016 is not far ahead. We' re happy to say that we've had a superb year here at Bella Baita. After a couple of quieter years, it seems people decided to move around for their holidays this  summer and we were delighted that many decided to come our way.

Monviso on the horizon on the way to Bella Baita

We enjoyed  "Cooking Together"  with some of our guests, as we offer cooking lessons for everyone. and we always enjoy our forays to the Pinerolo market on Wednesday or Saturday, when we aren't foraging from our garden.

Family group lesson

Some things I made

Garden gifts

Market Tomatoes

Cutting Parmigiano cheese to order. 

We also had some folks that enjoyed learning about our local wines while they sipped and sample the local wine whilst learning about our traditions here.

Wine tasting in the garden

There were walk ins in the mountains, excursions out and about, meals together in the evenings and making new friends and in some cases reuniting with old friends. All in all it is good to be here in the mountains and be able to open our home, share our cuisine, wine, neighborhood, culture and passion for Piedmont with all whom stop in. We hope that your coming year is a blessed one and perhaps you might come and visit with us and share in some of our adventures this coming 2016. 

I've listed a few links below to some other articles I have written about other things there are to do in the area that you might find of interest. 

Happy reading and exploring our Piemonte mountains here in Val Chisone.

Happy New Year to all our friends and all our friends we haven't met yet.

 Articles about Points of interest close to Val Chisone

• Fenestrelle Fortress / Forte di Fenestrelle

• Lake Avigliana and Sacra San Michele

• Vendemmia in Val Chisone

• Occitan Dancing in Usseaux

• Piemonte Birthplace of the Slow Food Movement

• Waldenses or Valdasians - the first Protestants

• Sculptor and Ghironda Maker

• Pinerolo's Man in the Iron Mask

From our Home to yours, Buon Anno  or Happy New Year 2016!

Bella Baita in the Snow last January 2015

Summer Bella Baita Highlights 2015

Bella Baita and View of the French Border Along with Our Vegetable Garden

Time flies and the spring and summer season has passed me by in a blink. I had great intentions of keeping up on sharing the goings on of our life here in the alps, but alas that was not to be. We have had a great season this year with incredible hot sunny weather and friends visiting from around the globe. There are always so many directions to go when there are gardens to plant and tend, meals to plan, make and serve and new and old friends to enjoy visiting with. So here it is the end of August I guess I will share some of the highlights of this past season and savor the moments with you now that I have the luxury of time to do so. Naturally there is still plenty to do around here, but the pace has slowed and the season is changing. I  hope you like photos cause I am going to let them do most of the talking.

My childhood friend Denise and Me (Marla) What a great visit!

Unlike last year when the summer weather was less than stellar, this summer we have had blue skies and very warm temperatures, scorching and record breaking in parts of Italy. Even our little slice of heaven in the alps has been so warm that we've been sleeping with all the windows open for weeks now. Usually we tend to only have a short period of heat as the mountains seem to cool off quickly when the sun goes down but this year has been different. Warm days, warm nights, garden bounty with gelato and sorbet applied liberally and frequently.

Home made Strawberry Sorbetto

The summer not only brings friends out to tramp around our forests, sample our cooking and discover this little known part of the Italian Alps, it also brings us a variety of volunteers that work along side us during the season. Whether we are preparing the garden or tending it, chopping and stacking wood for the winter, weeding around our house, cleaning between stones on the old family home that is being reborn, whilst cooking together when we have cooking classes and cleaning up after meals, we always have time to learn more about other peoples lives from different parts of the world, and that is an enjoyable bonus to the season and extra hands helping out is always a big bonus. We thank all of our volunteers for all their hard work and companionship that made this season and every season such a success.  You guys rock!

Some Woofers and Workaway Volunteers 2015

A lot of our life here revolves around food as we are keen gardeners, cooks and market shoppers.
The twice weekly market in Pinerolo is one of our favorite stops. I love buying directly from the people that produce the food we buy and putting the money directly into their hands that are often gnarled and usually rough. It is a good feeling. We have become friendly with so many of them over the years and two of my favorites have finally been retired from the market by their daughter. At 86 years young they have been coming to the Pinerolo's farmers market for well over 60 years, 6 days a week, bringing everything on their bikes as neither ever drove a car. Luigi always had a trailer behind his rattle trap bike that he filled with recycled crates out of dumpster bins that overflowed with fresh picked fruits ad vegetable with the occasional chicken or rabbit to boot whilst he maneuvered his bike and cargo with ease, come rain or shine.  Their vitality in their older years amazed me and I admire their frugality and ingenuity. His gnarled hands tied up bundles of greens and carrots with lengths of flexible willow.  No twist ties for them. They had green beans so slender and tender and the most delicious figs that makes you want to sing.  But with the advancement of age and a few tumbles with thier bikes they are no longer coming to the market. It is hard for me to see their spot at the market empty or slightly taken over by the nearby vendors and I have no doubt it has been a difficult adjustment for them. Here's a small collage of some of my photos of them.

Laura and Luigi our favorite Pinerolo market vendors. Fabrizio and Marla are with them in the bottom corner

 So between our garden and shopping in the market, we manage to serve some wonderful food throughout the year. We love featuring our local Piemontese specialties with whatever  is in season and looks inviting. 

Our mountain garden

Our tempting array of culinary treats.

Picture left to right top to bottom...involtini with garden green beans, selection of local cheeses, peach and blackberry rustic tart, agnolotti del plin (meat ravioli), gifts from our garden, grilled aubergine and zucchini with dried tomato hazelnut pesto

We also love making pizza and baking my wild yeasted bread in our wood fired oven. There's nothing quite like the food that comes out of that oven. It's flavorful and fun to cook with.

Our home canned tomatoes make our pizza sauce all the more delicious

One of the highlights of our summer too is cooking together with our friends and doing a bit of wine tasting of local varieties, like Barbera, Dolcetto, Nebbiolo, and Arneis. Pasta and raviolo making as well as gnocchi as well as bread and desserts, is a wonderful way to spend some of your holiday time with us. 

       One of the highlights of our summer too is cooking together with our friends and doing a bit of wine tasting of local wines.

It might seem like it's all about food, it isn't even though that is a large part of of our focus.
There are however mountains to see and climb or ride up on a ski lift during the summer.

Bella Baita View of the French Border

Prali Ski lift

There is the largest fortress in Europe, often referred to as the "Great Wall of Piedmont", to see.

Fortezza di Fenetrelle

 Quaint villages to explore.

Street scene in Usseaux

Music and events to catch.

And so much more to discover. 

We hope you'll come and visit with us and discover a part of the Alps worth finding. 

More stories and recipes coming up now that we have moved into the next part of the year. 

ciao for now....Marla

Take Me Away to the Via Lattea!

Postcards from our passing 2015 winter

Colle Bergia- Claviere Peak

Though the sounds, smell, and feel of spring are thick in the air, I am just not quite ready to leave this winter wonderland  beauty behind. Having lived and worked in a Colorado ski resort area for many years, when we got to March and April spring's warmth and promise of summer to come would be vaguely in the air, when it wasn't buried under a ton of snow. I found it was such a beautiful time of the year and a wonderful time to ski. Normally that time also coincided with it being our busiest time of the year, so it is nice to enjoy the beauty of winter here in our Italian alps with out all the stress of mass producing loads of bakery products. Instead I am working on my home production of new foods and ideas for our coming season of guests and "Cooking Together" classes. 
Nice change indeed. 

Fabrizio in Claviere and Marla in Mongenèvre 

Fabrizio and I managed to pull ourselves away form our endless projects, got up early and treated our selves to a day on the Via Lattea.  The "Vialattea, Sciare senza confini "which translates as the "Milky Way, skiing without borders" is the largest interconnected ski areas in Europe. 

The Alps stretching out before us from the top of Claviere ski area

It unites 7 ski areas, two of which, Pragelato and Sestriere, are at the top of our Chisone valley, and goes up and over to the Susa valley that runs parallel to us over the mountain behind us and included in these Olympic venues of 2006, is also Mongenèvre in France. So we headed up and over the top of our valley to Claviere and skied in two countries in one day, Italy in the morning and late afternoon and France for top of the hill skiing, with lunch on the deck in France on a clear blue sky kind of day, ooh, la la!

Please note that all the food is served on real plates, cutlery, and glass water bottle. Very Nice!

La Baita --note the name, a mountain house or chalet

A little chalet right on the ski piste

We usually ski across the way at Prali one of our most favorite and closest to home above tree line ski areas, and Sestriere being the next closest. We are close enough for a great day out skiing, but if you are planning a ski holiday where you will ski every day, you would want to be much closer to the slopes than where we are located. Guests at Christmas time have often spent a few days skiing and other days doing other activities, like snow shoeing, site seeing,  cooking or shopping. 

Mighty Mt Chamberton

 It's a great thing living so close to the ski areas, but not right in them. I love that we are moving in to t spring. the primula are poking their heads out of the snow and the birds are singing their little hearts out as well.  I heard a woodpecker today making a bit of racket after all of this white winter quiet. It is nice to revisit and it nice to know that spring is surely on its way, but just for today, we'll enjoy this winters wonderland. 

Our Story - Marla and Fabrizio, a Valentines Tale

Fabriazio and Marla -Bella Baita Italian Alps Retreat 2014

San Valentino or Valentine's day is a special day for us. It's our wedding anniversary, and it was an unforgettable experience, however I am getting ahead of my story.

Bella Baita B&B in Summer

If there has been a singular question asked of me in the past 14 years, it has undoubtedly been, "Sooooo, how did you two meet?" or some variation of that phrase. I have a standard short and long form of my answer, that Fabrizio always defers to my telling of the tale. Today, I am going to tell you the condensed long version. I hope you enjoy it.
Before I met Fabrizio, the number one question was, how did you end up working in Europe, so I will start out by setting the stage for "our story" by answering how an American ended up in the Italian Alps of Piedmont, with my darling crazy mountain man. I hope you enjoy our tale.

Marla & Fabrizio - date in Volterra, Italy summer 2001

C'era una volta, or once upon a time.....

I had a desire to do something significantly different from my then so called life in the mountains of Colorado. It might have been a mid life questioning of where I had been and where I was going or perhaps it was the shedding of yet another skin of my layered life. It turned out to be a combination of both. 
After many years of living at big altitude, (9,075 ft or  2,776m) where I made peace with winter by learning to ski and worked my way up the slippery male dominated ladder of professional success, to become the pastry chef for Copper Mt Resort, for abut 12 years,  I felt restless to move on, to stretch and try something new. Thing is in a ski resort area, there weren't always a broad spectrum of opportunities. Usually it seemed that you were changing locations and people, but the seasonality and job ended up being much to be more of the same. I wasn't sure what this change was suppose to look like, perhaps, to travel and not be in one place. I had reached many goals and lived a great mountain life, but my life had changed and I needed a completely new challenge. Running a pastry department in a large ski resort  had been an incredible experience of growth and opportunity as well as meeting and working with a lot of different people. However, mass production for 4 cafeterias, 5 restaurants and conference services with a summer crew of 7 and around 20 ski and snowboarders that changed every season, had worn a little thin over the years. I really wanted a new challenge, one that would be quite different from what I had already done. Hmmm, what to do? 

Skimming through the short and not so sweet want ads in the daily paper I wasn't expecting much. I had been perusing the ads for awhile and knew them by heart, ski resort workers, ski techs, wait staff, cleaners, mountain photographers, and shuttle bus drivers, just to name a few gives you the drift of my indifference. However, when I spied "Chalet Host Required", my interest was piqued. My heart did a little "skip to my lou". The interview with the program director and resort manager from the UK, sealed the deal for me. They were so charming and we laughed so much, and when I told them that I really needed for the job to be more than just for the winter and maybe could I work in Europe for them, I was delighted when they said yes. After much soul searching and reevaluating of how I could completely rearrange my life both physically and financially, to make this kind of crazy seasonal job work, I found myself with a year round (with a few gaps between the two seasons) for a British Tour company that would allow me to work in Breckenridge, Colorado in the winter and the Alps of Slovenia, Switzerland and Austria in the summer. It was, to put it mildly, a blast. I now had guests instead of employees and even though my work load increased and my monetary income decreased, I was happy to be doing things that I knew well and others that were completely foreign. It was a wonderful experience with a whole new world of package holidays and British guests that opened up my European sojourn. That however is another story for another day. Suffice it to say that after about 4 years of the Holiday Representative life, which means mostly living in a hotel, and was suppose to be a one year transitional job, I found myself looking yet again for yet another, different experience. 

On the main street of Casole d'Elsa where I lived

A fortuitous phone call I received one day out of the blue, made my day and sent me on my way to Italy. An American colleague  that I had worked alongside in the chalet hosting days in Breckenridge, called me a couple years after an off hand comment to her, that her job as a chef for an English art school in Tuscany sounded like something I would love and if she ever was getting rid of it, I would be interested. How lucky was that? Turns out it was pretty lucky. Next thing I know I landed that job and I was off to little Casole d'Elsa in the Siena province of Italy to cook my little heart out for the Verrocchio Art Center ( Il Centro d'Arte Verrocchio), for yet another exciting chapter in my life. 

Marla between meals on the terrace of the Centro d'Arte Verrocchio 2002

I would like to point out that this is the happily ever after version of my story. I have included only the best and happiest parts only of my tale. Naturally, the whole tale, has it's dark moments of self doubt, uncertainty, fear of failure, seemingly defeat and triumph as well as heart wrenching loneliness  at times. I traveled through the whole spectrum of human feelings that go with change and the risk of  trying something new.  It is easy to leave those parts out as they are so personal and dark, but just know that my life isn’t charmed, it is real with all the good and not so hot stuff included, but over all I can say I have made every effort to embrace everything that comes my way. It is part of the spice that makes it my life. I just want to share the triumphant part right now. 

So now I found myself in a small (900 people including the surrounding hamlets) walled  hilltop town in Tuscany with only 3 streets running through town. Casole d'Elsa is situated in the neighborhood of Siena, Firenze, San Gimignano and Volterra. Wow, can you say wow! It was amazing and intoxicating as Tuscany's scenery is so iconic and evocative with its rolling hills, slender cypress trees, walled hilltop towns in the distance, oozing beauty, art and history. What's not to love. I busied myself immersing in the local flavor and figuring out what the local cuisine was all about before taking over the reigns of the Centro's kitchen where I would be in charge of the feeding the art school's staff, students and teachers that changed every fortnight. Many of the attendees had been coming to this school for years and years, so there was pressure to measure up and surpass expectations. I was nervous. Luckily my friend, Euni who was leaving the position, was around for a couple of weeks so that I could observe and learn whilst I served food at the local osteria /enoteca, Caffe` Casolani. It was a very confusing time at first, between the language, or more accurately my lack of, and reorienting myself to being in a new kitchen with none of my usual tools since I hadn't been carrying any of that around whilst walking and skiing the Alps. Fortunately, every one was generously helpful with their knowledge and time, so I was starting to relax into this new Italian rhythm.

Caffe Casolani- where I worked when I first arrived

The  first new rhythm I had to adjust to was the heat. It was spring and the mornings and evenings were lovely and cool, but the heat of the day meant that it was best to get up early and get things done and pull down the shades in the afternoon and try not to sweat your soul out or maybe take your mid day break in the local bar whilst chatting and getting to know your new flat mates and coworkers from the art school. So one day, in what was either my first or second week in the job by myself, the two British gals I worked with and I were in Bar Barroccio, passing our mid day break in casual conversation and cooling drinks. I noticed there were a couple of guys in the booth next to us but didn't really pay much attention other than one of them was intently reading the paper. It wasn't too long before the cute curly haired one, who had seemed so engrossed in his paper reading, was leaning over towards our table whilst he commented to his companion. "Hey Johnny, there are some girls over here that you can speak English with, in fact, you can speak American with one of them." What an opening line, and one that I have never forgotten. We all chatted for awhile and as it turned out we all had to go back and serve dinner that night, but we would maybe see them again that night after work. What do you think the chances of that were? Well, there were only 2 bars in town and the other one is where you bought your tickets for the local bus, but seldom ever stayed in there for very long as it was smoky and full of old men usually playing cards. The other bar where we met, was where the night life was, if there was any. It was mostly doing the "passeggiata" up and down the main street of Casole, either getting a drink at one end or a gelato at the other. There were always people promenading up and down the street trying to keep cool on these hot Tuscan nights.

That was how we met and it wasn't long before Fabrizio was kindly offering his help for expanding my Italian culinary knowledge.  He was working as a Maitre' d hotel in a local Agriturismo along with John, who was an American doing a stage at the same restaurant. The restaurant was working toward getting a Michelin star. Fabrizio took a degree as a chef when he was young as he grew up cooking and serving in his family's "La Baita" mountain restaurant. He went on to take a couple more degrees, as he found that he preferred to be out front with the guests and managing the restaurants. Anyone who knows Fabrizio would understand that, as he has such an outgoing personality and loads of energy. Fabrizio can keep the show going and everyone laughing, which are a couple of wonderful qualities that I adore. Fabrizio had found his way to Casole after escaping where he grew up and about four years working in the UK where he perfected his English. Unfortunately for him, he has now perfected his American. He had been working in different parts of Italy with a couple of stints in Poland doing some consulting work on setting up hotel restaurants and various other restaurant work when he landed in Casole to help them reach some of their goals. It didn't take him long to get his apron on and help me out in the kitchen at the Centro, so that I got myself organized and comfortable so that I could relax into the job, but also so I could get out of work a bit earlier on our mid day break and see a bit of the countryside. It was a memorable season and will always be a special time in our lives. It was pretty easy to fall in love with a man that cooks and sings to you in the kitchen. That is also not to mention that he does dishes, will clean the house, fix the car, chop the wood, get up and build a fire before any of us are up and will try any cuisine I make and compliments me frequently. I was to learn all of that along the way.  He is a pretty special man and I am happy we met and that our paths continued in the same direction.  I think we are both pretty lucky.

Fabrizio and Marla in the Centro d'Arte Verrocchio kitchen

Over the next year we came up here to his family's home to assess the possibilities. We went to America to meet my family and check out Colorado where I had lived and still feels like home to me. I returned to Tuscany for another season and Fabrizio came here to work on setting up the rooms that were not in use so that we could open as a B&B and try to make a business where there wasn't one. His parents had retired and were renting out their restaurant part of the building to other people and so we made the rest of the building come to life as Bella Baita B&B. 
We returned to America in 2007 and had been trying to manage the logistics of where and how to get married for a few years without it ever becoming clear or easy. So when one of my friends mentioned the Loveland ski area's Valentines Day promotion, "Marry Me and Ski for Free". We decided that was really just the thing for us. So we got a license and joined 60 other couples on a cold and snowy Valentines day and said our vows to each other on top of a ski mountain. It was special, we both cried and then we skied a few powder runs before enjoying a reception at the ski lodge. We had already booked to teach a cooking class for that night, so off we went to teach and celebrate a lovely evening with friends, good food we made together and wonderful wine from the wine cellar. It was memorable and unique and just right for us. 

The snowy ceremony- many people were inside keeping warm

Fabrizio and Marla February 14, 2007 Loveland Ski Area, Colorado ,USA

As they years have passed, we now have use of the whole of the building, we offer cooking classes, local short break culinary tours, we have a large organic garden that we are constantly improving with the help of volunteers from organizations like Wwoof.it and Workaway.info. We will be offering courses on sustainable living and gardening in the future and expanding our cooking classes with bread workshops  and more varied culinary tours. We are still chefs that enjoy guests and we hope that now that you know a bit more about us, that you might come and meet us in person and share our slice of Italian life in the Alps and discover our not so well known, but certainly deserving valley and what we have on offer. Vi aspettiamo. We are waiting for you. 

Marla and Fabrizio at Bella Baita February 11, 2014

Bella Baita View