Went to try “retkiluistelu” or “tour skating”, a variant of ice skating made for long trips on rough terrain. It uses (among other things) longer than normal skates and ice pikes to test the ice for thickness. The style is somewhat different than traditional skating in that you have to kick slightly forward to avoid getting stuck in the bumps and cracks of the ice.

It was fun, although as the photo shows my style needs some improvement. There are some nice photos on Flickr if you want to get a better idea.

My cousin Massimo sent me a link to this video, showing him and his friends building and riding their own snowboards in 1986 (!). Back then snowboarding was little more than a curiosity in Italy, and if you wanted to try it out you had to be inventive - as they certainly were! Massimo is the one with the red sweater and displaying an almost flawless descent at 8:27

I uploaded some photos taken during the holidays in San Cassiano, a charming little town on the Dolomiti mountains where we have spenty almost every Christmas in the last twenty years. We don’t have many traditions in my family, but this is certainly one of them (the other would have to be the Sunday pizza).