Air Claudio

Being in a completely different culture and environment heightens your sense of the sharp contrasts that each day brings. Today was an Italian day. But not the Italian day that you imagine of dry landscapes, city fountains of carved stone and sun dried tomatoes. This was a day of the northern country and the Piedmont region.

Atlanta has Piedmont Avenue with its eponymous park, Lindbergh station and restaurants like Kyma and Bones. The true Piedmont of Italy is in the heart of the foothills of the Italian Alps. My task of the day was to scout the areas where our invited journalists will run with the Olympic Torch Relay this upcoming Saturday and Sunday. We needed to make sure we knew exactly where we would need to take them for a unique Olympic and Italian experience.

Our driver, introduced to me as Claudio, was a potbellied man with a grey mustache and only a passing familiarity with the English language. Three of us pilled into his new Volkswagen Tourec and stated north at 8:30 in the morning. As we left Torino we were immediately greeted by snow-capped mountains and a pale blue sky without a trace of clouds. Our destination was Bardonecchia, a ski village only a few kilometers from the border of France.

The road there is a modern highway and in a little more than an hour we were in the village where our journalist guests will run on Sunday. The reporters include a Chinese print journalist, Yang Ming of the powerhouse news agency Xinhua, a Greek from the largest Sunday circulation paper “To Vima” and Billy Bush, anchor of “Access Hollywood” the NBC entertainment news show. They will arrive on Saturday and run in this town on Sunday as guests of The Coca-Cola Company. (Watch for the coverage on this show Monday or Tuesday).

We stopped briefly to look around this Alpine village where artists were carving snow sculptures in front of city hall for the upcoming weekend event. We then took a turn off the main highway to a two lane road that wound its way through ever increasing hills to the town of Cesana. My only personal experience that relates to these mountains is the Rockies of the Western U.S. These mountains are only a bit tamer but just as dramatic with a heavy layer of snow brightened by the low-angle of a white sun and contrasted by the soft shadows of pines.

We passed by the town of Sauze d’Oulx where the Freestyle Skiing competition will be held and continued the climb through the wintery scene. Claudio was certainly not afraid of the winding roads and pushed the car to its limits. From the backseat the views were fabulous but I could feel my stomach doing its own freestyle. The reward however was well worth the queasiness.

We soon arrived in the mountain village of Sestriere. Even if you have never heard of it before, you will see its incredible beauty in only a few days if you watch the Winter Olympic Games. This is the home of the Alpine Skiing events -- the holy grail of downhill racers. The town is situated at the peak of a mountain surrounded by brilliant peaks and jaw-dropping cliffs. The whole resort is already marked with orange banners and the flags of Olympic supporters from winter-loving countries like Austria and Canada. The snow sparkled with a layer of ice crystals like a sugar coated glass. The downhill slope is already groomed and ready for the best skiers in the world to hurl themselves down its steep track.

We only stopped briefly to soak in the beauty and then continued down the windy road through Pragelato and Fenestrelle. As if knowing the best part of the views were done, Caludio pressed his lead foot to the peddle and we careened down the Italian Alps faster than I was comfortable with. I finally relented and asked Claudio to pull over for us to take a breather and let my stomach lower from its perch at the back of my throat.

He smiled as he smoked his cigarette leaning against the car and laughed jokingly at me. “I drive more slowly now, eh?” Yes Claudio. We have much more road to go before this adventure is over…