We woke up very early for the big day! The reason we’d came. Winter Olympics 2026 Milan Cortina. 4.45am, after a night feeling a bit nauseous (I’m blaming the dodgy meal last night!) I’m actually looking forward to getting up. I’d had strange dreams of ChatGPT being in my brain. Very bizarre and a bit unsettling.
Leon managed to cut the side of his index finger preparing our lunch. He was meant to cut the baguette in half. I located the first aid kit, which was 8 years out of date and no plasters. Ah well. He tells me it’s not too bad, and carries on. The hot water is not on yet either so a smelly Olympics it is. Out we head for a long old day, ready and not quite yet raring.
We aim to get the 6:15am train, which was a good job, as the 6:45 was cancelled. Any later than that, we would have missed the event. Thank goodness for cautiousness! A rather dark view, the first hour and a half from Colico to Tirano slipped by without too much of a trace, apart from stripping off my middle layers as I was baking on the train, and we did move seats when a sniffing woman decided to sit opposite us.
The next leg of the journey was another 90 min, a spectator shuttle fr Tirano to just outside Livigno. The landscape was harsh with black rocks and contrasting white ice and snow, and some foreboding huge black birds circling. The trees remind me of those in the Black Forest, ancient pines dusted with snow. I went between extremes of marvelling at the scenery, and how the bus driver was navigating the icy hairpins, to drifting off to doze.
When we get to Livigno, it is a pretty alpine village, in a snow globe. We either needed to walk 25min or get another shuttle. While we were deliberating, the little minibus turned up, so on we hopped.
We all spill out of the packed minibus, and head for the ticket scanning people. All went well. Though I did notice the huge forbidden items list which annoyingly included food and beverages. We downed our bottle of water and I popped a half baguette in
each side of my coat, thinking, they won’t feel there!!
We got to the front of the queue for security, and after thinking I would smuggle our lunch in my coat, I saw they were scanning people with a metal detector… and the offending articles were wrapped in foil. So we had no choice but to declare our ‘prohibited items, and was told we needed to eat them immediately or throw them away. We took that challenge and speed-chowed (if only that was an Olympic sport!) each of our baguettes, finishing up just eating the ham and cheese in the middle, as the bread was rather hard and dense.
We finally get through and traverse the rubber matting clicked into place over the snow. We get to the spectator area with 15minutes to spare to the dual moguls women’s final, and can finally relax… while doing an impressing of a yeti. The snow is not stopping but neither are we, so set in tens of layers, we shift about on our increasingly numbing feet.
The atmosphere really was electric and rather infectious, as beaming flag painted faces clap and sing together, and the skiers are all hugging and greeting each other on the big screen.
Half way, we treated ourselves to a hot chocolate, which I customised with a shot of espresso and asked for no whizzy cream. It was so thick, it grew a brown skin on it that stuck to our lips! It was such a welcome bit of sugary warmth and gave us the 2nd wind for the final half.
When we return, we have lost our spot in the front cordoned area, but we are cheered up by the fact we are next to a group of Americans in fancy dress. but what are they? Donald Trump? Leon jokes ice agents? Julius Caesar? I eventually fathom they are meant to be Cupid’s as it Val day! Ahhhh!!
My Mum texts at 11:45 to say they have spotted me on TV!! I was dancing about to keep warm so look for the group of Cupid’s with a more normal (ish) looking person next to them dancing like it’s 1999. We watched the victory ceremony and then made our way back the way we came! We did stop by the ‘fan village’, which had an enthusiastic mariachi band playing to a handful of people, some getting drunk, possibly all. Leon felt ‘it was a bit much’ which made me laugh. I am writing this on the final leg back to Colico, and I am definitely ready to be back now!