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We decided to make our first stop on the way to this year's skiing halfway through the route.
We arrived there late in the evening, so apart from an Austrian beer before bed, there was nothing else we could do.
Today we started with a tour of Schonbrum Palace. They have a Polish speaker in the headphones, so you can follow the tragic life of Franz Joseph and Empress Sisi in great detail.
After visiting the palace chambers, we hopped on a hop-on-hop-off bus. The driver, who looked like he liked to eat well, turned out to be a nice Pole and recommended where to eat what he considered to be the best Wiener Schnitzel in the city. So after a few bus laps around the city center, my girls and I sat down at Cafe Landtmann. Before the schnitzel, it was impossible not to have a rindzupa, and after it, it was hard to imagine not eating Viennese apfelstrudel in vanilla sauce.
In the evening we listened to Mozart and Strauss in a chamber setting of piano, flute, two violins, viola, double bass and cello, plus a soprano and a pair of dancers. A tourist capsule of the greatest hits for tourists.
Now we sip wine, watch Dexter. And tomorrow we have the second part of the journey to sunny Italy.

After three days of travel, we reached our destination. The town, whose name reveals its altitude, is called Marilleva 1400 and lies above the Val di Sol valley.
Our hotel, or rather resort, turned out to be an architectural marvel of the 1970s that had been waiting for renovation for fifty years. It was a real, eight-level complex located in the middle of the forest with a gondola station on the roof. It was easy to get lost here. To get from our room to the pool, you had to use three elevators. But once you got there, childhood memories came back: the obligatory swimming cap and "V-neck" panties, and a psychopathic lifeguard who never stopped blowing his whistle.
The Italian staff can't handle the language used by most of the guests. The exception is an aging DJ who sings "I'll take you in the car" and "you're crazy" during the discos especially for our homies.
Many already have a second day of awesome, cloudless skiing behind me. I'm sipping another bombardino on the way back to base. Italian drinking, eating and skiing definitely strengthen their positions (second and third) in my personal ranking of the best things I'd like to fill my life with.

This year's skiing is over.
As every year, it was not without adventures on the slope. This year, Maja gained too much self-confidence and blocked the way of a Polish boy of the same age. Nothing happened to him. Maja broke her collarbone, but it was not dislocated. There was a lot of crying, but the Italian specialists from the trauma clinic quickly got the situation under control. Instead of a cast, a stiffening corset. The prospect of an additional four weeks of holidays with an iPad in front of the TV can improve my daughter's mood in a few seconds.
According to the old Chyliczki tradition, after returning from skiing, one should start welcoming spring. Although there are no particular signs of its arrival - perhaps apart from the revival of our Fina - we decided to bake the first pizza of the year in our garden oven. We bought the flour, olives, parmesan and olive oil in Italy. And the mozzarella, salami and ham in Lidl in Konstancin.
Oh well. Let the Italians come to Chyliczki to study.
Pizza dough recipe.
450g cake flour – one kilogram. Enough for 6 large pizzas rolled out very thinly. 60 grams of fresh yeast. 500 ml of warm water (not hot). Pour off some water and add to the yeast. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar, a little flour and wait until the yeast starts working (foam will appear). Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil to the flour. Add almost all the water and the working yeast. Mix a little. Dissolve 3 teaspoons of salt in the remaining water and add to the dough as well. Knead the dough. Leave for 2 hours to rise. Divide into 6 balls. Make 1 thin pizza from each. You can prepare dough for 9 pizzas at once by multiplying all the ingredients by one and a half – but this is the maximum amount of dough that can be kneaded by hand at once.
Pizza sauce recipe.
Proportions according to taste. Fry a few cloves of garlic and two onions in a large amount of olive oil. When it is well glazed, add 2-3 kg of juicy, very ripe, chopped tomatoes without green parts, with skin - they are best at the end of August, such elongated, slightly overripe. Add basil or oregano, or both (can be dried). Add a spoonful of balsamic vinegar and a spoonful of sugar. Alternatively, instead of fresh tomatoes, you can add 3 cans of tomatoes (chopped or whole) and a bottle of 0.7 Italian tomato pulp. Cook until thickened well, an hour or two. Be careful not to burn, stir often. Blend and cool.