February 3, 2026

Sondrio, Italia

Good morning. Another good night's sleep. Although it has bothered my all night – who is Giovanni Bertacchi, and why is he important enough to have the piazza in front of the train station named after him. Giovanni Bertacchi (9 February 1869 – 24 November 1942) was an Italian poet, teacher and literary critic. He was born inn Chiavenna at the western end of the Valtellina and the Province of Sondrio; this the connection to Sondrio

In 1895 he published a famous collection of poems entitled “Canzoniere del Alpi”. It doesn’t sound as interesting in English but it translates as “Songbook of the Alps”. The Alpi or Alps is what Sondrio is all about. He was also anti-fascist. He voluntarily left the University of Padua in 1938 as a statement against fascism. The people of the province are always wanting to distance themselves from the fascists of the 1930’s & 1940’s in Italy.

The Valtellina was considered a fascist stronghold. Beginning inn the late 1920’ Benito Mussolini’s interest in the Valtellina was characterized by several strategic infrastructure developments. It is here in the final days of World War II that he wanted to build a mountain stronghold. As the Salò Republic collapsed the fascist loyalists proposed retreating to the Valtellina to make a last stand against the Allied forces and partisans. Today you would be very hard pressed to find anyone who made any claim of association with the fascists in the Valtellina, they were all partisans. Although  one of the coolest looking buildings near the train station was the headquarters of the fascist regime in Sondrio.

Sorry got distracted. It is morning, it is snowing outside and it is 2° C (36° F). The high to day is supposed to be 7° C (45° F), and it supposed to snow this morning and all day tomorrow. Tomorrow is also supposed to be colder. In fact, as February goes forward it is simply supposed to get colder and colder.

All of this is good for the Olympic organizers. Bormio, the site of the Men’s Alpine Skiing events, or at least the Downhill, Super-G, Giant Slalom, Slalmon and Alpine Combined events, will be held on the Stelvio track of Monte Vallecetta. Monte Vallecetta or more specifically the northern peak stands 3,148 meters (10,340 feet) above sea level. It is the prominent peak in the Sobretta-Gavin Group of peaks in the Italian Alps. The World Cup track, Stelvio, was built and opened in 1985, and its debut was the 1985 World Championships.

Stelvio is widely regarded as one of, if not the, most difficult and technical downhill courses in the world. It has an average incline of 30.9% and is steeper the either Streif or Kitzbühel. The ski area in Bormio has hosted two World Championships (1985 & 2005) and three World Cup finals (1995, 2000 and 2008), and now the 2026 Olympics.

In fact, Bormio will host the debut ski mountaineering for the Winter Olympics. This new set of events will include various mountaineering, sprint and mixed relay events. Bormio is also an official Olympic athlete village which has been constructed to accommodate competitors in these disciplines.

Sondrio is the capital of the province and as such is a key cultural and logistical hub for the 2026 Winter Olympics in the region. It will host celebrations, the Olympic flame was used to lite the Olympic cauldron in Piazza Garibaldi on the 31st of January, right in front of our hotel and is part of the #Sixth Ring” artistic project. Bormio and Livigno host Alpine and freestyle/snowboarding respectively, Sondrio centers on the festive, promotional part of the games. Fortunately for us we are about a week ahead of the start of the games, which would include the crowds.

The Grand Hotel della Posta offers breakfast for only €10, so we signed me up to have breakfast. There was no one in the breakfast room at 07:00, other than one wait staff. Breakfast was a cappuccino and brioche, ok maybe two of each, a yogurt, scrambled eggs, and bacon. They had yogurt from the Latteria in Chiuro. This has been our favorite but it used to come in a glass container and had a different label. The description on the label says it is yogurt di Valtellina, which is the same. Yogurt here is not as thick as Greek but not runny like most European yogurts. The taste is somewhere in between as well. More importantly is that it comes with Frutti di Bosco; generally, that means blackberries, blueberries, but can include cherries and even strawberries. No matter what it was good.

The breakfast room at Grand Hotel della Posta

After breakfast it was back to the room, with a couple brioche, a Mandarin orange and a yogurt for Mary. She wanted to be woken up at 08:00 that turned into 08:30. I was working on this blog, and turned around and she was asleep at 09:15. I let her sleep while I wrote. As noon approached I woke her up and suggested we go for a short walk and get some lunch.

We had eaten a lunch at a Trattoria called Cima 11 in the old historical part of Sondrio, sometime in the past and I remember it as very good. Finding it won’t be hard, they key is that it is on Via Pelosi, near the church. The memory isn’t as faulty as one might expect, remembered the location correctly and found it without too much trouble. We shared a very simple salad of green shredded lettuce with EVO and balsamic. I had the polenta con salsiccia all piastra. No this is no ordinary polenta. This is polenta taragna with 20% buckwheat. No butter no cheese, just good hearty polenta. It came with a very nice grilled sausage. Maybe a little salty but very good. Mary chose the gnocchi di zucca al cucchiaio. It literally translates as: pumpkin gnocchi served with a spoon. Zucca is often used to describe any type of squash, but most often pumpkin.

This is not a tourist restaurant. They only have one menu printed on a chalkboard in the dinning room, and as you might well expect it is only in Italian. The waitress didn’t speak any English.Why do we know it isn’t for tourists? Well, for example, tripe soup on the menu (trippa) which most tourists, including us, won’t order. Most of the people were workers. All the food was excellent.

After lunch we took a little walk. We walked down to the Iperal Supermarket on Via Tonale behind or on the opposite side of the train station. We probably walked a little further than necessary because the old sense of direction wasn’t working on the windy street of historical Sondrio. It is easy to have a sense of direction when the streets are laid out in a good ancient Roman gird with a Cardo Maximus and a Deciumanus. That way you know where North and South are and East and West. Even with the assistance of Google Maps it was a bit tricky to get out of the maze of ancient animal paths which follow the natural contour of the land which has long ago been erased.

We picked up a kilo of polenta taragna for Serra, we used her supply the other night. Mary was looking for some figure nail glue, but didn’t find any. She thinks the bigger Iperal on the highway outside of Castione Andeveno on the way to Berbenno is larger, which it is, and has more beauty products, which it does. It is one of the biggest markets that we have every experienced in Italy. More like a Super Target in the US. It even has a McDonalds.

We spoke to Mariagiulia about visiting this afternoon and arranged to meet at 15:00. However, by the time we got back to the hotel Mary was worn out. Rehydrating is difficult. You need to do it slowly to be effective, but you need to do it constantly. We got back to the hotel about 14:00 I called Mariagiulia and asked to postpone until tomorrow after Mary had had more rest. Egypt and Jordan really knock the life out of us. The combination of not having access to a lot of clean cool drinking water and getting a touch of the pharaoh’s revenge really wasn’t good. It is possible even V got a little dehydrated.

Mariagiulia and I rescheduled for tomorrow morning. Not exactly sure when, but in the morning. I think she is coming into town to do her weekly marketing. We both took an afternoon pisolino (nap) for an hour or two. We weren’t very hungry after the really good lunch, so we didn’t want to go into the restaurant here in the hotel for dinner. I went down to the bar and asked about small plates in the bar. He said no. The menu in the restaurant looks really good, but the dishes are too large. The front desk said she would check with her colleague. She took off like a shot for the restaurant. She brought out the restaurant manager, I told him I didn’t want to be a bother but we are just looking for something small for dinner since we had such a big lunch. Maybe just a toast with ham and cheese? He said sure, wait in the small room on the left opposite the entrance to the bar.

I went back up and got Mary from the room, and we went down to the small room. The bartender, who previously said they had no “bar food” said that they would be more than happy to make us a toast of ham and cheese. That and a bottle of water served as our dinner. We are always amazed at the great taste of the simple sandwich’s we can get in Italy and how really good they are. We shared the toast and went back to the room and played a game of cards. Mary won.

It was time for bed by the time we finished the game of canasta. Then Mary had a call with one of her long-time clients who texted she needed to talk. After that it was bedtime.

Buonanotte e Ciao

Enrico e Maria