Intro Mid-July my friends and I spent a lovely evening chatting with Barbara and Maurizio at Barbara's place in Sesto S. Giovanni, gossiping away after their return from the USA, eating ice cream and playing with Babi's lovely daughter Giorgia. On that occasion we also learnt about Natalia Linichuck, Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski coming to Italy to B&M's summer practice venue on the very same day we were supposed to drive down there. Of course it was natural for some of us to offer ourselves to go and pick them up at the airport, instead of having Mauri leave Cerreto to drive to Milan, and then back to Cerreto. I didn't really think it was going to happen, but since we would go in that direction anyway, what was the problem? To my surprise a few days later Mauri texted me an sms in which he asked if we could actually organize to go and pick up the Russian/Bulgarian little group, so that they wouldn't loose a full day of practices. Ok, no problem... it felt just a tiny little bit weird (esp. to know that Linichuck now has my phone number...), but no big deal. Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005 So we packed our bags with as little as possible to compensate for what we feared could be the quite large suitcases of our guests, and by 10.15 am on Wednesday, August 3rd, we were at Malpensa airport with two bouquets of flowers and the hope that no baggage was missing, no planes were lost... on the way there I got both an sms from Mauri and a phone call from Babi asking to let them know how things were going. Fine, it seemed, till a very tanned, blond and buffed up Maxim appeared through the automatic doors, and proceeded to inform us that "we had a problem" - Natalia had lost the coincidence in Frankfurt and was now supposed to arrive by 13.45... three and a half hours later! Albena arrived a few moments later, and after a frantic series of calls trying to contact Babi (unreach-able) and Mauri (didn't answer), and a successful call to Andrea Vaturi (always a point of reference - he's there when you need him!) who passed over the news to B&M, we found a place to settle down and wait for Natalia. More than three hours are quite a long wait, but with a couple of stops to the bar for drinks and a bit of lunch (though I almost had to wrestle with Albena to stop her from paying everyone's stuff... ^_^ she's sooo nice), some walks around looking at shops and books, several games of sudoku, a look at some photos on my laptop (upon the extraction of which Maxim commented "it looks like we're in a press center!"), quite a lot of chatting and looking at Maxim's photos on his cell phone... time flew, and soon Natalia was there! She was a vision: after such a long journey, she passed through the automatic doors perfectly fresh and relaxed, looking so elegant.... definitely a "grand dame du patinage". We then lost just a few moments more trying to fit Natalia and Albena's enormous suitcases in our cars, plus the trolleys with the skates, our bags, etc... on one car we had Filippo and Silvia (Russian-speaking) with Maxim and Marianna (poor her, she couldn't understand them); on the other, Anna, me, Natalia Linichuck and lovely Albena (at first she was going in the other car, but Natalia asked to have her in the car, so that's when Mary went in the other one). We had quite a bit of a journey in front of us; funny the face of Albena when she asked me how long would that take: I said, "three hours, more or less" and she was shocked... "But Maxim told me it would be more like two hours" - at which I had to answer: "well, I have no idea of how fast Maxim thinks it is legal to drive in Italy, but with the current limits..." (well, to be 100% honest we didn't really stay within those limits, but not even too far from them!). Maybe Natalia and Albena have a different memory of this "pleasant trip"... At some point Anna had to brake hard to avoid a truck who was braking for no apparent reason, as she was not able to change lanes because some car was approaching fast from behind.... Both Natalia and Albena looked just a tiny little bit scared and from then on Natalia proclaimed Anna "a typical Italian driver", and later Albena started calling her "Schumacher"... ;p We were up in cerreto around 17.30, and just as we arrived it started to rain... we met Mauri outside the rink (I had called him a couple of times on the phone to ask him were we should meet, etc) and I shot him a growling look when he joking-ly suggested that we had brought the rain there... tsk, he should have shown us a bit of gratitude for playing free taxi drivers for him, instead of making silly jokes... Anyway, we had lost so much time at the airport that the practices were almost finished so we went into the rink just to say hello to everyone, but as soon as we saw Federica, we knew we had a mission to carry out... "Toponiglio Surprise" (the Toponiglio Franklin banner we made for them)! I had annouced its coming a good week before, so I knew she was really curious and waiting for it.... Actually we first gave her just Topo, asking her to guess what the surprise was.. and she started examining him from every angle, not finding anything strange... It is impossible to describe the tender and funny expression of Fede when I entered the café holding the banner.. she jumped to her feet hugging Topo close to her heart, and came up to have a good look at our "masterpiece"... ^_^ with that look she completely payed back all the hours we had to spend making it! (the video can be found in Topo's blog on his website) We also promised her that she could keep Topo with her till the very last moment of our trip... of course she was pleased! We also set a meeting with Massi for dinner, and then went looking for our hotels. In less than an hour we were back at the restaurant where all the skaters ate, and had a lovely dinner chatting with Massi. After dinner also Babi stopped to chat a bit with us, so I gave her the little present I had brought (a relaxing candle and some baby sizzling lavender bath salts), while Anna took out all the photos she had had printed (plus all the photos of her cats, which we had already shared with Massi). She was very sweet, and she had already impressed us when she had stopped us as soon as we were coming into the restaurant, just to apologize for having run away from the rink without stopping with us "because she had had the famous five minutes of bad mood"... actually we were not really upset by her hurry, but we were touched by the fact that she had felt obliged to come up to us.. very sweet. We left the restaurant when it was already quite late, and still managed to pause there again speaking to Massimo, who was a bit upset for some reasons, and neede a bit of moral support.. of course we would be there for him! Quite a bit of chatting and several hugs later, we reached our hotel. We were seriously exhausted and went to bed as soon as our incurable tendency to stop and chat would allow.. which means it was well past midnight, and we were going to get up early again... practices started at 8am! Thursday, August 4th, 2005 (photos on the linked pages, see below) Early morning, no matter how tired we were. Actually I was even a bit frustrated because we had planned to be at the rink by 8.30, and we didn't manage to arrive before 9... and soon after we arrived B&M stopped their all-out practices and started a loooooooooooooooooooooong discussion on some technical problem with their coaches, and didn't do much for the rest of the session... Thankfully there were also other couples to watch.. among the two morning sessions we had FP&M, Faiella and Scali, Aureli & Vaturi, Kerr & Kerr, Denkova & Stavisky, and all our junior couples... more than enough for a skating fan to spend some very good hours! It was a real treat to have also the foreign couples right in front of us... as much as we enjoy watching the Italians, we can see them easily in Milano, so we had even more fun watching someone we usually see only at competitions! It was a special pleasure to see Maxim practice... he's such an amazing natural talent! He kept repeating multiple twizzle sequences with such an ease, as it was the simplest thing on earth... I was in total awe. What a pity he is so short... he's so good, if only their couple had been better balanced physically (a.k.a. he had been taller!) they would have been breathtaking. Albena is clearly not as naturally gifte as him, but boy does she work hard to compensate for this... Albena and Maxim did both practice sessions... they must be in great shape! 4 hours is not easy training... and there were more practices in the afternoon! Fede and Massi worked on little bits and pieces, but we were looking forward to the afternoon practice, where they would do all the programs, in 1 minute intervals. So we would see everything!! Later we had another leisurely lunch (we were quite shy at the idea of going in the separate area for the skaters to sit down, we didn't want to force our presence on them, but every time we attempted to get a table in the general area, Carlo came up to us, jokingly saying "don't be silly and come here, sit down with the rest of the group!", so we always ended up sitting among them, chatting with one skater or the other. It seems like I always had somethig to deliver to someone.. I had brought with me also a couple of bottles of bubble bath & body lotion for Alessia - chocolate flavoured because I always caught her eating something nice any time I crossed her path at Euros in Torino... so I had brought her a sweet treat! After lunch skaters went to rest, and we happily sit down on the terrace outside the restaurant, overlooking the small lake, relaxing under the sun. When we went back to the rink, I knew that apart from the practices I was going to have some work to do. I had arranged a meeting with Paola Mezzadri about an interview for Torino 2006, but that was mid-afternoon. I had also tried to remember Mauri about the interview we had to do for their website the night before, but he proved to be hard to reach. I was quite unhappy about this, and I guess it showed. I mean, I do all that work as a favour to my friends, and I really didn't like being treated as if he was doing ME a favour... it was an idea HE had had for THEIR website, on which I also work for free at night after my regular job... at least don't treat me like that! I don't know if he realized that I was annoyed, but at some point he was coming out of the rink and passing next to us, and Sissi alerted me to go and ask him again about those question... I actually was annoyed, so I fired back:"no, I'm not going to beg for something he thought of." I don't know if he heard me or what, but he made an u-turn and came to sit in front of me, ready for the questions. My only other problem with this was that this improvised interview made me lost the meeting with Paola Mezzadri.. I was really really scared she would be the one to be annoyed, this time! Before another practice session I also met Federica, whom I stopped for the delivery of yet another silly present... still more bath products that I got at "Lush" just because they were of a toponiglious pink... she appreciated, but the best surprise was my next announcement: since she seemed a little sad, we had agreed to leave Toponiglio with her for all the remainig time at summer camp... almost a month! She was really, really happy now (though I really fear I'll have to break into their Milan home and steal Topo in september, as I have no idea of how I will convince her to give it back to me!!) Before getting into the rink I also stopped John and Sinead and asked them about the last interview I had planned for Torino 2006; thankfully their webmaster had indeed alerted them of this, so they happily set up a meeting for the night. Back to the rink to see some action, I had the time to enjoy Fede and Massi's training (and to record everything of it!) before Paola came up to the side of the rink where we were all sitting, and told me to join her in the dressing rooms to do the interview. I was a bit sad of having to leave right at that moment, because Albena had just come up on the tribunes to sit with us for the last bit of practices... but work was waiting, so I packed my bags and went down to the boards, hoping to find Paola in a good mood.Thankfully she was really really nice, and I think it went pretty well... a pity that my tape recorder had some problems, so I had to recite most details back to it right after we finished, for fear that they hadn't been caught on tape! A quiet dinner again with Massi, who was much more happy and relaxed as the previous days' anxieties seemed to have dissolved quite a bit, and was in a way better mood. After we finished eating, John and Sinead came up to us to start the interview, which ended up being a funny and relaxed chat - my tape recorder run out of tape well before the end of it, but as we were discussing the ISU and the new judging system.. I wouldn't have used that part anyway on the Torino2006 website!! you can read a trascript of what was taped HERE I really fell in love with both of them, they are wonderfully fresh and energetic young skaters, with a style, a story and ideas all of their own.. I just hope they can keep this mentality in the future too! I really did know little about them, so I was a bit afraid of running out of ideas or asking the wrong questions, but they were so nice and open that after a few minutes it felt more like a chat with some old friends than an interview. If I already liked their fresh and unique style on the ice, after meeting them I can only say I am twice a fan of them! Babi had not had the time to speak to me that night because of a meeting called with their coaches, so she gave me a new appointment for the next morning at the rink. Again, we went to bed quite late... but happy. It had been a very good day of skating. Friday, August 5th, 2005 On Friday we wouldn't have much time to spend in Cerreto.. surely not a full day, as we were planning to leave in the early afternoon. So again we tried to make it to the rink at a reasonable hour, failing miserably. In the first group were Fede and Massi practicing, and the couples from the Ice Academy (they had chosen to skate didvid between the two teams in the morning, and between junior and senior in the afternoon), so we happily sat down to watch them. I actually had to skip part of the first group's practices, because Babi arrived for the little interview for their website, so I went to the caféteria to do that. I managed to get back, abviously, for their practice! I do not recall many detail or specific events... again we just took photos, enjoyed the skating, etc. We had already packed our bags and left the hotel, so we were totally free to do what we wanted. When we met Federica we immediately asked her if she had brought us Topo, as we had planned with Massi to take some pictures of them with Ludmilla and their lovely mascot... As soon as we approached her with our request she looked at us badly/sadly, asking "You don't want to take him home, don't you? You had said he would stay with me all the time!".... after reassuring her we just planned some photos, she was much more relaxed. We spent a quiet morning at the rink, with just a little run for me to retrieve some medicines for Carlo's hurting knee (lucky him that I have bad knees myself.. and I insist on skating!)... I felt just a little bit like a pusher, when I displayed my offer.. "this is a painkiller, this an anti-inflammatory, this is both a painkiller and an anti-inflammatory...." LOL. We lost a lot of time at lunch, chatting with everyone and then by ourselves when the skaters had gone to rest... so that by the time we left the restaurant we could go straight to the rink to wait for them to come for the ballet lesson, to say bye bye before we left. We took some more commemorative photos (with Albena and Maxim, of Sinead and John... on their pages, linked above) and around half past three we left cerreto...