Pragelato Seen

In the montains of Pragelato now. Torino very distant in many ways. Pragelato- a bank, a post office and a cluster of ski chalets divided by a small road and pinched to the southern exposed side of the valley by a pristine stream. Mountains scenic to the southeast, imposing to the northwest. Miles of "Torino 2006" fencing separating the ski jump and cross country venues from all of this. Carbarinieri (police) everywhere, imposing and demanding at first but quickly succumbing to their human nature which, to me, seems to jovial. Very social. Nils Stolzlechner is an old friend (we ski jumped together in the 80's) who is here working for NBC as the statistician. He's an enormous help as his Austrian upbringing gives him perfect German and great relations with the Austrians and Germans who are expected to do well here. Winding back to the point- Nils and I climbed through knee/thigh deep snow to the top of the small ski area that's closed for the Games. Carbinieri were hesitant to let us through but did- more curious by telemark skis than concerned about our risk to security.
The first official training jumps took place today for the Nordic combined skiers. The facilities seem perfect though the altitude and prevailing tail winds provide a challenge. Weather is beautiful- 20 degrees at night 45 during the day. We're in the sunshine above the clouds and haze of Torino. Weather tends to move in hard for short periods, then leave for long. The snow that's here apparently arrived in one such episode about two weeks ago and the sun has been hold reign since then. Reports call for good weather through the weekend though, in general, Europeans are not as fascinated by weather as Americans. No Weather Channel. If you ask someone what the forecast is, they are likely to look to the sky and predict whatever they see for the next day.
Many wonderful people already- Frederico and Philipo, drivers for NBC who not only drove me around the city but watched my bags for 4 hours while I had meetings. The production crew, too, a great group of folks- unpretentious, kind- who are really excited to be a part of the Games and even ski jumping (not always the case!). Lauren and Carly, interns over here getting TV experience with their leader- Sharon, a professor at Syracuse. Franceso the doorman, Roberta the big cheese a the hotel, Allesandro the driver (and Juventus hater). the Olympic experience is growing.
One last thing- photo of the Smartcar- the product of $4 - $5/gallon gasoline. Picture a golf cart that can go 85 mph. Easy to park, though.