The Persian Imperial family were on skiing holidays every year near St. Moritz in the Engadin. While family may imply a small group of people, their arrival was usually more of an invasion. With them arrived a host of servants, courtiers, and bodyguards.
Getting their party to the skiing slopes must have taken a field marshal to organize it. They tended to turn up in groups of no less than 30 people at a time. Getting them lunch was akin to the feeding of the masses in a busy skiing resort. And to make the security people happy, they usually needed a segregated room for that time as well.
Farah Diba was a good skier; no, actually she was an excellent skier. The others in the party, with exception of the Shah, were at best indifferent skiers, and that included the bodyguards. All the same, they would turn up on the slopes of a skiing circus called Piz Lagalb on the Bernina Pass. The slopes there were designed for above average skiers; the Persian party accordingly usually crept down the slopes rather than skied.
One day, Farah Diba must have lost her nerve while waiting once again on the worst skiers in her group coming down at snail’s pace. She just went off and drove down the slopes at the speed suited to her skiing expertise. This meant her arriving at the bottom of the mountain alone, as no one in her group was able to follow her.
It also meant she had a lot of time on her hands once she reached the bottom of the slope. It would take quite some time until her group would catch up with her. What does a wily empress do without her bodyguards? Farah Diba went local. She parked her skies outside the station and went inside to the self serve cafe on site. She got in line like anybody else and ordered a coffee.
The employees of the cafe recognized her instantly while nobody else did. The girls behind the counter did what the Swiss do best. They pretended not to know her and treated her like Mrs Smith. While a British Royal would have been embarrassed at the till by the fact of having no cash on their person (they never do), Farah Diba was equipped for the eventuality and went to a table to sip at her coffee. She had to wait for almost 20 minutes until her bodyguards finally made an appearance.
What was fascinating about it: Nobody in the restaurant (apart from the employees who saw her daily) recognized the Empress of Persia sitting alone at a table sipping a coffee. ‘Mummy has to put on her crown or nobody will recognize her.’ Can’t remember where that one comes from, but maybe someone else will remember.
Further reading
History in The Alps: Bernina Pass
History in the Alps: Fluela Pass
History of the FIS Alpine Ski World Championship
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