Eating Out

Pizza is king in this part of Italy. Often sold in restaurants that sell "snacks" as well as most upscale eateries. Tonight I had a picante (spicy hot) pizza with salami and olives, an l'insalata misto (mixed salad), and a Moretti Birra (beer). Everything was great! I barely left enough for the mice. When I went to the bathroom I found the toilet just like the ones in China. Men and women are in one place, and it is a "squat" type toilet. Since there is food in this entry, I'll not place a toilet picture here.

Varenna

Well, my plans to enjoy Varenna for 5 days or so didn't come to fruition. Left Bellagio (beautiful town and waterfront) on the ferry as the clouds were closing in. By the time we landed in Varenna, 20 minutes later, the clouds opened. I walked to my first destination, a B&B, but it was full. A little soggy, I trekked back to the waterfront and the Hotel Olivedo. Very beautiful and only 60 Euros a night with Wireless. So I got a place on the 5th floor (above the windows in the picture) with slanted ceiling and small windows on the floor. Nice old place with lots of atmosphere. So I plugged in my computer, set on blogging, but no wireless appeared. So, I climbed down 5 flights (no elevator) to the front desk and la Signora gave me all the correct information. Back up 5 flights and still no internet. So I came back down and asked what network...she told me and I went back up, now sweating profusely! Still no internet, so I packed my bags and went to another hotel that was cheaper, but without collegarmi a internet!

The Hotel Baretta was very nice, but sensa internet. It was sort of a local hangout, with lots of Italian conversation in the bar below. This night Italy played Paraguay in their first match. I watched in my room, but I could hear when they lost 0 to 1. I think all of Italy cried! Well, another chance this week. After the hike up and down the hotel stairs, I didn't feel too much like walking around Varenna that night.

The next morning I walked to Piaza San Giorgio and another place that might have internet...but it wasn't to be. They were full. Change of plans. Menaggio (my planned city in 4 days), looked more promising, so goodbye Varenna - salve Menaggio.

Stephano's Caza

On Sunday, Delia drove me and Sara over the mountain to her brother Stephano's home. On the way we drove through the largest city, Como, and I saw the Duomo (Cathedral). It was very hard to get a good picture of the entire church because the narrow streets and buildings wouldn't let me get very far away to include the entire church in one picture!

Stephano's house is an old Italian style home situatated high on the mountain. The view of Lago de Como was astounding! You could see most of the famous Como Villa's from his home, as well as George Cloney's Villa. I got a tour of Stephano's well tended garden as he pulled up fresh veggies for our meal. Later, we walked down to the lake through narrow and twisty lanes. Stephano's wife walked down to the highway every day to catch the bus to work. Now I see how my cousins stay in such good shape. The dinner we had was so huge, and so good. I ate some things that I haven't had since I was small and my mom made for us. Great cheese, salami, fresh veggies, rabbit...everything was so good. We also had three different wines!

We had a bira (beer) at a small restaurant by the lake on our walk. I was told that Robert Di Niro and George Cloney sometimes eat there. It was very nice. Tomorrow I will take the ferry from Bellagio to Varenna, the medieval town on Lago De Como.

Delia, Sara, and Daniele

My cugina, Delia, came and picked me up at my hotel during the next two days and I enjoyed her hospitality and experienced my Italian side of the family. Her children, Sara and Daniele, were still in school, so we went down to pick them up in Asso (the town were I got off of the train). Sara went to horse riding lessons and Delia, Daniele drove around for about an hour waiting for Sara's lesson to be over. I saw lots of places that were very old, and some new buildings. This area is at the foot of the Alps, so it was usually not flat driving or walking anywhere. Very much unlike Florida.

One of the things that I noticed was many of the plants are the same as we have. I saw lots of stinging nettle, and mixed in with it, some kind of Dock (sp?). Lots of other weeds were the same. Very different from China where I often couldn't recognize a plant.

On Saturday, I went to the school so Delia could pick up Sara's and Daniele's report cards and have a conference with their respective teachers. It is the last day of school, so the kids around the school seemed very happy. Yes, it was Saturday! Children here go to school on Saturday also. Only Sunday do they have off! Sara and Daniele liked America's school week better.

When Delia was attending her conferences I walked around and found to old churches next to each other, behind the school. The big church was very dark and I didn't want to take flash pictures inside, but the little church was sunlit, so I snapped a few pictures there. Both are very beautiful and very ornate.

In the doorway of the little church there was a fresco that was very interesting. It was of skulls and one of the skulls had a snake coming out of a nostril. The area around the churches was very old, with narrow winding alleys. I took some pictures of these streets, but it was very dark and they didn't come out as well as I would have liked.

Driving from Asso to Magreglio by bus was very interesting. The main highway was very much like the Highway 1 through Big Sur: narrow and winding. But when the big bus got off the main highway and drove through the small town of Barni the ride grew much more interesting. Barni is mostly old buildings and very narrow streets. I would feel very uncomfortable driving my SUV through the streets, let alone a huge bus.

Not too long after we left Barni I was dropped off on the highway in Magreglio. My hotel, the Il Paraguay, was about a 3 block walk. There are lots of B&B's in this part of Italy and they are very nice and extremely reasonable. The Il Paraguay was only 40 Euros (about $49 US) that included a small breakfast and wireless internet from my room.

Trains from Milano to Asso

I took 2 trains to get to the small city in the preAlps called Asso. That is where I caught the bus to Magreglio. The first train from the Milano Malpensa airport was new, electric and beautiful. It only took about 20 minutes to arrive at the Bosiva station where I had to change trains. The second train was older, and stopped frequently. The Italian country side is beautiful, with a mixture of old and new. I actually thought it looked somewhat like the countryside you see when you travel by train in China. Some of the architecture is very similar. We don't have buildings that are maybe 100 to 500 (or more) years old.

I arrived in Asso just as school was getting out and there were lots of high school age children coming into the bus/train station to change buses. Many were smoking, and I was told that you can buy, and smoke, at 16. The train station had a cafe next door that sold bus tickets, so I bought my ticket to Magreglio and got on my bus about 20 minutes later. My travel Italian worked pretty well, and got me this far, so I felt pretty good.

First Days

I flew Alitalia to Milano. A short 1 hour flight Tampa to Miami, then 6 hour wait to fly to Italy. The flight was 9 hours (economy class), but I slept about 6 hours (off and on, between bumps) and felt refreshed when we landed at 10:30 am.

Milano was hot! About 90 and very humid. Everyone is saying that there was no spring. Like in Tampa, it went from winter to summer in one week.