George wasn't home.....

Today is Sunday, a very rainy day. We had planned to go to Varenna but decided to save that for a sunny day. We instead went to Laglio, where George Clooney has a villa and had a nice lunch. George was unable to join us but the food was good. I had an unusual pasta which was shaped like small squares, about 2" by 2". It was called tegoloni, had a pesto sauce and peccorino cheese. Molto bene. We then went to Como to the supermercato and did a big shopping. We, of course, got home early enough so Denis and Gene could have their afternoon naps. We had dinner in and I am spending the evening listening to Denis and Gene arguing about politics or whatever else they can find to argue about. I am also trying to bring the blog up to date.

Looking back on the non internet days, its all a blur. Calling Mario, the caretaker, Pozzi, the tech and trying to get on the internet 100 times a day. Gene finally had to revert to a newspaper! 4 days without knowledge of the stock market, Diamondback scores, unable to use Skype to call anyone, it was the worst torture imaginable. Now that we are back on, things have returned to normal. The weather has been mostly good with thunderstorms at night so as not to interfere with our days out. Last Tuesday we went to the outdoor market in Lenno. It was quite similar to the Bellano market of last year. We found a couple of glass mugs, some bargain tablecloths and a flyswatter. There are no big glasses in the house, so Gene bought a beer glass from a restaurant and with the mugs we now have 3. We made a couple more trips to Como to the supermercato also last week looking for things we could not do without. Denis arrived on Friday; Gene drove to Malpensa to pick him up, a drive of 85K or about 55 miles. That night we went to dinner in Menaggio to a great pizza place and also stopped for gelato in the square. Yesterday we took the ferry to Bellagio for dinner and some shopping. Denis found some gifts and some Deruta pottery for his kitchen. We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant with an outdoor patio up one of the small hilly streets. We followed dinner with the mandatory gelato and had a great evening. Last Thursday Gene and I walked down to the town of Mezzegra. We discovered some options for different routes for walking to Lenno and Mezzegra. We also found the panificio, the bread bakery which was the object of this walk. We discovered the square with the big magnolia tree and the fast boat builder right on the lake. Mezzegra is a very small town with not much going on. But we are very close to Lenno, Tremezzo and Menaggio. All have a ferry service and much more going on. There is a lot of building going on in Mezzegra. From our house we have a great view of 3 cranes. One to the front of us, one to the left and one to the right. They don't interfere with the view, but they don't enhance it. We have spent a lot of time on the deck, having most of our meals there and just hanging around. Thats about it, the days coming up should be fuller without having the spectre of no internet hanging over us.

Ciao,

Joan