Today is Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 and we have awakened to another glorious sunshiny day here on Lake Como! I check the website www.lifeinitaly.com for an accurate weather update for Como every day. This morning it is indicating sunny and low 80’s for the next five days. With the humidity very low it doesn’t get much better than this! Tiarra and her mom left Monday morning and have now gone back to work while Joan and I continue to bask in the beauty of Lake Como. It was great having them here and they added a lot to our stay. It seems that our visitors very quickly get into the relaxing mode!! The day before they left the four of us went for an extraordinary walk to the Villa del Balbianello.(see the web site for info www.fondoambiente.it and click on properties). This was about a four mile hike round trip from our rental. We are high up on the hillside so remember "what goes down must go up.” For those who might have a map of Italy nearby you’ll notice there is a bulge of land jetting into Lake Como in the town of Lenno. Villa del Balbianello sits on the tip of the bulge. The Villa was constructed in the late 1700’s. Parts of the movie "Casino Royale" and "Star Wars II" were filmed here. I’ll leave it to the reader to check out the website for more details but I must add that I don’t think I have ever seen a more beautiful or better landscape in my life. Not a weed anywhere, every tree and shrub meticulously shaped and trimmed and irrigated to perfection! Check out the pictures!!! After our self-guided tour we headed back into Lenno for some grocery shopping and then made the trek back up to the house with the pack horse (me) carrying the groceries. Wow, did that lunch ever hit the spot when we finally sat down at the table. The Italian beer added mightily to the meal. Everyone then took a nap except for Joan, Linda and Tiarra. The last couple of days have been very lazy except for a ride up north to a town called Colico. Last year we went there often for grocery shopping and thought we might do a little sightseeing and shopping at the same time. A beautiful ride of 40 kilometers (25 miles) along the shore. I think it would be very cool to mount a video cam on the roof of the car just to document the scenery. Usually Joan and I have the same thing for lunch but this day we purchased different items and unfortunately Joan paid the price. By 6PM that evening she was really hurting. I won’t go into the gory details but suffice to say I was the only one to eat dinner that night. Thank goodness the next day (yesterday) she was pretty much back to normal. This was the first time something like this happened to us over here so maybe we have been lucky. We were invited to Dennis and Anna’s last night for a scrumptious authentic Italian dinner. Wow, was it great. After years of experience I have perfected the art of eating like a pig while our hosts think I’m a dainty eater. I really had Anna fooled! I hope they hadn’t planned to have leftovers tonight because there was very little left over. We have been invited back to their place in August for a huge fireworks display. We will sit on their balcony and have the fireworks practically over our heads. Very much looking forward to it. My sisters, Kathie and Francesca, arrived this morning in Munich and will be making the drive down through the Swiss, Austrian and Italian Alps and will arrive in time for dinner tomorrow night. We look forward to their company and to some new adventures in the days ahead.
Ciao,
Gino
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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1 comment:
Cari Gene and Joan,
Our dinner together on Tuesday evening was both enjoyable and uplifting. Anna enjoyed so much to prepare the Italian summer menu and we also were able to share our views on a host of interesting topics.
I thought it would be appropriate to post a message which I had sent to our mutual friend, Jim Murphy. The focus is on friendship since both of you are our newest friends.
Un forte abbraccio,
Dennis e Anna
Why God Made Friends!
God made the world with a heart full of love, then He looked down from Heaven above, And saw that we all need a helping hand,
Someone to share with, who'll understand.
He made special people to see us through the glad times and the sad times, too;
A person on whom we can always depend, someone we can call a friend. God made friends so we'll carry a part of His perfect love in all our hearts. Author Unknown
Alumni Day, St. Joseph’s College and St. Patrick’s Seminary April 26, 2008
And with a glass of red wine and an inspirational view of my classmates from the St. Joseph’s Class of 1968, is when I remembered and thought how people think being alone is sad and wrong but that is beyond untrue, being alone gives us the chance to be with ourselves and talk and share and find out we have made mistakes, and in the process we may have sent away people we love and cherish.
The beauty of all the festivities held on Alumni Day is that no matter how old and grown up we think we are, as long as we are alive we have another chance to fix, to learn, to grow even more and say in every way: I am sorry, I miss you, I can learn.
Learn to be a better person, a better father, a better companion, a better friend, and my impetuous inner self replied to my thoughts with a strong blow underneath my feet, as if God had told me to say this is the way life is. As long as you are a host in this world ask for forgiveness, keep learning and growing, and demonstrating all your love.
And this is the simplicity of life and the beauty of living. I can see my classmates from afar, as they near the swimming pool jumping-in without thinking twice.
And sometimes in life we really need a lot of that bravery and a humble way of looking at life to resolve issues that may remain unsolved unless, we jump and try. And I pray to God that He will help you and me to do our fights and even if we do not win we will know we tried.
The former classmates vowed once again, to help be each other’s biggest cheerleader and fan. We also knew eventually, one day we would be grateful how we tried, forgave, and healed, just to tell everyone how strong was our friendship. The Class of ’68 hopes you don't mind that we share our feelings with you about Alumni Day, 2008, because if we didn’t, what then is the purpose of life?
It is to care and breathe, and to grow and see God in each other’s eyes. The Class of ’68 is so very proud to have been part of this year’s Alumni Day at St. Patrick’s Seminary and we will always treasure those fond memories of our inquisitive youth and continue to love all of you for who you are!
Dennis J. Bava,Class of '68"De gustibus non disputandum est!"
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