Liquid Sunshine

Today is Monday afternoon July 14 and the sun is finally shining after three days of almost constant rain!! We are not talking sprinkles, folks, we're talking serious monsoon. Pakistan and India type of monsoon. According to the Italian weather man it has now come to an end and we should be enjoying some beautiful days for a while. Tiarra and her mom, Linda, arrived Friday morning from Denver and the Bay Area and are here for ten days. They are always enjoyable and it's nice to have them here. They were sorry they didn't arrive one day earlier and experience the "George Clooney" sighting! We were scheduled to go on a private boat sight seeing ride Friday afternoon but, of course, were rained out. Instead we visited Dennis and Anna Bava and their friends at their apartment high in the hills over looking Menaggio and Lake Como. They have this residence plus one in Milano. It was fun hanging with some locals and getting a feel of the community from their prospective. Dennis is an old friend of our friend Denis Ducey (who was also here) and we enjoyed hearing about the San Joaquin valley from years gone by. Dennis is a professor and a financial consultant here in Italy and other places in the world. Very interesting guy. Anna, a native Italian teaches also. On Saturday, while very cloudy, we decided to walk to Villa Carlotta, a beautiful Botanical garden and Museum on the shores of Lake Como about two and a half miles from the house. It was about seventy degrees and the walk down was thoroughly enjoyable. When walking you get a real feel for the neighborhood, with its very narrow streets, unique buildings, lovely and well manicured gardens. About half of the walk was through the neighborhoods and the other half along the lake shore. The weather held and we arrived at Villa Carlotta, paid our eight Euros each and entered. This place is just beyond beautiful with it's eclectic gardens and pathways. Since we are in a small micro climate here at Lake Como just about everything exotic grows. With the overcast my pictures really don't do the vibrant colors justice. After about two hours we were getting ready to leave and were purchasing a few items in the gift shop. I decided to check and see if they had a season entry pass at a discount because this is really a place we would like to come back and see quite often with guests. I walked over to the ticket office and there was a new guy selling tickets. I looked at him and said to myself, "I know this guy!" It turns out that the IT guy who came to our house here when the Internet wasn't working works part time at Villa Carlotta! What are the chances of that? Anyway he also recognizes me and we chat a little. When I ask him about a season pass discount he says here's something better and proceeds to give me a FREE season pass for us and our guests. Can't believe our luck. Thanks, Pozzi!! We decide to stop for lunch before the walk back home and consume another delicious pizza and beer when the sky finally opens up!! We're sitting about fifty feet from the lake and can't even see it it's coming down so hard. We decide we need a cab to get back home and ask the English speaking waiter if he can order one for us and that we need to fit five people into it. "No Problem"! which means in Italian, "Absolutely impossible!" He says about five minutes. We pay the bill and wait....and wait....and wait. Finally a guy shows up in a small Mercedes with room for three, max! We say no thanks and start walking . The rain lets up and we make it back to the house soaked not by rain water but by sweat. Hey, at least we worked off the pizza!! Yeah, we walked 5 miles total, half of it uphill! Sunday was just a "hang around" day as the rain continued and I drove Denis to the airport in the evening. Rained all night. Tiarra and Linda went to Venice today and finally the sun is shining!