Intorno a Italia

Enough basil to feed all of Italia

Gas prices

Olive oil grindstone

Cute smart car

The jet setters, Tiarra and Linda

On the road

Stand ups only

Tomatoes in Lugano

Up in the air


Big salamis

Yesterday, Wednesday, we went on a private one hour boat ride around Menaggio, Bellagio and Lenno. Dennis and Anna translated what our Italian guide pointed out and we found out a lot of the history of the buildings on the lake. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we had a wonderful time. That morning we went to the Vanini olive oil factory in Lenno and purchased quite a quanity of olio d'oliva. So this Thursday morning we set out for Lugano. It wasn't raining but it wasn't sunny either. Gene designed the route, making sure we were on the twistiest road he could find. At one point, after scraping the mirror on one side, we had to reverse out when we were unable to fit through the walled mini street. We then had to revise our route. It was 51 klicks to get there and 26 klicks on the return. We had lunch in Lugano and then had the highest priced gelato in the world ($7 Swiss Francs each). We then walked around and shopped. Lugano must be the watch capitol of the world as there were watch shops everywhere. Various goods were purchased; chocolate, swiss army knives and can you believe it - a watch! Yesterday we made bruschetta for our guests which turned out great. We saw these beautiful San Marzano tomatoes at a Lugano fruit stand and purchased 6 at a dollar a piece. This batch of bruschetta was superb. I've included a photo of these wonderful tomatoes. Yesterday at the fruit store we bought some basil plants and planted them in a pot. We should have enough basil for the rest of our stay. By the way that photo of the car didn't show effectively how far off the ground that 4th tire was. This new photo makes it clear.
Ciao,
Joan