On the road again

Good morning from beautiful Lake Como.  It is around 8 am here on Saturday morning, June 26th.  The bad news is that a week has already gone by for us but the good news is that we still have nine weeks to go!  Since we have settled in the weather has turned very nice with the highs in the low 80's and pretty much sunshine all day long. Yesterday Joan and I made a ride over to a small Italian town called Porlezza.  Porlezza is on the way to Lugano, Switzerland through a natural cut in the mountains. Going north from Tremezzo and Mezzegra you come to Menaggio and then take an abrupt left up and over the cut.  After a little shopping there we headed back to Menaggio in search of some tomato (pomodoro) plants,  parsley(prezzemolo) and rosemary(rosemarino).  We like to grow our own and we still have plenty of time to get a good crop. (See pictures)  It was fun planting them and they really make the terrace quite nice.  We'll update the pictures as the summer goes by.

On Thursday my good friend, Dennis Bava asked me to go with him to Lugano.  As some of you know he is fighting a serious illness with a growth in one of his lungs.  He's currently waiting for Chemo to do it's thing and shrink the tumor so that he can have safe and successful surgery.   We took the same very scenic road Joan and I took yesterday, a ride of about 20 miles. One  travels through small town after small town so the speeds are very slow but it gives you the opportunity to do a great deal of sightseeing.  Even though I have made this ride numerous times you see something different each trip. Once you cross the boarder you have a fabulous view of Lake Lugano and the city itself.  Lugano, of course, has a very strong Italian influence so you have to remind yourself that you're even in Switzerland.  However the Euro does not apply to the Swiss as they remained on the "franc" currency. By the way here is a test!!  What is the plural of "Euro"?  The answer.... Euro!!  No "s" at the end.  Now you just learned something!!  Anyway Dennis and I had a very pleasant day walking around the very touristy downtown doing some banking business and then headed up to Franklin College where he and his wife, Anna, do some teaching.  What a beautiful campus!!  The landscaping was impeccable and very, very colorful.  Not a blade of grass out of place.  We spent some time in the library and I had the opportunity to look up my friend Dan Maloney and his son Drew.  They are both in the Alumni book from probably too many years ago.  Both good guys from Scottsdale. Nice to make the connection.

We look forward to watching the World Cup tonight with the USA  playing Ghana. Comes on around 8:30pm here.  More in a few days.