The sun is shining

Good morning from Mezzegra, Italy!  It is Tuesday June 22, 2010 and the sun is shining brightly on Lake Como and the beautiful surrounding majestic mountains. it is around 6:25 am here in Italy , nine hours ahead of the of the West coast of the US.  Joan and I arrived last Friday morning one day ahead of our scheduled 10 week stay here at Villa and took a hotel room in Como.  After getting checked in we had a nice outside cafe lunch, took a walk and then headed for bed.  As usual the first night sleep was fitful and pretty much restless.  Breakfast started at 7 am at the hotel and we were the first to sit down.  Oh, did I say we went to bed around two the previous afternoon?  All those hours didn't seem to make much difference.   After breakfast we headed out for a walk through the walled city of Como. Very quiet but as usual very beautiful, except for the graffiti on half the buildings! Como is situated at the end of the lake and there is no outlet for the water.  If you look at a map the lake is shaped like an inverted "Y". At the opposite end of the lake is the city of Lecco which does have an outlet which eventually flows to the Adda river which eventually flows into the  Mediterranean Sea. The lake has a constant source of water from the Swiss and Italian snow melt

  After our walk we packed up and headed for the Villa with a stop at the supermarket for some essentials. Please remember what the Italians call a villa we would call a very comfortable three bedroom three bathroom home. Situated on the mountainside we have a beautiful view of the lake with lots of lush greenery. Please see posted pictures!  Mario Prestinari, the caretaker, greeted us and had everything ready for our stay.  The property owners are from Germany and live in the Munich area.  We had the opportunity to meet them last year and had a delightful dinner with them and Mario and his wife, Geraldine.  This last winter Gundel and Helmut stayed at our house in Arizona for two weeks in February so we "traded" for two of our ten weeks here.  Very, very nice people. In fact, knowing I enjoy good German beer,They left a case of their country's finest for me to enjoy!!  Very much looking forward to consuming it!!  But now with the brilliant sun, no clouds and weather in the 70's, today we should be ready to really enjoy our stay.  We had 2 days of rain so it is great to see the sun.  It's Tuesday and we will be going down to the open market in Lenno about a half hour walk or a two mile drive.  I think today we drive. I wouldn't want to tire myself out!!!

Gene