Looking for food in all the wrong places

lGood Morning from Bellano!

Another day dawned perfectly here in the Lake Como area. The last few days have been rather warm and humid but today promised to be cooler and less humid. Dan, Annie, Doug and Lori arrived back last night from three days in Switzerland and cleaned out the pantry! After breakfast this morning Joan asked me to go down into Bellano and purchase some bread rolls for lunch. It’s a twisty, winding road 2.1km in length. A quick pretty ride but you must be very cautious as you drive because with tight parking it is just one lane for most of the drive. After getting to the bottom of the hill and arriving in town I quickly found out that Sundays were very different in Bellano. Parking has been a little difficult but Sunday is completely insane. We have discovered the local supermarket but today it was closed. Didn’t make much difference since there wasn’t a parking spot within 5 miles of anything. Found this out the hard way as I cruised around and around and around. I figured I would duck in this tiny store I knew of and pick up the rolls but parking was becoming ugly!! I finally gave up and was about to head back up the hill when I guy pulled out and I quickly pulled in. A quick walk through the back alleys had me to the store of about 100 square feet. The bread and meat department are in the back but I soon spotted the “sold out” sign. Not actually a sign but completely empty shelves!! 45 minutes after I left the Villa I returned empty handed.
After calling an emergency meeting of everyone and going over all our lunch options we finally decided a nice leisurely stroll down to town and a delicious pizza would be a great option. Lunch problem solved!! As you may have surmised by now meals are very important to us Italians and we won’t be denied. We spent the entire Lunch discussing what we’re going to have for dinner.

Oops, gotta go. Dinner is ready!!

Shopping in Bellano

It's Gene's turn to post something on the blog, but since he hasn't done it I will. Yesterday Dan, Annie, Doug and Lori emailed us saying they would be returning from Switzerland that evening and could we have some food available for them to prepare or eat. In other words have something ready for us to eat, Mom. I decided to prepare Lasagna. I had my regular recipe on my computer and since I was in Italy, it should be a snap. Gene and I went to the Pellicano supermarket in Bellano to get the ingredients. We took along the Italian dictionary just in case. The produce department is ruled by a woman who yells at you if you touch the produce. You have to tell her what you want and she selects it and weighs it and puts the tag on it. In another market you do this yourself so we did not know that we were breaking the rules. We needed parsley, so we looked up the word in the dictionary, asked for it and were met with a blank look. Luckily I saw the parsley and could just point. It was labeled with the word I said so I know she understood me. Oh well. I needed tomato paste which I found in a tube hoping it was what I wanted. Everything else we found without too much trouble although we did make 3 trips to the supermarket. We got home and found that we didn't have a pan so Gene went back again. We then went to the marcellina (meat store) and found some sausage. There are no measuring cups or spoons, spatulas or other kitchen necessities in this kitchen so I plan to buy a few items to make life easier. There are no sharp knives. So chopping was a pain. The lasagna turned out very well and dinner was waiting for the Swiss travelers.
We traveled to Como on the Rapido ferry on Friday. It took about an hour from Varenna. We passed George Clooney's house and Versace's mausoleum on the journey. A group of Americans on the return ferry were with their tour guide and he pointed out these places to our delight.
We have been enjoying the great weather and just walking around the small towns. We haven't done any hiking since last Monday when we all walked to Dervio via the trail near our house. This was about 5 miles round trip and not really difficult but with a lot of up and down. We are located about 400 feet above the lake, so there is always up and down on every hike.
Dan is going to post a link shortly so you can access some photos.
Ciao from Joan

Villa Wally

Market Day

Thursday is market day in Bellano. Gene and I went down to check it out. It's not very big, some clothes, vegetables, fruit, cheese, pasta, etc. It was tough to find a parking space and finally ended up in a questionable spot. But the car was there when we got back. Yesterday we drove to Varenna to catch the ferry to Bellagio. We asked for the next ferry to Bellagio and were told to board the car ferry. That ferry then went to Menaggio, back to Varenna, then to Bellagio. But it was the next ferry. Bellagio is a pretty place with lots of American and British tourists.

It has been quite warm and humid. We had a thunderstorm last night and we hoped we would wake up to cooler, less humid weather. No such luck. It is somewhat cooler today but still very humid. The power in the house went out during the storm and we did not get it back on until this morning. We were looking at the wrong circuit breaker. Our landlord showed us which one tripped this AM. We have found that when we run the dishwasher the other circuit breaker trips if we have too many lights on. So we are learning our way around the circuit breakers. Dan, Annie, Doug and Lori left for Switzerland yesterday so it is quieter around here. It is a lot livelier with them around. Dan and Annie fixed dinner on Tuesday, which was Annie's birthday. We had a great meal of pasta and sausages. Gene and I picked up a gelato cake at a gelato store in Lecco to celebrate her b-day. Doug picked out some nice wines and Gene found lots of different beers in the grocery store so he is in beer heaven. We are quite pleased with Villa Wally. Our landlords are very accommodating and the place is very comfortable.

Ciao from Joan

Arrival in Bellano, Italy

Good morning!

It is Fathers Day, June 17, 2007 6:00am!!

Joan and I arrived in Bellano, Italy yesterday at noon after a torturous journey from Phoenix on Thursday and Friday. After being graciously picked up on time by Francesca at our home and dropped off at Sky Harbor we had an on time flight to Cincinnati and caught our connecting flight to Amsterdam without any problems. We flew (upgraded to Business class) to Amsterdam without the usual tail wind (so said the pilot) and arrived about 45 minutes late. Business Class on Delta is like flying tied to the wing compared to flying Business Class on Air New Zealand!!

We assumed we would have no problem making our next connecting flight to our final destination of Milan, Italy as we departed the plane. For those who have never been in the Amsterdam airport it is humongous!! We started walking towards out departing gate and walked and walked and walked!!! The airport is like a city! Beautiful shops everywhere and arrival and departure gates sprinkled in between. And, oh yes, security and passport controls. As we got close to our gate we needed to stop and get our boarding passes since we were not able to secure them in Phoenix. (Different airline from Amsterdam to Milan) We felt like we were at the Department of Motor Vehicles as we pulled a number at the KLM counter. Why KLM? Well, of course, because our ticket indicated we were flying KLM. As the clock ticked away and our departure time got closer we finally had our number called. Joan went up to the counter and was promptly told that we should have been over at the Alitalia counter because even though the ticket said KLM they were not the primary carrier for the flight, Alitalia was. There was no line at the Alitalia counter so it seemed to be no big deal. We gave our tickets to the clerk and she said everything was in order except for one thing: our seats had been given away to others because the flight was about to leave. Actually there was still about 15 minutes to departure. Naturally I was in a good mood at this juncture and screamed, “ What ?????!!!!!!!!. To make a long story short there was no changing them. We were off the flight! For those who know me well, yes, my bad side showed up very vividly. I knew Joan was very pissed too since she didn’t try to shut me up.

After much glaring and a few mean words off we trudged to the Alitalia ticket desk to try for another flight. Uh oh, what a nightmare! Apparently the next flight to Milan had been canceled and there were a crowd of angry Italians (and others) spoiling for a fight. There were only two agents working the desk and a hundred people at least demanding action!! All of a sudden some Italian shouted something and almost everyone shouted, in unison, some response. This was repeated four or five times. Very loud and very convincing! We interpreted it something like, “Alitalia, you suck, Alitalia, you suck, Alitalia, you suck!! Wow, it was awesome!

I told Joan this was going to be a battle and that we had to be a little pushy, so naturally we found ourselves near the front of the line in short order. Hey, you snooze you lose! At this point I get the bright idea to call Francesca in Phoenix to ask her to get on line and find us a flight (forgetting it’s 3am in Arizona)even though I woke up the Browner household Francesca was very helpful, letting us know we were basically screwed for the rest of the day. We finally decided we would be willing to spend the night in Amsterdam and get a flight in the morning. We were second in line at this time when the woman clerk got up in frustration and walked out! Unbelievable. Anyway after about 10 minutes she came back and we were soon booked on a flight at 7:15 the next morning. Talk about irony! They comped our room and our meals. We got to the hotel at 2PM, had lunch and went to bed at 3pm. Taking no chances we were first in line for breakfast at 4am and at the airport at 5:30. You would think on a Saturday morning there would be no one there. Wrong!! It was like the middle of the day! After the usual security hassles we finally got to our gate and left for Milan.

We landed in Milan and held our breath as the luggage came out wondering if it made it. We had not seen it since we checked it in Phoenix two days previous. Of course we were still wearing our traveling clothes. Out it came! Whew!! As soon as we came out of customs a women was there to lead us to our car. We “purchased” a Peugeot for a predetermined buyback price. To me it’s the same as a rental except that it’s a brand new car. Off we went to our rental home and were greeted enthusiastically by the owners. Since we had seen the home last November there were no surprises except it was prettier because it is now summer and everything is quite green. We are about 400ft above Lake Como with an overwhelmingly spectacular view.

It’s party cloudy this morning but promises to be nice today. Dan and Annie, along with Doug and Lori Philippone arrive this afternoon for about a week. We intend to do some hiking and sightseeing with them but first today I need to figure out the fancy coffee brewer.

Enough for now.

(Dan added some pictures: the first is a view from the balcony at our place and the second is a shot of Veranna from the Bellagio ferry.)

CERVELLI MEANS "BRAINS" IN ITALIAN

We begin our journey May 21 as we travel to New Zealand for Dan and Annie's wedding. We return to the U.S. on May 28, have a reception for Dan and Annie on June 9 and head to Italy on June 14 to spend 7 weeks at Villa Wally in the town of Bellano on Lake Como. Gene and I will be sharing our thoughts and photos as the summer progresses. Many visitors are expected and they can also contribute to this blog. Here's to a great summer.