Winding down

Today is August 24, 2010 and Joan and I are just four days from returning to Arizona. We have been here in Mezzegra for more than nine weeks and can’t believe it has gone by so fast.  However after nine weeks we feel it will be good to get back home.  I’m sure we have a massive pile of mail waiting for us, lots of junk, magazines, and, of course, bills. We are able to pay our bills on line so we should be up to date.  I tease Joan about there being no Scottsdale Fashion Mall and no Nordstrom here so there should be no surprises when we get home.

As the weeks go by we have been doing less sightseeing and a little more lying around reading.  We both enjoy this and don’t have too much guilt doing nothing.  However we have had a few adventures to report.  We recently took a walk from the rental down to the shore in Lenno (right beneath us) and continued to walk along the promenade to the hillside road leading to the beautiful Villa del Balbianello.  This  Villa is built on a beautiful point on the lake that can not be seen except from the lake itself even though it’s only about two kilometers from the our house. We had been out there a couple of years ago but had only walked in the gardens as the  house tour was full.  The villa grounds are immaculately cared for and the lawns look like they have been manicured with scissors. Great pride is taken by the permanent crew to have EVERYTHING perfect and it shows.   As we approached the ticket kiosk the gentleman asked us if we were there for a tour.  We said yes and he responded that an English tour was starting in two minutes.  We paid our money and off we went.  I don’t have the skill to describe the entire tour so I urge you to check out the website:  www.faibalbianello@fondoambiente.it  for a very good description.  Somehow a Catholic Cardinal got ownership back in 1787, willed it to his nephew, sold to a friend, purchased by an  American and finally sold to a Supermarket magnate, Guido Monzino, who was quite the adventurous man who spent his entire adult life collecting rare pieces of art during his exotic travels. His entire collection is spread out among the many rooms of the Villa. After his untimely death at age 60 (a life time smoker) and leaving no wife or children the Villa was willed to FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano)  , the Italian Environment Fund, really the “Italian national Trust” a nonprofit organization that specializes in preserving and maintaining important artistic and natural assets.   A truly stunning property .  Please enjoy the accompanying pictures!

Denis Ducey left after his stay with us and headed for Lucca, Pisa and the Italian Riviera and we were greeted by a massive amount of rain!  Up until then the weather had changed from oppressively hot to very  nice , in the low 80’s.  While not unusual it was a little tiresome.  One event we look forward to is the Lenno fireworks weekend where they are shot off right below us.  The entire event was rained out and re-scheduled for Sepember 4^th when we are safely back in Phoenix.  I guess we can’t have everything so our way.

Last Saturday we welcomed Dr. Sven Becker and his two children to our home for the weekend.  Sven is an oncologist gynecologist from Tubengen , Germany.  And how did we meet him?  He was our exchange student in Arizona back in 1984-1985!  We have stayed in touch with him and his family all these years and have really enjoyed this relationship.  He has delivered over 1500 babies in his career, but now specializes in surgery for women with cancer.   One of his biggest accomplishments is authoring the definitive medical book in Germany on all types of female cancers.  I asked him to bring a copy so I could see it.  Unbelievable tome!!!!  About seven hundred pages, complex text (all in German) and  more than 400 sketches of the female anatomy.  This book is considered the bible!!! He was going to give me the copy but I told him I just wanted to see it with his name on the cover and  besides it had to weigh 20 lbs., is in German and would have been impossible to carry home.  I think I’ll wait for the English version.  By the way, the cost of the book?  Over four hundred Euros, about $550 dollars. Needless to say we are very, very proud of Sven!!  His wife, Graziella, stayed home so that she could study for finals as she pursues a degree on her own.  The kids were fun and loved swimming in the pool.  We went on walks, Joan fixed a great meal, and we had a great pizza meal down in Menaggio topped off by delicious gelato.  It was fun reminicing about old times.

So as I said, we are wrapping up here, Dennis and Anna will stop by Friday night to pick up our unused food and we’ll be on a plane on Saturday morning heading for home.  Dennis continues to fight cancer with chemo and will be getting some results in this fight this week. He looks great and is positive about the ultimate outcome. We leave from Milano, go to JFK, connect through Nashville and arrive in Phoenix 20 hours later.  Thank God Joan was able to get us an upgrade into business class so it won’t be as painful as it could have been.  I only hope I can find some pants that still fit me and not cut off circulation at the waist line.  That’s it for now but I intend to have one more posting after we get home.   

  

During the week

Risotto with saffron and zucchini flowers

Cooking class at Ristorante Il Caminetto.  Denis and Joan making tortelloni.

Monte Generoso

At the park watching the boats

Start of the regatta

A rainy day in Mezzegra

Today is Wednesday August 11, 2010.  We woke up this morning  to thunderstorms and rain but now at noon it is cloudy and probably around 80 degrees. We have had some cloudiness recently as finally the “monsoon” has arrived.  This is similar to Phoenix but, of course, not nearly as hot.  Quite livable and a nice change from the oppressive heat and humidity we had right after we arrived in middle June.  Our friend, Denis Ducey is visiting us now and will be here until this coming Sunday when he ventures out on his own for about five days.  He plans to visit Lucca, Pisa, the Cinque Terra and the Portofino area.  Should be a lot of fun for him.  We have had a few excursions to talk about for the last few days. I had noticed a sign in town about the annual regatta taking place this last Saturday.  The sign was fairly large and looked like it was expensive to produce so I naturally thought this must be a very big deal and that we should check it out.  I told Joan it was a race but she thought it might just be a showing of boats.  Anyway we decided that we would walk down to the “starting line” and check it out. As most  of you know we’re up on a high hill overlooking the lake so what goes down must come up!!  “Hey, it’s going to be worth it to see a boat race” The weather was nice, a little warm but the walk down was pleasant.  We don’t “power walk” so by the time we got to the lake we were just a little sweaty.  But wait a minute.  Where is everybody and where are the boats?  The large sign was right behind us so we knew we had the right day.  After one false start because of bad directions from an Italian woman we started walking up the lake road which consists of some sidewalks but mostly just the main road, with cars flying by.  We finally got up to a beautiful park setting and spotted the boats lined up for the start.  (See picture)  As you will notice they are all identical and are powered by a standing two man crew. They headed off and the best we figured is that the finish line was somewhere in the far distance.  Boring!!!!  I believe we were the only ones in the park that had the least amount of interest in the event.  Pretty much a big joke on us, the Americans.  Of course now it was later, hotter and stickier than earlier and we had the trek back up in front of us. The good news is that we did make it back and no one died, literally, although all three of us died figuratively.

On Monday we took Denis to one of our favorite destinations, Monte Generoso, a mountain in Switzerland about 40 miles from our home.  Even though we have been to the top at least four times in the past the ride over is beautiful on a one lane road through a forest. We drive about half way up, catch a cog wheel train to the top, eat lunch, enjoy the spectacular views and then walk back down to the car. This walk is about an hour and a half and, of course, is all down hill. Really not difficult at all as long as you really watch your step because of extremely uneven terrain and many large roots running along the ground.  It can be difficult on your calves but I found out the hard way that because of the steepness of the trail my toes kept mashing into the front of my shoes.  My feet were barking big time when we arrived at the car.  I suffered a toe nail injury that most people would be hospitalized for but I just ignored it. I can still feel a little pain today but I think I will live.  Joan thinks I’m a big baby!  She could be right!!   

Yesterday we headed over to Perledo, a small town on the far east side of the lake. A ten minute ferry ride from Menaggio to the lake side town of Varenna and then up the mountainside about eight kilometers. Our destination was a small restaurant that offers a cooking class a couple of times a week. Our host, Moreno, who owns the restaurant with his family showed us how to prepare two delicious pasta dishes and a rice dish called risotto. There were 11 of us in attendance and he did a masterful job in explaining the procedure, the ingredients, the measurements and the cooking times. We were asked to assist him at various times and almost everyone (not me) did some of the work.  After everything was prepared we took a little break while he cooked it all and then, of course, we all sat down to a delicious lunch.  The family made it very pleasant for us with plenty of wine, bread, bottled water, coffee, cappuccinos, etc.  The price for this experience was 35 Euro each.  We all thought this was a good value. We finally left around 3PM, caught the ferry back, stopped for a  gelato at our favorite spot in Menaggio and came home and skipped dinner!   Another great day in Italy!!

All in a day

Angular cloud

Dinner on the terrace prepared by Joan:  meatballs, pasta, salad with Gene's tomatoes and focaccia

Bellagio

Sailboat on the lake

The Dolomites: My Road Trip

View of the river Boite from my room

Rock wall

As you read in the earlier blog from Gene and Joan, they took a trip East to the Dolomites with Cortina d’Ampezzo as the final destination. So I decided to check it out, to see if Gene’s description was dead on or hyperbole. Well, he was dead on about the scenery. The mountains are spectacular. The drive was so much fun especially because I was driving a stick shift. But I never felt nervous about the actual road. Never had to back up for a truck or bus. There were so many major hairpin turns, they were numbered with the meters marked at each turn One mountain pass had 24 to the top, which was about 7800 feet. SO MANY motorcycles! The hotels along the way had “Welcome Bikers” out. I’m assuming they meant motorcycles even though I saw hundreds of bicyclists pumping uphill. Most were extremely fit looking, though I saw one man who I passed and then saw up close when he arrived at an alpine meadow where I had stopped to take pictures. He was no spring chicken and did not look like the Whippet thin riders I saw most of the time. I thought I should offer him a ride, but guessed he might be insulted. Hope he has finally made it to his destination by now. As I said, the scenery was beyond description; I stopped so many times to take pictures that the trip to Cortina took far longer than eight hours. I finally stopped for the night in Canezei, about 50 K from Cortina. It had been raining for a while and it was getting late, so I pulled in to a pretty hotel called the Bella Vista (unique name!).
Had a wonderful dinner, grilled tuna with herbs, miles from the ocean. The bed was very Austrian, with a duvet, but VERY HARD pillows. I left in the morning for Cortina and it took me about three hours, with several stops along the way. All those alpine towns cater to hikers in the summer. There were hundreds of people hiking, some with cute outfits like lederhosen, stockings, and hiking shoes; and those were just the middle aged men! Most of the young people wore shorts and tee-shirts and backpacks. Most of the hotels had “Wellness Center” signs, with spas etc.
I finally arrived in Cortina around 1pm. I drove all around the town, up into the hills with private homes, and also found the Stadium from the 1956 Winter Olympics. It was the first Olympics to broadcast to a multi nation audience, and the last to have Ice skating as an outdoor event. There wasn’t enough snow for the Alpine events, so the Italian government had to truck in tons of snow from elsewhere. Next I found a bed and breakfast inn “The Nevada” and left my stuff there and went down to the “Centro” of Cortina. I walked all around and even went to the local modern art museum. I also saw some young women who were teaching rock wall climbing. Joan told me they were constructing the wall when they were there earlier in the month. I also had great gelato! Cortina is very lovely, there are hiking and biking trails everywhere. There is a river, the Boite, and my room was right above it, so I could hear it all night. That’s what I need at home! Had another great dinner, this time across the road from the B&B. The people were so friendly, as they came into the restaurant, they’d say buona sera, as they passed my table. One lady stopped to talk to me when she saw my Kindle. She had heard about it and knew Amazon. Maybe she’ll get one now.
I left Cortina in the morning and drove the fast way home. I tell you, the Italian drivers are the best! Very easy driving with no crazies! Finally got back around 4. I’d definitely make that trip again! (Gene only exaggerated the danger!) I'll let his photos tell the story, they're way better than mine; I just included these two.

Your guest blogger,

Kathie

Around and about

Looking towards Lenno

Is the road wide enough for both of them?

Sunflowers

Almost ready

Caught in the spider's web

Lake Maggiore from Mottarone

Looking towards Bellagio

 

 

Lunch at Villa D’Este

As those who read our blog know Tiarra posted some pictures from our visit to the world famous Villa D’Este hotel in the town of Cernobbio just down the lake road from our rental on Lake Como.  Although it was a rainy and gray day the setting was just breath taking. We strolled through the grounds when Joan and my sister, Kathie  insisted they we spurge and have lunch there.  We had been talking about it but I thought it was just a suggestion. We weren’t really dressed up at all but apparently it doesn’t really make a difference.  Lots of guests mingling around in various levels of dress, meaning from twenty dollar t-shirts to two thousand dollar suits. We were closer to the t-shirts than the suits.  We wanted to sit outdoors but the wind was kicking up so we were escorted to the pavilion adjacent to the garden.  Very spacious and while indoors you kind of feel like you’re still in the garden.  We were given a table that was preset pretty much like a five star wedding.  Then menus were presented to us and I immediately knew we were in financial trouble when I was the only one whose menu had pricing with the selections. Hey, if you have to ask the price you can’t afford it!!  The girls certainly didn’t want the maitre’d  to see or hear them asking the price so we quickly worked out a pricing hand signal code.  Thumbs down, you ain’t getting it!  Thumbs up, it’s within our loan limit.  Oh, did I mention I filled out the loan application for lunch and was quickly approved?  The maitre‘d handed me the paper work without  Joan , Tiarra and Kathie even noticing.  I think he had a lot of experience with this procedure. I hate to even think what the consequences are if you get turned down. Maybe they just ignore you for good and that after a few days without service or eye contact you finally get the message.  We finally ordered our food and were pleased with the quick service and, honestly, everything was very very good!!  What we had is really inconsequential.  Pasta stuff with exotic names (fettucini and spaghetti)and some drinks.  Oh yeah, you might be interested in the pricing. I had my usual local beer.  Of course everything is in cl. measurements but it’s essentially the same as 12 oz.  A mere ten Euros, about 13 dollars!!!!!!!!Hey, at least it had alcohol in it.  The 8oz. Coke Zero’s were ten Euros each, and the tall bottle of water was nine Euros.  Each of the entres’ were 26, 27, 26 and 34 Euros each.  Final bill?  153 Euros, about $197. For sure we walked out with a wonderful meal in our stomachs but a great big gaping hole in our wallets.  As least the management was kind enough to part the skies for us so that we were able to walk to the car without getting wet!

Villa d'Este

Today we had lunch at the historical Villa d'Este hotel.   The hotel is located in the town of Cernobbio and is a former 16th century residence of the Cardinal of Como with beautiful gardens and views of Lake Como.

Grounds of Ville d'Este'

Gardens in the Front of the Hotel

Gardens

Restaurant

Switzerland and Monza

Monday Gene, Joan and I drove (actually Gene did all of the driving) to Interlaken Switzerland to get away from the heat and humidity of Lake Como. On the way there we took the longer scenic route up through winding mountain roads into Interlaken.  We ate a hearty greasy German lunch, found a quaint hotel and then drove up to Grindelwald.  We browsed the shops in Grindelwald and Interlaken but were not able to buy anything because we did not get a bank loan before coming.  Switzerland is a very expensive country. A Big Mac at McDonald's was $11.30.  We took the quicker autostrade and car train back to Italy on Tuesday.
Thursday Gene and I decided to drive to Monza to see the famous F1 track.  Television makes it look a lot better than it actually is.  The facility seemed a little outdated, but none the less, the gift shop still managed to get $76 euros out of me.
Gene's sister Kathie arrived today as well.  Tomorrow we are all going to a silk factory outlet in Como.
Tiarra

Glacier in Switzerland

Creek in Switzerland

Town of Grindelwald

Houses at the base of the Alps

McDonald's Menu

Car Train

Tiarra in Monza Car Monument

Monte Bre

A beautiful morning in Mezzegra after a major, enormous, roaring thunderstorm  ripped through our area last night
.

Just starting out on the funicular up to Monte Bre in Lugano for the cheap price of 20 swiss francs each.

Looking back through the first car just after we started.

The view from about half way up.

We had lunch on a terrace at the top of Monte Bre and enjoyed the beautiful but hazy day.  Not a cheap lunch as nothing in Switzerland is cheap.

Cortina d'Ampezzo and the Dolomites

                                    The short way to the Dolomites

                                  The Dolomites, very rugged

                                   Scenery along the way

                                   A hotel on the way to Cortina

                                  Cortina d'Ampezzo

                                    The view from our hotel

Bergamo

                                  Watching fireworks from the balcony

                                     Bergamo's Citta Alta

                                            Citta Alta

                                  Varenna on the way home

                           Gene on the car ferry from Varenna to Menaggio

The Dolomites

Today is July 9th and we are now about three weeks into our ten week stay here at Lake Como.  Yesterday was sort of a do nothing day after we got back from our two day excursion to the beautiful Dolomite mountains in northeastern Italy.  We had our choice of two routes to get there.  We decided to take one way there and the second way back. The shorter of the two is the long way and the longer way is the short way!!  The shorter way in miles is all non- Autostrade with a drive of about 350K, averaging less than thirty miles an hour.  Again for those who may be following on a map we took all the back roads, almost on a straight line, from Mezzegra to Cortina-d'Ampezzo. Cortina is smack dab right in the middle of the Dolomites and just spectacular scenery wise. The drive the entire way was one scenic view after another.  I wished I had a camera mounted on the front of the car where I could take photo after photo with a touch of a button.  A twisting and turning road the entire way going through small town after small town, each with their own unique beauty and style and personality. The engineering feats to build these roads are truly unbelievable. Of course these were probably only foot and horse paths hundreds of years ago but with the invention of the automobile they needed to be widened.  What a job. Many places it was best for our well being not to look down into the bottomless canyons and just keep our eyes on the incredibly narrow road surface. The fun began when a big truck came the other way and you needed to decide who was going to back up to find a "wide' spot for the vehicles to pass each other. I have always enjoyed checking out the rivers and streams associated with these canyons(massive run off from the snows in the high elevations)and Joan needed to remind me more than few times that it wouldn't be good to end up in one of these rivers 500 feet down the side of some precipitous canyon.  Good advice for sure. Since I'm writing this of course nobody died!! As we got closer to Cortina we discovered that this area grows apples in an amazing abundance. For at least 50K we passed orchard after orchard of apples.  We knew this was big business for the northern Italians when we saw at least ten huge packing sheds for the apples. The Italians must be providing apples for the whole of Europe from this region.  Quite a phenomenon!!

The entire drive took more than eight hours but it was well worth it.  The town of Cortina is very beautiful tourist town known for its mountain beauty and skiing opportunities. Please look up "Dolomites" in Google for a description way better than any thing I could possible describe. Just like St. Moritz the summer presents hundreds of miles of hiking trails for the hardy.  Some easy trails and some impossibly difficult with huge altitude changes.  We just did a two mile stroll through town and did a little window shopping.  Again upscale shops with the opportunity to purchase stuff you didn't need.  We pretty much kept our wallets in our pockets!  We stayed in a quaint hotel but nothing fancy. Since we already were paying for a place in Mezzegra the double "rent" hurts a bit.  After a leisurely breakfast we headed out for the ride back. This time, of course, we took the long way back which is the quick way.  Other than about 60k of a scenic drive leaving the Dolomites we soon hit the Autostrade for a 420K ride back.  The Autostrade is not free!  You get a ticket when you start and pay when you leave.  Our trip back cost about $30 U.S. but worth every cent for the fun of driving as fast as you wanted without worrying about a ticket.. Yes, there are speed limits but no one pays attention to them and we never saw a cop the entire way.  The trick is to stay in the left hand lane and keep one eye in front of you and one eye towards the rear.  There is no road rage over here.  If someone comes up fast behind you just simply pull over a lane and let them fly by.  No big deal.  Even though we were moving along fast there was still plenty to see. Lots of industrial buildings but still many small towns with the obligatory ancient church in each. If you check out your map you'll see that we went south practically to Venice and then headed left (west) straight towards Milan and then north back to the Lake Como area.  A stop at the supermercato for some stuff and then finally home. Photos coming soon.

Heading east

Today is July 6th and it is another beautiful day in Mezzegra.  I got up a little early today because we are leaving around 9 am to head east to the Dolomites.  This is a spectacular range of mountains around 80 miles due North of Venice.  We plan on overnighting in Corina D'Ampezzo for those following on a map. A complete wrap up of this excursion will follow in a few days.

Since our last entry we have made a few day trips.  Last week we set out for Bergamo to check out the "Citta Alta" which is the old town sitting high on a hill over looking the rest of Bergamo.  It is situated within 16th century walls. We thought we might have a problem parking but quickly found a decent spot, 3 Euro for two hours.  The architecture was stunning as usual but what was fairly odd was how they built structures so close to the two main churches on the hill.  I'm sure they were splendid many years ago standing apart from each other but now they are totally surrounded by newer structures to the point where you almost don't see them.  Anyway all quite remarkable.  At least there was a Piazza where we were able to have lunch and check out the tourists as they strolled by.

A word about the drive to Bergamo.  When we put Bergamo into MapQuest it told us the quickest way was by Autostrade and it was about 77K.  If you look at a map you will see that the shortest way is via ferry to Varenna and then 37K to Bergamo.  We decided to make a round trip out of it and took the Autostrade one way and the back roads to Varenna to return.  By far the quickest way was the Autostrade!!  Although half  the actual distance back it was torture going the short way.  If it were a scenic road OK but it was basically one town after another.  Sort of like going from San Francisco to San Jose on the El Camino Real.  We won't be making that ride any time soon!!

A few days later we took the incredibly scenic drive to St. Moritz Switzerland.  This is a day trip through some beautiful mountains, a great twisting and turning road, passing through some picturesque towns. A really delightful drive. St. Moritz is a very  upscale ski town during the winter and a remarkable sports town during the summer.  The activities include golf, sailing, paragliding, wind surfing and hiking.  Ever where you look someone was heading out to recreate.  All the retail shopping include the most famous brands in the world, including Gucci, Chanel, Rolex, Armani, Versace, etc.  We did no shopping!!  We had a decent lunch at an outrageous price.  At least the weather was beautiful and the scenery spectacular.

Back with more when we return in a couple of days!!

The garden

Tomatoes, parsley, basil and rosemary