Furniture Arrives and Lake Como

On Friday morning, our container of furniture (and various other household goods) arrived from the USA. There was only one snag...the truck couldn't make it up our steep hill. So, the workers had to send for a small van, and they shuttled our belongings up the hill, one small shipment at a time. We didn't care, however - it was nice just to have our things. We can now sit and sleep on a real bed (no more mattresses).

On Saturday, we took a short and fun trip to Lake Como, which is one of Italy's most famous lakes. It's only about 45 minutes from our home, so it was a short day trip. We had a nice lunch a local brewpub, then walked around the city of Como. There was a street market through all of Como's streets, and it was nice to browse. Almost anything that you could imagine was for sale. We then took a boat tour of the lower portion of the lake. The hills surrounding the lake are steep, and dotted with beautiful, large houses.

It was an incredibly hot and humid day (there's currently a little heatwave over here). So, we had a little gelato while walking around the city.

Oh!, on the way home we took a shortcut through Switzerland.

Other than that, we're getting settled into our house. Unpacking and trying to fall into a weekday routine.

Ciao for now!

Trip to Isola Bella (and we're back online)

This week, the Italian telephone company paid us a visit and helped us get our DSL line up and running. Then, after a few days of swearing at Windows Vista, we finally got the connection to work. So, we can now share some photos of our trip last weekend to the Borromean Islands.

We took a nice drive along the Western Shore of Lago Maggiore to Stresa, where we took a boat to two of the famous islands. The most spectacular island was Isola Bella, where a huge and beautiful palace was built. It includes amazing gardens and sculptures. The history of the palace is incredible as well.

After Isola Bella, we visited Isola Pescatori, anohter island. Here, we had a nice snack at a cafe and relaxed in the late afternoon.

Lastly, some domestic news: Our furniture is scheduled for delivery Tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah!!!!!!!!!

At-Home and Off-Line

Well, we're pleased to announce that we're now moved into our new house in Italy. It's refreshing to be out of the hotel, and to have our own space.
Unfortunately, we don't have much furniture yet, since our shipment hasn't arrived. (It has landed in Genoa, and will hopefully clear customs and be delivered soon). Still, we're making the house into a home.
Also, we're offline for a short time. The Italian Telephone company is having trouble getting our DSL line to connect. We hope to be back online shortly, and will have more photos and stories then.

Busy Week

It's been an incredibly busy week, and we're glad that it's finally the weekend.

First, Ann had her first Italian doctor's appointment. It was an interesting and somewhat funny experience (pounds vs kilograms shouldn't confuse doctors). Anyway, the pregnancy is going well, and the doctor said that everything's good.

Next, we finally had our new kitchen installed. Because Italian's treat kitchens like furniture (moving them from one house to another), we had to get an entirely new kitchen. This included cabinets, sink, stove, and everything. We're excited about this because this means that we're only a few days from moving in. It's a modest kitchen by Italian standards, and by some American standards, but we're happy. A photo is below.

We also had our telephone line installed (friends and family can send an e-mail for our new number), successfully shopped for our house, set up an internet and sattelite tv account, and generally ran around like mad-men. Ann is also learning how to drive a manual transmission car. She's becoming a real expert on our little Fiat.

Throgh it all, Ann had time to visit the Parco del Ticino. This is a natural reserve and park on the Ticino river. It has beautiful hiking, biking, and walking trails. The trails run thorugh quaint towns and near historic churches and sites.

Trip to Milan

We've now been in Italy for nearly a full week. Much of our time here has been filled with administrative tasks. John's been at work, and in between time at the office, the whole family has been taking care of setting up residence in Italy. We finally closed on our lease on Thursday (not a simple task in Italy). So, we were ready for some sightseeing on Saturday.

We took the Malpensa Express train to Milan. The city is vibrant and exciting, full of fashion and style. It's mixed, however, with a rich and enchanting history.

Our trip brought us to a fantastic midieval castle, the Castello Sforzesco. The art and history were unbelievable.

We also took time for lunch at a cafe, and a great trip to Il Duomo, the city's enormous cathedral. We even climed all the way to the roof.

All in all, it was a tiring, but terrific day.

We're Here!

The Bedell Family has landed! We're now based in Italy for the next several years (with the exception of a few visits home). The overnight flight was uneventful (the way flights are meant to be), but the lack of sleep is a little rough on the family. We're now aclimating to the time difference, and will be completing all of our administrative duties (bank accounts, phone set up, registering at the Questura, and so on). We'll be living in a hotel for a short time, but can't wait to move into our house.
More to come...