Rainy Week and Pavia

We'd been told that July in Italy is brutally hot, but that in August rain and cooler weather begin a slow end to summer. In fact, we experienced this firsthand this week. From Sunday until Thursday the sky dumped torrents of water on us. Temperatures dropped, and we all started wearing jackets and contemplated packing away our shorts. Luckily, though, things cleared up just in time for the weekend.

For this weekend's trip, we went to Pavia. We'd read that it is one of Italy's best kept secrets. The city is a bit south of Milan, and has an interesting history of ups and downs from Roman through Renaissance times.

Before going into the city, we stopped at the famous Certosa di Pavia Monastery that's just outside of Pavia. The detail on the buildings are amazing. Of course, we visited another medieval castle (you can hardly turn around without finding one of these castles here). We window shopped along Pavia's charming cobblestone streets and ate at some quaint cafes. Lastly, we crossed the Ponte Coperto, which was rumored to be a cursed bridge (until they build a church half-way across). It as another full Saturday trip.

On the cheese front, this week John tried Blu del Moncenisio. It's a stinky blue cheese from Piemonte, and although it's flavor is pretty mild, it's quite dense and chewy. Funky!

Lastly, Ann has a doctor's appointment for next Saturday. After the appointment we'll post the baby's sex (if we know).

Monte Rosa and Macugnaga

After driving near the mountains the other week, we really wanted to get closer to the big mountain: Monte Rosa. Usually you can't see the mountain, because the view is obscured by a haze of humidity or clouds. However, when it's clear, the mountains snow covered peaks are amazing. It makes us realize how close to the alps we really are.

Anyway, the eastern face of Monte Rosa is only a bit over an hour away by car, so we decided to take a drive on Saturday. At the foot of the eastern slope is the village of Macugnaga. We reached this alpine town by driving up a narrow, curvy road (also prone to landslides). The drive was half of the fun, winding upwards through a narrow mountain valley.

Although part of Italy, Macugnaga doesn't 'feel' like any of the other Italian towns that we've visited. It has a very alpine character, complete with the typical wood chalets.

Unfortunately, we missed lunch in the town. Unlike the rest of Italy, which eats late, this place seems to keep an earlier schedule. So, our visit was short, but it was nice.

Also, we chose a poor day for the visit. Clouds covered the face of the mountain during our entire stay.

Cheese of the Week

For this week's Italian Cheese, we went with something a little more straightforward: Giglio Sardo. It's a firm sheep's milk cheese from Sardinia. It's a little pungent and salty, but has a great nutty flavor. It was great on it's own, but also fantastic grated on pasta.

Touring through Turin

Since John has the whole week off from work, we took another short trip. The city of Turin (or Torino) is less than a two hour drive from our home. Since it's one of Italy's major cities, and home to many great musuems, we decided to take the trip.

Turin is famous for serval things...home to FIAT, the Mole Antonelliana, the former capital of the Dukes of Savoy (and later, Kings of Italy), as well as chocolate and coffee.

Our most interesting experience was taking a tour of the Palazzo Reale, the former residence of the heads of the House of Savoy. What was interesting is that the tour was entirely in Italian, and we were the only English speakers in the group. We kept up, and understood about half of what the tour guide said. This just demonstrates that we to put more time into practicing the language.

We also went to the top of the Mole (what is that..that freaky thing?). It's a hugh brick spire that towers above the city. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy and hazy day. So, although the view was great, we coundn't see the mountains.

Other than that, we saw the Palazzo Madama, had lunch at a cafe on the famous arcades, and sampled the coffee and chocolate. It was a fine day.

In other news, Thomas only has a few weeks left before school starts. It will be the first time that he rides a bus on his own. Ann's a little nervous, but Thomas is hugely excited.

Ann and the Baby-in-the-Belly are doing well. They had some blood tests, and are scheduling a follow-up doctor appointment (although the recepionist speaks only Italian, which has caused a few scheduling mix-ups). We still don't know the baby's sex, but hope to find out in the next doctor appointment. When we do we'll post the news here.

We hope that everyone back in the 'States is doing well.

Ciao!

Verona Vacation

This is the big holiday week here in Italy. Wednesday is the Ferragosto holiday. It's a really big deal, and nearly all businesses are closed this week. This provided the first time that John had a chance to take time off from work this year.
So, we packed the car and drove a few hours to the city of Verona. It's the first trip that we've taken in which we've traveled away from either Lombardy or Piedmont. The landscape, atmosphere, and general 'feel' of the area really changes as you drive into the different regions. Verona has an older, almost ancient atmosphere, compared to the area near our house.
We rented a hotel room, and spent a couple of very full days walking around the beautiful city. We toured the ancient roman arena, the church of St. Zeno, and amazing gardens. We also went to the big touristy draw, the house of Giulietta (as in Romeo and Juliette). We saw another medieval castle, countless churches (some dating back over a thousand years), roman ruins, and an art museum. So, we're tired and ready for a few days at home.
Ciao.

Have Fun Storming the Castle

For our little day-trip this week, we went to an impressive castle. The Angera Castle, which is also known as Rocca Borromeo (that family seems to have owned everything around here!) is located on a tall hill that overlooks the village and lake. It's a foreboding sight from a distance, but it's really something to stand at it's gates and look up at the tall stone walls. It's a very well preserved medieval fortress that's really stood the test of time. It also has an interesting children's toy museum inside some of it's rooms.

On a slightly different subject, John's becoming obsessed with Cheese. Every supermarket here seems to dedicate about 15% to 20% of it's space to cheese. There must be 200 to 300 different varieties of cheese in a small supermarket. So, we're going to start trying as many as we can...we'll call it the Cheese of the Week. Some, of course, Ann can't have because European cheeses are frequently unpasteurized (not good for the baby in the belly). But, it John aims to become a cheese expert by the time we get back. This week's cheese: Toma Ossolana val Antigorio. It's pretty tasty, and what's more, it's made in the valley that we drove through when we visited Domodossola.

Critters

Okay, after living in the woods in Pennsylvania for several years, you'd think that we'd be used to all sorts of critters. However, we are just now beginning to realize what it really means to live in Italy, where there's no window screens.

It seems that almost no house in Italy (with very few exceptions) has window screens. Also, since there's almost no air conditioning anywhere (and certainly not in our house), most people just keep windows and doors open during the cool hours. It's actually very nice, and the breezes are fantastic.

Unfortunately, this also means that you end up living with all sorts of critters. We always seem to find HUGH spiders. We're not kidding...John did battle with one in the bathroom that was over an inch wide. Also, we constantly see Italian House Centipedes. Apparently, the spiders and centipedes will fight one another, but we haven't seen that yet.

Lastly, we're constantly running into little lizards. They're everywhere. Luckily they don't seem to come into the house. You can't step outside, though, without seeing one of them. They scamper all over the place, and are kind of cute (in an off-beat reptilian sort of way).

Mountain Drive and a Big Saint

The week was uneventful, with long work hours and still getting used to the new house & routine. The only exception was receiving Thomas' papers for school. We're registering him to attend the European School this fall. He'll start in September.

So, it was another wonderful Saturday with great weather, and we took another short day trip. This time we drove to the north to see some of the mountains. We didn't really have a plan, so we just drove around and gazed at the impressive views. We ended up at a town named Domodossola. As it turns out, this town is a jumping-off point for a lot of travel both into and out of Switzerland. It has an interesting history, dating from Roman times, and a large railway station. The views driving along the way to this town were spectacular. We didn't really stray from the valley, but looking up at the mountains was simply amazing.

On the way back to the south, we stopped in the city of Arona. It's a beautiful and clean city on the lake. The city has a nice waterfront park and great resturants. Also in Arona, at the top of a Steep Hill (it seems that all of the hills in this area are steep), is a grand statue of San Carlo Borromeo. This statue is mamoth, and offers a great view of the lake. You can even climb up inside the statue and look out of the saint's eyes. We skipped that part, since you have to be strapped into a harness and climb up a ladder. They wouldn't let Thomas do it, nor did they think it was a good idea for Ann, as she is pregnant. But, we were able to climb up to the balcony, where we could spot our house in the distance.

We hope that all of our freinds and family are doing well. Don't forget to send an e-mail every now and then!

Roads and Flowers

First, we wanted to share a great picture that Ann took in our front yard. Our house in Italy is surrounded by a variety of lush vegetation. Among the various plants are some grape vines and a lot of flower bushes. Today one of the pink rose bushes had a particularly beautiful bloom. Ann couldn't resist taking this picture. Just wanted to share.......

Also here are a few photos of Ann driving.......a great achievement in this land of steep hills, narrow roads, and manual transmissions. She's come a long way, and is now a real pro. She can even swear with her hands, just like the Italian drivers.

No comment on John's driving. Lets just say that the locals stay out of his way.