Happy Sam

Parma and Castello di Torrechiara

For trip number two of our long holiday weekend we went to Parma. It was a trip that we'd wanted to take for a long time. Everyone knows that Parma is famous for cheese, ham, and countless other gastronomic delicacies. It also has some amazing history.

After driving through a foggy morning, we first visited a castle that Ann had researched. The Castello di Torrechiara is a short drive south of Parma, sitting on a steep hill, surrounded by lush and productive countryside. The castle is ominous and looming as you look up at it. It's simply huge. What makes it truly special, though, are the incredibly well preserved original frescos inside. Nearly every room is adorned with these pieces of historic art.

We took time to have one of the best meals that we've had yet in Italy (and that says a lot). We're honestly not sure how our stomach's held so much food.

Then, we visited the city of Parma itself. We saw the famous Duomo and Bapistry. We enjoyed walking through the beautiful streets of the center city, and visited the most important piazzas. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to visit all of the sights that we could have (so we'll have to return).

Now, just in case you think that all of our adventures are all beautiful fun, we also visited two of the worst ever public restrooms on this trip. Really, they were unimaginably bad....we won't feel clean for weeks!

Holiday at Isola Madre

Friday of this week was Liberation Day. This is a national holiday in Italy, so all of the businesses and offices are closed. Since spring is FINALLY really here (with nearly hot weather and lots of sun), we decided to take a trip to the only Borromeo Island that we had yet to visit: Isola Madre.

This island is a beautiful botanical garden. The island itself, because of it's location, is a micro-climate, so a wildly diverse collection of plants and flowers thrive there. We took a relaxing boat ride to the island and had a great time 'smelling the flowers' (literally!). There's a wonderful furnished villa on the island, as well as countless peacocks. It was a very pleasant day.

Other than that, the week passed very quickly. Thomas has discovered the joy of making paper airplanes (don't ask). John had a business trip to Spain, and Sammy worked on rolling-over (he's almost got it...2/3 of the way there). Also, thanks to all of our friends for the comments and e-mails.

Visiting Friends in Munich

We took a wonderful trip this weekend to Munich, Germany to visit some friends. Dan and Marybeth are friends of our from the 'States who recently moved to Munich. Dan is also on a temporary ex-pat assignment, and they're anxiously expecting the birth of their first baby in a few weeks. It was great to see them, and we also got to do some exploring in Munich.
We visited a few of the famous sights, including the Frauenkirche (the cathedral), and famous Marienplatz (town square). One of the highlights was climbing the spire of St. Peter's church. The climb was tiring, but you can see the whole city from the top. Of course, we also had to visit the Hofbrauhaus beer hall and enjoy the Bavarian food and beer. We had a fantastic time.
Getting there and back was also a lot of fun. The drive was long, but we drove through the Brenner Pass, and the mountain views were great!
Many thanks to Dan and Marybeth for their hospitality! We all had a great time.

Cheese of the Week (?)

Some of you may have wondered where the 'cheese of the week' posts went. Well, the posts may have been on holiday, but the cheese hasn't. John is still trying new cheeses ever week. He's been at it for nine months now, and there still seems to be a limitless supply of new varieties in the local supermercato. Here's a little insight on some of the latest samplings:

Gardena is a mountain cheese that had a lot of flavor. Baita Friuli was dry, and very much like a Swiss cheese.
Stelvio was firm , and had an agreeable mild bitterness.

Marzolino was fresh and milky, with a grass-like quality.

This one was soft, creamy, and very good, although we can't recall the name.

Aside from the cheese, there's not much to report. We had a quiet weekend, and a long week (lots of catch-up after our week-long trip). The weather has been miserable here: rain, fog, and mighty cool. There's also an election underway, which has been interesting to see as an outsider. It's the subject of non-stop debate and discussion among Italian friends and colleagues.

American Vacation

We've just finished our first family trip back to the USA since last summer. It was a great opportunity for Samuel to meet the rest of his family. We spent a little over one week, mostly in upstate New York, visiting Grandma Harder and lots of Aunts and Uncles. We also took the opportunity to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame (it was a chance to do something quintessentially American). Thomas loved it. We also attended the celebration of John's Aunt & Uncle's 50th Wedding Anniversary (Bill and Claudia Bedell). It was a nice break from our expat adventures, and we got some much needed rest. We did learn, however, that we've lost our resilience to North Country coldness. We're too used to the Italian climate, and had a rough time with the temperatures. We offer our apologies to friends that we didn't get to visit on this trip. It was just too hectic to see everyone that we'd have liked to visit.