Our Grand Tour of Europe

There was lots of snow on the tops of mountains. We passed near several ski areas and saw quite a few cars carrying skis. The mountain pass to Davos (the Flüelapass) was actually closed because of snow. Our route went right through the famous ski town of St. Moritz, situated on a pretty lake surrounded by mountains. Some of the mountains in this area are over 11,000 feet high. By the time we crossed through the mountains to St. Moritz the weather had changed, becoming cloudy and cold. Our car thermometer read 2° C when we stopped to take some pictures in St. Moritz. From St. Moritz we drove along Lake Silvaplana and then through the Maloja pass. We hadn’t really realized we were on a high plateau at St. Moritz (I later read that the town is at over 6000 feet), but the pass took us sharply down the side of a mountain. The road zigzagged back and forth maybe 20 times from top to bottom…. really quite an amazing road. We were definitely glad we weren’t traveling it in bad weather. At the bottom of the pass, the language on the signs switched from German to Italian. We had also seen some signs in Romansh (the fourth language used in Switzerland) around St. Moritz. The little area beneath the Maloja pass is very tucked away and rustic. Charley noticed that the roofs of the houses were made of flat rocks. Soon after we crossed into Italy.

Today we begin our 11-week stay in Italy, our first real time in this country. Our only previous visit was a day trip down from Lucerne—we came down over St. Gotthard’s Pass and had lunch just outside Como. Then we turned around and drove back. We don’t know any Italian at all. Kelly is excited about learning, but Charley and I both need to get more motivated. Kelly and I have phrase books, and we worked a bit on the language during our drive. We are back to the basics here: how to say hello, goodbye, please and thank you. During this 11 weeks we’ll be staying in seven different places: Lake Como, Venice, Rome, the Amalfi Coast, Florence, Tuscany and Umbria, experiencing some of the world’s most famous and beautiful cities, ruins, architecture, artwork, and countryside.

The mountains in this area were just beautiful—very rocky and still with snow at the top. We stopped outside of one small village to take pictures of a double waterfall cascading down off the mountains. We also started to see flowers—lilac, rhododendrons and azaleas… and surprise—palm trees! Suddenly we had arrived in a tropical paradise beneath a winter wonderland. Our instructions from Gio (the owner of the place where we are staying) said to call him on his mobile phone when we reached Chiavenna. We finally found an unoccupied phone booth with a nearby place to park. First Charley tried and then Kelly and I tried, but none of us could master the telephone. Charley gets frustrated with computer-like systems (especially in another language). Kelly and I had more luck but never were able to connect the call. I think we’ll have better luck if we buy a phone card instead of trying to use coins. We decided just to head on and hope Gio would be at the villa when we arrived.

We drove along a pretty smaller lake (Mezzola) and finally reached the northern end of Lake Como at Sórico. Our village—Domaso—is just a few miles down the western shore from the northern tip of the lake…surrounded by mountains and right on the water. This is the Lombardy region of Italy. We crossed the bridge over the River Livo and found our way to the Villa AnnaMaria easily. We parked next to a nursery school just off the square by the big church and walked just down the street to the villa. Gio was in back hosing off yard furniture.

Charley has probably watched his “Great Lakes of Europe” videotapes more than 50 times, and he really wanted to spend some time on one of the Italian Lakes. He was especially interested in Lake Garda, but I couldn’t seem to find a good rental there. Instead we decided to focus on Lake Como, and I looked at a lot of different options. Gio has been a regular poster on Slow Travel and is very enthusiastic about “his” lake. He seemed to have an interesting villa (17th century) with several unique apartments, a bit away from the more-heavily visited areas of Lake Como. I wavered back and forth, considering various rentals on different parts of the lake. Finally we decided to stay in Domaso with Gio.

“I have some good news and some bad news,” he said when we arrived. “Which do you want to hear first?”

The bad news was that he had messed up on the scheduling (our booking was made about a year ago) and had double-booked the “Nelly” apartment we had reserved. The good news was that he was giving us a better apartment (called “DeVita”), a larger apartment with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. In the Nelly apartment Kelly would have slept on a single bed in a little den and we would have all shared one bathroom. Charley and Kelly were both very positive about the switch—Charley about the extra bath and Kelly about her own room. They really never knew anything about the Nelly apartment. I had been more mentally committed to the Nelly apartment with its bright yellow sofa, but what could I say?

We had a list of questions for Gio, who was very helpful. He lived in Canada for 12 years and speaks excellent English. He told me his parents had bought this house in 1960 and so he grew up here. There are four rental apartments, and Gio and his family also live in the villa. There’s a beautiful small swimming pool in the front and a pretty courtyard in the back. The front wall is covered in wisteria, blooming now as it was at La Bastide Vieille and very aromatic—it just smells sooo good. Gio gave us a welcome bottle of wine (pineapple juice for Kelly), and we had a bottle of French wine for him too. (Charley took a bottle down to the Schusters in Oberammergau last night.) We need to drink a lot of wine this week as we have three and a half bottles and part of a box from Provence and now the bottle of Italian wine from Gio.

Our apartment is on the ground floor and faces the street—very spacious and a bit formal with very high tray ceilings. Each of the three tray ceilings is decorated with beautiful, elaborate paintings. Gio says they are a few hundred years old. The center of the living room ceiling is a painting of two flying cherubs holding a big bunch of flowers. The living room is absolutely huge – a cozy sitting area with two comfortable blue couches, a dining area, a corner kitchen, and lots of additional space. I was a little disappointed in the kitchen—just two small counters behind big folding doors… not a really proper kitchen at all. This probably works for most people—who eat out most nights on a one or two week trip—but difficult for a family like ours who cooks dinner at home more often. The kitchen has everything we will need for our week though—cooking pots, crockery, really nice wine glasses—a somewhat different mix of things than we had last week in Germany… no beer glasses and big cups with no handles for morning coffee. There’s a microwave instead of a normal oven—at least I can fix some of my microwave popcorn. The cabinets were so full that we had a hard time finding places to put away all our kitchen things. (I’m sure most renters come with almost nothing.) Finally I moved a small table over by the kitchen area and that helped out a lot.

But here in this apartment Kelly has her own proper bedroom and there are two full bathrooms instead of the one we were supposed to have. Having two bathrooms is actually a very good thing for us. Kelly’s room has two twin beds with pretty pink flowered spreads and there is a loft up a very steep ladder with two more twin beds. Charley and I have a big bedroom decorated in blues, with a small loft over the bathroom with one little bed.

We unpacked what we will need for the week. Gio and his family have a little black cat—a smaller, thinner version of Chico—that immediately adopted us. Kelly was excited at the idea of another cat and the cat made himself at home in the apartment. The little cat’s name is Nerino (“nero” means black), and Gio said we were welcome to have him inside with us.

Domaso is an old fishing village, right on Lake Como. The village is simple and rustic with a couple of shops and eating places in the old village. There are other restaurants and 12 campgrounds on the northern edge of the village. Gio and his wife own one of the campgrounds. The wind patterns on the lake make this a world-famous location for windsurfers… the main reason for so many campgrounds.

We walked to dinner… about five minutes down a tiny narrow street to the waterfront. The views down the lake are simply breathtaking—this is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. We went to one of the places Gio had recommended—called Da Lui. He told us to tell them he had sent us. All we really managed to say was just his name—“Giovanni Gotti,” pronouncing it wrong I’m sure. We got a free aperitif and a little plate of appetizers. (At the end we also got a 10% discount because of our referral by Gio.) It was very strange to be in a restaurant where we had absolutely no language skills. No one in the restaurant spoke English, but somehow we managed. We couldn’t even say “grazie” (thank you) properly! Fortunately, there was a version of the menu in English.

We ordered a “primo” (first course) and “secondo” (second course) and had so much food that we skipped dessert (“dolce”). This restaurant served a lot of wild game, and Charley was surprisingly “game” to try it. He had a primo of pasta with venison and then a secondo of wild boar. I had a primo of risotto with shellfish (I recognized the mussels, but who knows what else!) and a secondo of veal with porcini mushrooms. The veal was a huge thick steak. We both had good roast (mashed) potatoes. Kelly struggled with the menu—with the help of our dictionary, we determined that the pasta with ragu was made with deer meat (this is what Charley ended up getting) and so she just had tagliatelles with burro (butter) for a primo. She ordered a steak with pepper sauce for her secondo with French fries. The meat was more rare than she wanted, and we ended up sending it back for more cooking. (It took us quite a while to figure out how to communicate this.) I think her steak was veal, but she thinks (or wants to think) that it was beef. Somehow she feels okay to eat an older cow, but not a younger cow…

We were surprised that we were the only diners at the restaurant… it seemed a nice place and all tables were set with baskets of bread. The owners were clearly expecting more people than just us. Just as we were getting ready to leave—about 8 pm—tables started filling up… four other tables in just ten minutes. It seems the Italians eat dinner late like the French. I later read that many restaurants open up early for tourists like us.

We walked back along the lake. Kelly and Charley had snuck out the leftover bread from our basket at the restaurant, and they fed the ducks down on the shore. Although this wasn’t a very active day, I was exhausted when we got home… I fell asleep on the comfortable blue couch while they read.

Sunday, April 24

The rain followed us from Germany to Italy… not a pretty day today at all. We awoke to church bells… at least I did… and got up to make coffee. I couldn’t get the coffeemaker to work on the plug in the kitchen area and ended up brewing coffee on the floor of the dining room. Kelly had left candy out on the kitchen counter, and there were ants all over the counter.

I love the church bells though. There are two bell towers in Domaso, both just a block or so from our house. They toll every half hour to signify the time; the half hour is noted by the ringing of the hours again and then a little “ping” with a different bell. At a few times each day (I think at 7:30, noon, then maybe 4:30 and 5:30), the bells ring out in an extended song. I could definitely get used to living near church bells.

Charley and Kelly were slower to get up. Kelly has a cold—it could be allergies related to the little cat, but it seems to be something more. Gio had told us that the grocery store was open on Sunday morning and would have fresh bread, so Charley set out on foot to get a few things for breakfast. When he came back, the little black cat Nerino came in with him. Charley hadn’t been able to find the grocery store on the north end of the village—even though Gio said you could walk there, Charley thought it must have been farther away. He ended up going back to the little main area of Domaso to a bakery and alimentation shop to get a few things. We had breakfast of strawberries and breads—different kinds of bread than we ate in France and Germany. The croissants were sweet and very good.

After breakfast we all went out (by car this time) to look for the grocery store. We had passed it on our way into the village yesterday. It was just a minute beyond where Charley had turned back. We saw lots of pizzerias and eating places on the north side of the village—Gio had recommended one of them, but we couldn’t remember the name. The supermarket is fairly small, but has everything we need this week. Since we are so close to the store, we decided to buy only what we need for the next two days and then come back. We need to use the food we brought and don’t want to buy anything we won’t consume this week.

This was our first trip to a supermarket in Italy. It’s always so much fun to visit a grocery store in another country—to see what people eat and buy. Here we saw a whole shelf of breadsticks, a whole aisle of dried pastas, and lots of red wine. There were very few yogurts (in France there was an enormous selection of yogurt), but lots of mozzarella cheeses. There was a big deli section, and Charley waited in a long line to buy some cheese and paper-thin Parma ham.

We’re uncomfortable here because we don’t know the words at all. Since we’re in Italy for 11 weeks, we definitely need to learn. We enjoy eating Italian food, so at least we know some of the food words. Kelly has been studying her little dictionary, making lists of words. She enjoys pronouncing foreign words. This morning she was working on numbers and colors. Italian has lots of similarities to both French and English.

After our little shopping trip, we drove south through Domaso to the next village of Gravedona. Gio told us there is a big market there on Monday and that it’s close enough to walk… and important to walk since parking will be impossible. It wasn’t really that far—1-1/2 kilometers—but in places the road was very narrow with no sidewalk and maybe just a foot or two between buildings and the road. We’ll have to see about the walking. We spotted a couple of interesting churches.

On the way back to Domaso we stopped by the ferry dock so I could check the ferry schedule. There’s a road around the lake that we can easily take to some places we want to visit, but many villages on the other side of the lake are best reached by ferry. Yesterday at dinner we saw a hydrofoil coming into the dock. Today it was so overcast that we couldn’t see the mountains around the lake and could barely see the lake itself.

We went back to our house to unload our groceries. The little black cat followed us in—he’s very sweet and loving. We even bought a small box of cat food at the store. He can be our cat for the week.

We talked more with Gio. We learned more about Domaso and told him more about our trip. He gave us a new plug for the coffee maker and showed us where some ant powder is. Since we are on the ground floor and it is springtime, we’ll have to be careful with our food. Gio let me pick out a few books from the apartment across the hall and also lent us a couple of DVD movies. On a rainy day like this, we were thrilled to get movies. It will be fun to watch something besides the MGM musicals we watched at La Bastide Vieille.

We each did our own thing for lunch—Kelly had ramen noodle soup, Charley had a bowl of cereal, and I had microwave popcorn. Strange American habits!

Then we just had a “home” day—all we needed was a roaring fire. We watched one of the movies—amazing to be watching a movie about the American south (Fried Green Tomatoes) here in Italy. I finished the book I borrowed from the apartment across the hall, and Charley read Lake Como guidebooks. About 4 pm we went out in the rain… back to the little village center near last night’s restaurant. There is a caffè/gelateria there, and Kelly was anxious for her first real Italian gelato. Italy is well known for its gelato—creamy and very rich ice cream, homemade in the best places. The nice waitress spoke good English (she told Charley she used to live in San Francisco). I had an enormous sundae with fresh fruit, vanilla gelato, and whipped cream. Charley had a big dish of pistachio and tiramisu, and Kelly had a big dish of strawberry and orange. Kelly also wanted something hot and ordered Italian hot chocolate—very thick and rich. It was an expensive treat. Gelato is cheaper if you don’t order it at a table.

That was pretty much the extent of our first full day on Lake Como. Charley made his homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner (Kelly loves it), we read, and we watched A Beautiful Mind on the DVD. The little black cat stayed inside with us all evening, curled up with either Kelly or me. I suspect Kelly will end up getting a black kitten when we get home…

Monday, April 25

The weather was bad again today, but we decided one day in the house was enough—we were going to do something! Charley walked to the store to get breads for breakfast. By the time we had eaten breakfast, showered, and taken care of various chores, it was after noon.

Today is a national holiday of some sort in Italy, and Gio had told us there was a big market in Gravedona, but we decided this was not a good rainy-day activity… especially not if we had to walk there. Instead we decided to drive all the way down the lake to Como.

Lake Como (Lago di Como) is the third largest of Italy’s lakes—Lake Maggiore and Lake Garda are bigger. In ancient days Lake Como was called “Lario.” The lake is 30 miles long with 100 miles of shoreline and is very narrow—less than half a mile in many places and only a mile across at the widest spots. The lake is shaped like an upside down Y with the single end to the north. Domaso is almost all the way to the north, on the western shore. Como is also on the western leg of the Y, but all the way to the south. A two-lane road runs all along the side of the lake on the narrow stretch of land between the steep hills and mountains and the lake. The mountains are the highest on the north end where we are living, beautifully topped with snow. Mount Legnone—not far from where we are—is the highest point at 8587 feet. Picturesque little towns and villages are packed in the bit of land between the mountains and the lake, one village running into the next. We can also see some small villages up in the hills. There are 37 streams running into the lake (most coming down off the mountains) but only one going out. It’s absolutely beautiful here, even on an overcast day. The natural surrounding—the narrow lake nestled between the mountains—is one of the prettiest I have ever seen anywhere. The houses are painted in beautiful colors (like red, pink, terracotta and mustard) with red tiled roofs and dark green window shutters. The churches all have very narrow bellowers called campaniles. There are many grand old homes along the lakes—villas—some with beautiful gardens. We passed one famous villa in Tremezzo—the Villa Carlotta—that we want to come back and visit.

The drive to Como took about an hour. The road wasn’t too crowded today (though lots of cars and tour buses by the Villa Carlotta), but we can imagine how busy and slow the drive will be at the height of the season when there will be much more traffic. The ferries are supposedly the best way to travel around the lake. We passed through the pretty towns and villages of Gravedona, Dongo, Mennagio, and Tremezzo. (I read in a guidebook that the fascist leader Mussolini was captured in this area and executed in Dongo. For many years there was a public urinal at the spot of the execution.) In several places, the road went through tunnels in the hillsides, sometimes a few kilometers long. The road is a simple two-lane road—often very narrow with little shoulder—shared by cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles and cyclists. Sometimes the road runs right along the water. About halfway down the road, the lake split into the two ends of the Y. The famous town of Bellagio sits across the water right at the split—so close but so very difficult to reach—probably about two hours from Domaso by car. We’ll definitely go to Bellagio, but we’ll travel there by ferry.

The only other time we went to Italy, we had lunch at a restaurant outside of Como. Kelly was four years old and we had a real-life Italian waiter, an older gentleman who doted on Kelly. We loved the experience. I’m quite sure his name was Mario, but Charley thinks it was Luigi. We decided to try to find this restaurant again… maybe we would also find Mario/Luigi.

We actually did find the restaurant—just north of Como, right on the side of the lake… part of the estate of the Villa Olmo, one of the big famous villas that sits right on the lake. We managed to squeeze into the one remaining parking place and walked for a few minutes around the grounds of the big estate. There was an art exhibit featuring works of Picasso at the villa. We took some photos on the lakefront—we could see the town of Como just a bit farther down at the end of the lake and the dome of its cathedral (duomo). Big villas and little villages dotted the other shoreline, with other clusters of houses rising up on the hillside. We watched a hydroplane land on the lake.

The restaurant sits right on the lake with a beautiful view. The bad weather had cleared during our drive and we actually saw sunshine. There’s a big outdoor terrace that wasn’t open today, and we didn’t see Mario/Luigi. The menu was a struggle for us—all in Italian… no English menu. I tried to use my phrase book to identify some of the dishes. The waitress spoke a tiny bit of English related to the menu. Charley and I ordered the special of the day—that seemed the easiest thing to do actually. Kelly got very frustrated with us because we pushed her into getting the “bambino” menu while she was still trying to figure out other possibilities. It seemed the safest and most economical choice for her, but our lunch didn’t start off well. She felt we were being mean to her.

We all ended up very happy with our meals. Charley and I had a first course of pasta shells tossed in some sort of cheese sauce with bacon and a secondo of pork rolled in thin beef with a tomato sauce served with a side of fries (strange combination). Our meal was 20 euro each, including the coperto (standard cover charge for bread), wine and a bottle of water. Our dessert was extra. Charley had chocolate gelato (oddly served in a paper cup). I tried to order strawberry gelato but somehow ended up with a dish of strawberries. I sent it back to get some gelato (vanilla) on the top. Kelly’s “bambino” meal was a primo of pasta shells tossed in tomato sauce and a secondo of very thin breaded chicken breast and fries. She got a drink and gelato too—her meal was a very reasonable 12 euro.

Our lunch ended with one of the most unique experiences of our entire trip. Somehow as we were finishing our meal, we struck up a conversation with an Italian family sitting at the next table—what seemed to be two grandparents with a bubbly little granddaughter. The man was nicely dressed in a suit and tie. Our conversation was especially unusual because the family spoke no English and we spoke no Italian. We shared some information about ourselves and confirmed that these were the grandparents of the “bambino.” Then the little girl asked how old Kelly was. In the midst of all this, the grandfather left the restaurant, but we continued our communication with the little girl and her grandmother, using our phrase books and a lot of hand signals. I took a photo of them with Charley and Kelly—the grandmother was well under five feet… a few inches shorter than Kelly. I felt like a giant! The grandmother wrote down their name and address (in the nearby town of Cernobbio), I think so I could send them the pictures. The little girl’s name was Noami and she was eight years old. Then the grandmother wrote down “Spizzico, Centre Commerciale”. It seemed that this was another restaurant. She began to use sign language to indicate (we thought) that they wanted us to go with them to this restaurant. Charley tried to say no, that we were too full. But the grandmother and little girl were very insistent and both very excited, so we followed them outside, quite puzzled about what we were doing.

The grandfather was standing next to their car, a nice BMW. Maybe he went outside for a smoke, since smoking is no longer allowed in Italian restaurants. He must have been out there for about 30 minutes. He didn’t seem surprised to see his wife and granddaughter with the American family from the next table. Noami was just thrilled to be with us and hopped in the backseat of our car with Kelly. We followed the grandparents in their BMW out of the parking lot and onto the lakeside road. Charley and I were amazed. What were we doing? Where were we going? And why had these people who didn’t even know us—or speak the same language—just let their eight-year old granddaughter hop in the car with some people they didn’t even know? We definitely didn’t want to lose sight of their car. Then what would we do with the little girl? Kelly and Noami giggled in the back seat and tried to communicate.

Not far down the road the BMW turned off into what appeared to be a shopping mall parking lot. The grandfather parked his car along the outside wall of the mall—next to a McDonalds drive-through—in what seemed to be a no-parking emergency zone. They indicated that we should park there too. We followed the grandparents into the mall, still taken aback by what we were doing. Why were we with these people at a mall?? The little girl Noami had Kelly by the hand. She was full of energy and very excited… she knew a tiny bit of English from school. “What is your name?” I heard her ask Kelly in the backseat of the car.

We walked into the busy mall and there was an open McDonalds right by the entrance with some kind of a pizza restaurant adjacent to it. The grandmother gestured at the pizza restaurant and Noami was even more excited. The name of the pizza restaurant—clearly a chain—was Spizzico… the name they had written on the paper. Then we realized that this was their restaurant—the grandparents owned it. The grandfather took off his suit coat, went behind the counter, asked each of us what we wanted to drink, and got one of the workers to get us drinks. Noami’s mother was working in the restaurant… she looked just like her. She was the manager of the restaurant. Did she think it was strange that her parents and daughter had adopted an American family? We sat down at a table with the grandmother and Noami to drink our cokes and continue our strange interaction. Noami’s father came by to meet us too—from what they had said earlier, he was maybe a pianist. Kelly and Noami played tic-tac-toe and drew on paper while Charley and I tried to talk with the nice grandmother. It was easier for her to write things on a piece of paper (though her handwriting was very hard to read) and we pointed to words in our phrase book. If we had been with a French family, we would have been able to have a conversation—we could have told them about our trip, Kelly’s school, our home in Tennessee—but here in Italy we were totally unable to have a conversation. We are lucky at this point to be able to order a meal in a restaurant and ask for “il conto per favore” (the check please). But Charley and the grandmother bent over the paper and tried to converse about various things… she was trying to tell us something about Pope John Paul II (the Italian word for pope is “papa”), her family, the restaurant. This was a chain of nine restaurants…several in other parts of Italy and even Switzerland… we never did understand if they owned all the restaurants or just this one. Finally we said goodbye, going up to the counter to shake hands with the grandfather and Noami’s mother. The grandmother and Noami hugged Kelly.

We walked out of the mall and found our car, still parked in the emergency lane behind the blue BMW. We were somewhat in shock. Why had they adopted us and taken us to their pizza place in the mall? Later when I told Gio about our experience with the family, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “That’s Italy.”

We drove back to Domaso enjoying the scenery and the view of the lake surrounded by mountains, the mountains topped by snow as we traveled north. Since we had such a big lunch fairly late, we just snacked for dinner. Kelly and Charley watched “Braveheart” on DVD. It was too violent for me—I had mixed emotions about Kelly even watching it. I went on to bed while they were still engrossed in the movie.

Tuesday, April 26

We woke to an absolutely beautiful day on Lake Como. We decided to take the ferry to Bellagio, supposedly one of the most beautiful villages on the lake. Bellagio is not far from Domaso by ferry, but would be at least two hours driving. It’s right at the inside point of the “Y”.

We had stopped by the Domaso ferry dock on Sunday, and I had checked the posted schedule. We planned to take a ferry leaving at 10:37. I left our apartment early—about 9:45—hoping to use a computer at a little bar in Domaso with an internet café. We have checked the café every time we drive by, and we thought perhaps it was closed because of the holiday… but it still wasn’t open. I sat on a bench by the lake and waited about 20 minutes for Charley and Kelly to arrive. Charley had bought a telephone card on Sunday, and we figured out how to use the phone to call Renault and schedule the return of our car on Saturday morning.

We walked down to the ferry dock to wait for the ferry. While we were waiting, Kelly and I looked at the schedule again and Kelly realized that the ferry we planned to take only ran on weekends and holidays at this time of year. I had misread the schedule. The next ferry didn’t come to Domaso until 1:52 pm. We had several hours to wait and it didn’t make sense to drive all that way to Bellagio.

We walked along the waterfront to the other end of Domaso where Charley had seen a sign about another internet café. It seemed to be closed too. Charley asked in a nearby shop and it sounds like that internet café is permanently closed. We went back to the house, stopping on the way to peek in San Bartolomeo church just a minute or two away. The church was built in the 17th century and was very impressive for a small-village church. I put on a pair of shorts and my bathing suit top and read out by the pretty pool for a while. Since we still had a lot of time before the ferry, we decided to have lunch at a place Gio recommended—a pizzeria called Il Timone that had a wood-fired oven. Il Timone is a simple place with lots of tables. In addition to pizza, they have an extensive menu of other food. The pizza was quite inexpensive and very good—we each had one, Kelly had a soft drink, Charley and I shared a small pitcher of wine and a bottle of water. Our lunch was less than 28 euro. After lunch we walked down to the ferry dock to finally to catch our boat to Bellagio. It was 20 euro for the three of us one way.

Our boat was a hydrofoil… a high-speed boat that travels on the water on two little front legs. All the seats were inside the cabin. The boat stopped at a couple of other places on both sides of the lake before reaching Bellagio. The trip took only 30 minutes.

Bellagio really is very beautiful with a spectacular location on the lake. It reminded me of a lakefront St. Paul de Vence (in the south of France)… upscale and very polished… with lots of expensive shops. The landscaping was wonderful… flowers everywhere with beautiful beds of tulips down along the waterfront.

We walked up a steep street near the ferry station and found a good sidewalk gelato place. We sat on a bench and enjoyed our gelato, then walked around the village. I spotted an internet café in another gelato place, and we decided to go ahead and use it… we don’t know if or when the café in Domaso will open. I worked for about an hour to (hopefully) book our train tickets to Venice this Saturday and then to Rome the following Saturday. I checked e-mail and our finances. I tried to post my blog update on Oberammergau, but the Mac computer didn’t have the right kind of software. I really miss having the easy internet access we had in Provence.

We walked around Bellagio and stopped in a few of the shops. We can’t do much shopping because of our luggage situation, but we found a new hedgehog for Kelly’s collection.

There are two famous villas in Bellagio—the Villa Melzi and the Villa Serbelloni. The Villa Serbelloni is now a hotel, but you can tour the gardens. However, decided to visit the gardens of the Villa Melzi is on the south end of Bellagio along the waterfront. This villa was built at the end of the 18th century as a summer home for one of the officials under Napoleon I. The gardens are built into the hillside along the lake, and our route took us first along the shoreline and then back behind the villa and up along the hill. The rhododendrons, camellias and tulips were blooming—just beautiful. We also saw pink dogwood trees in bloom, which reminded us of home. The garden included a little gazebo on the lake and several sculptures in various places. The villa—apparently sometimes lived in—was not open and its shutters were closed. Although the villa seemed kind of a boring rectangular box in the middle of the beautiful gardens, we enjoyed our hour at the Villa Melzi.

We headed back to the ferry dock to await our ride back. This wasn’t a cheap trip—another 20 euro for the ride home, so 40 euro total… over $50. The hydrofoil is more expensive—though much faster—than a regular ferry, though we didn’t have the option of the slower ferry today. I think the ferries run much more regularly to Domaso beginning at the end of May. The trip home was longer with more stops, and we went all the way to Colico on the northeast end of the lake before going back to Domaso, which apparently was the end of the line for this boat today. Kelly took photos of each of the boat docks. The boat workers are very proficient—able to pull into the dock, unload and load passengers and cast off again in less than two minutes. We really enjoyed seeing Lake Como from the water. Although ferry service to Domaso was limited, we saw many more ferries traveling to the most popular villages in the central part of lake, including some car ferries.

We got home at about 7:30. I fixed a big meal—chicken, a new kind of pepper sauce bought in Germany (good, but not the same), barley (Kelly’s request in lieu of rice), and salads. It was a bit stressful to cook this kind of meal in the small kitchen, but at least my audience was appreciative.

The little cat Nerlino has really adopted our family, and we have him inside with us whenever we are here. When I open the side doors to our apartment in the morning, he comes running in. He sometimes lays along the back of the couch when I’m reading or working on the laptop.

Wednesday, April 27

Today we took a day trip to Lake Lugano in Switzerland, about an hour from here. We left about 10:20 and drove along Lake Como to Menaggio, then took a twisty road up over the hills and soon arrived at the eastern end of Lake Lugano. Part of the eastern arm of Lake Lugano is in Italy, but most of the lake is in Switzerland. The road ran right alongside the lake and went through a couple of tunnels. We crossed the border between two tunnels in a narrow space between the lake and the mountains, and then we were in Switzerland again. People who live in this part of Switzerland speak Italian and eat Italian food.

We passed through the town of Lugano in 1997, on the same day we drove down from Lucerne and had lunch at Como. This is another one of the lakes featured in Charley’s “Great Lakes of Europe” tapes, and he really wanted to come back.

The town is wonderful, just beautiful… built around the edge of the lake with mountains in every direction. The Michelin Green Guide says there are only 26,000 people, but it definitely seemed much larger—more like a city really.

We parked in a garage in a busy downtown area—lots of businessmen and women in nice suits rushing around and talking on cell phones—quite a contrast from our sleepy village of Domaso. We found our way through a pedestrian area to the lakefront. A promenade runs around the end of the lake for a couple of miles—flowers everywhere, with masses of tulips in full bloom. Ferries traveled around the lake and there were other kinds of boats for rent—even paddle boats. We went to the Tourist Information Office to get a map and some brochures—there were many possibilities for our day on Lake Lugano.

We decided on two activities just outside of the town: to take a funicular to the top of one of the mountains and also to visit a place called Swissminiatur. We could also have just enjoyed wandering around the downtown area and parks of Lugano. We decided to go ahead and have an early lunch before setting off on our adventures. We walked along the street across from the lake, checking out the posted menus of several restaurants. We decided to eat at a sunny sidewalk café (a ristorante/pizzeria) called Mary. We shared some bruschetta, Kelly had pasta, I had risotto with mushrooms, and Charley had a pizza with salami. We skipped dessert. It was a very good meal, just expensive. Kelly didn’t care for the busy town of Lugano, though Charley and I both liked it a lot. This would be a good place to spend a week sometime. Kelly much prefers the small villages and the countryside.

We drove to the Paradiso area of Lugano, a bit further around the lakeshore, and then took a funicular up Mount San Salvatore, one of the two mountains enclosing Lugano. We had to change funicular cars halfway up the mountain. Once at the top, the views were phenomenal—the lake, mountains, towns and villages. Charley spotted one area on the lake that he said was a little section of Italy totally enclosed by Switzerland for some reason—Campione d’Italia—now the home of a major casino. We hiked up a short way to the top of the mountain (almost 3000 feet), which is topped by a small church. Kelly and I went up some steep stairs to the roof of the church for a 360-degree view of the lake and all the mountains. It was really amazing—I loved it. We waved down at Charley. If we had more time, we could have hiked down the mountain—there were a lot of marked trails.

We met a nice family on the way down in the funicular: two grandparents and a grandson from New Hampshire visiting their son and his family living in Lugano. Their son (who was not with them today) is the director of the American school in Lugano and had previously been the director of a similar school in Milan. Kelly rode in the front of the funicular with the three children while Charley and I talked with the grandparents and daughter-in-law. People are always interested in our trip and we like to hear about their travels too.

After our trip down on the funicular, we drove a short way to Swissminiatur in the nearby town called Melide, right on the edge of the lake. Charley had also spotted this site from the top of Mount San Salvatore. (My parents and our friends Jeanne and Fred visited a place like this near Amsterdam and really enjoyed it.) Swissminiatur is a mini-Switzerland… beautifully-made models of many famous Swiss landmarks—buildings, castles, churches, town squares, typical farm buildings, mountains, lakes, even airports, train stations and factories. The scale was 1 to 25. We followed a little path around the 2.5 acre exhibition. Everything was just beautifully landscaped, and there were two miles of train tracks. A variety of trains ran along the tracks, crossed bridges and stopped at stations. Boats cruised the lakes. Cable cars went up and down the mountains. (One of the places was the funicular up to the top of Mount St. Salvadore.) In a few places, cars even drove on the highway. People in Swiss costumes danced in the town squares. Altogether there were 121 different places identified, and Kelly read from a little leaflet that told us about each place. She was especially excited to see some buildings from Zug, where her friend Alayna was born. Since we haven’t traveled much in Switzerland, we really hadn’t seen that many of the real places, but hopefully we will see more when we do our 100 mile walk across Switzerland later this summer. We took lots of photos.

We had some family issues today. It’s a big change to be together 24/7 again for an extended time, now that Kelly’s not in school and our trip has taken on a different character. Although won’t be 12 for a few months, our Kelly is turning into a teenager… still often sweet and affectionate, but asserting herself much more and quick to get huffy. The teachers at Webb told us we would see many changes at this age, but I’m not sure we were quite ready. Charley is quick to get angry with her. I jump in the middle, hoping to head off any conflict. We need to continue to work on getting along better, as we have a lot of togetherness over the next couple of months. Kelly and Charley always kiss and make up, but I wish we could avoid the problems.

We got back to Domaso about 6:30 pm. We hit rush hour traffic in Lugano and also on the road to Menaggio. We had a quiet evening at home. Kelly finished her French assessment and got it ready to mail. We’re working with the Webb School to determine her level in French next year—it’s possible she’ll be placed above her grade level, since her 7th grade classmates will have just had one year of French. We just want to be sure she builds on her French and continues to learn and be challenged. Kelly and Charley took stale bread down to feed ducks while I fixed dinner—which was very simple tonight. Kelly had Kraft Mac and Cheese (we had two boxes left that we brought with us) and Charley and I had pasta with a basil cream sauce.

Thursday, April 28

We had a tentative plan to visit the other side of the lake today (maybe Varenna), but I’m not sure any of us were that committed and we never really got going. It was just “one of those days.” Sometimes it is hard to be a tourist every day. The weather didn’t help either… alternating between sunny and cloudy.

We decided to take the morning to get ourselves organized for our upcoming train trip on Saturday. We each sorted through our luggage, identifying some clothes and books to leave here. We threw out lots of papers and even a few clothing items. Yes, I know—all of this should have been done back in Provence…

We packed a box of things to ship back to America—clothes and other items we no longer need for the rest of the trip. Charley and Kelly walked down to the little post office in Domaso to mail the box and several postcards. Charley had his dictionary, but he also planned to use Kelly to help with the communication. She really has a skill with languages. They were back within fifteen minutes—our box was too big to ship. They had bought two smaller yellow boxes from the post office that we could pack with up to two kilos each. Our box had weighed over four kilos, so we had to set some things aside. We repacked everything into the two yellow boxes and they went down to the post office. One of those boxes was still too heavy, and so they had to bring a few things back. We’ll have a third box to send tomorrow.

We decided to have lunch at home. I made risotto with mushrooms for Charley and me. Kelly had her ramen noodle soup. It was interesting to try to figure out the Italian directions on the back of the risotto package! The package said “facile” (easy) but it sure wasn’t easy like easy is in America.

I offered Kelly an incentive of 50 cents to walk down into the village and see if the internet café was open. She was glad to earn a little extra spending money, but came back with a negative report. Maybe the owner is on vacation this week…

Gio took us on a tour of his other three apartments this afternoon. I did like the Nelly apartment upstairs that we were supposed to get—it had a much better kitchen but only one bath and Kelly wouldn’t have had a proper room ( a single bed in an open den area). We decided we were better off in our spacious DeVita apartment after all, despite the smaller kitchen. The Nelly apartment did have some bookshelves with books, and I found two to read over the next few days. All four apartments were very interesting and each one different. Gio described his quaint little “Rustico” apartment as Tyrolen in style… lots of wood and spread over four levels—one room on each level.

We decided not to go anywhere after all today and just stayed at the apartment. I sat out by the pool for a while during a brief period of sunshine. One of the books I borrowed from the other apartment was The DaVinci Code. I must be one of the only Americans who hasn’t already read it. Kelly and Charley watched a DVD of Schindler’s List (too heavy for me) and I curled up in the bedroom and read the DaVinci Code. I really enjoyed it, especially due to the European settings in Paris and London.

We walked to Il Timone for dinner. Charley had cotoletta alla Milanese (the Italian name for wiener schnitzel); Kelly and I had pizzas. We like this place and it’s certainly economical.

I was anxious to get back to my book at the apartment. I finished The DaVinci Code before bedtime.

Friday, April 29

This was our last full day at Lake Como… the atmosphere was very hazy today… different from what we’ve experienced on other days. It was sunny, but we could barely see the other side of the lake or the mountains.

We decided to go to the Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo, one of the most famous spots on Lake Como. I had read that the gardens are at their peak this time of year. We left the house around 11 am; Tremezzo is a bit less than 30 minutes away, about halfway down the lake to Como.

We got lucky and found a very good free parking spot on the main road, just a short walk from the villa entrance. We walked on past the villa entrance to check out a few shops; Kelly bought her Lake Como key chain, and I went ahead and got the Michelin Green Guide for Italy. Since we will be in Italy for 11 weeks, I can justify the price-- and the weight of the book. I have really gotten to like the Michelin Green Guides.

We ate on the outdoor terrace of a restaurant called the Ristorante Azalea, right on the main road across from the lake. The restaurant even had a few tables across the road on a terrace by the lake. The waitress ran back and forth with trays across the busy road. Just down the road was a big fancy hotel (the Grand Hotel Tremezzo), right smack on the road. This hotel had a private terrace and beach area across the street on the lake. Their swimming pool was actually floating right in the lake!

It was really a nice day, just very hazy. Tremezzo is right across the lake from Bellagio—at a place where the lake isn’t all that wide. We could see the Villa Melzi and the gardens where we had been earlier in the week.

Kelly had pizza and green beans (the pizza wasn’t too good), Charley had a salad, and I had grilled trout from the lake and French fries. Charley didn’t want to taste my trout because it was pink, but I really liked my meal a lot.

Then we walked on down into Tremezzo and found an internet café—on the second floor of a restaurant… part of the bar. I worked at a terminal right next to the bar and opposite two doors that opened onto a very small balcony. The doors were opened and I had a great view of the lake and Bellagio off in the haze. I checked e-mail, confirmed that I had made our train bookings properly, and sent off a few messages. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to post my Oberammergau blog here either. Frustrating! Still, it was a very pleasant hour there by that great view of the lake, with a little breeze coming in through the French doors.

Kelly worked on a computer off in another part of the bar while Charley had a cup of coffee and chatted with the bartender. He found out that George Clooney’s villa is only about four kilometers away. George is probably the most famous celebrity resident of Lake Como—it didn’t sound like he frequented this particular bar though. Kelly has now signed herself up on the Slow Travel message board and caused a bit of a stir I think with a comment she posted earlier in the week, worried that there wasn’t too much to do on Lake Como. (This was mainly due to the weather.) Some people didn’t realize she is a child and one of the moderators said something to make sure people knew she was only 11 years old. I talked with her a little bit to help her think about her postings in the future. She has actually given some good input on the France board.

We walked back down to the Villa Carlotta and began our leisurely walk through the gardens. The villa stands right alongside the main road, behind huge gates and surrounded by hedges. It’s over 300 years old, and at one point in its history was given as a wedding present to a Princess Carlotta. Today it is a public museum and gardens. The climate here is apparently very unique and really stimulates the growth of flowers and tropical plants. The azaleas were just a few days—maybe a week—short of their peak, but most were blooming… absolutely enormous shrubs, often planted in mass. How many years have they have been growing? The flowering rhododendrons and camellias were also extremely beautiful, and there were some gorgeous flowerbeds mixing beautiful colors. There are over 150 varieties of rhododendrons and azaleas. One area had trellises of citrus fruits—lemons, oranges, and grapefruits. There was a bamboo garden and also a cactus garden. The gardens had a variety of paths with viewpoints across the lake to Bellagio. Kelly and I both took a lot of photos. We especially liked the fountain with the little stone dwarves. We spent almost two hours in the gardens. I absolutely loved it there.

We also walked through the villa. The ground floor rooms exhibited several old paintings and some impressive statuary. I liked the statue of Psyche and Amore, forever linked in their marble kiss. The upper floor must have once been the family rooms- beautiful painted ceilings and very fancy furniture. Although the villa is named for her, Carlotta died very young… only 23 and never really spent much time here.

We left the Villa Carlotta just before 5 pm. I wanted to do a drive up in the hills that I had read about, up above Gravedona. Charley’s response was “if you want to,” which usually can be interpreted that he doesn’t really want to… but really wanted to drive up there. I think the narrow mountain roads with steep drops do still make Charley nervous, despite his supposed “cure” of his fear of heights. (I’m anxious to see how he does driving on the Amalfi Coast.) The road went very steeply up the hill; Gravedona and the lake were soon far below us. There were houses built into the hill… small hamlets and even churches—amazing how much was up there really. There were some straggly grapevines on the hill… a great contrast to the way vines are grown in Provence… we decided these vines just provided some grapes for the use of their owners. Finally we reached the village of Peglio and then a larger village even higher in the hills called Livo. The Swiss border was only a few miles further beyond in the mountains. Livo really seemed the end of the paved road, though from our hiking map, it seemed like a small road might go down to Domaso. (Later Gio told us this was just a hiking path.) Charley pulled in the mirrors and we snaked around the village on tiny passageways, passing a few older men who silently watched our progress. Did they wonder why this foreign-looking family was all the way up here? We decided that if there was a road down to Domaso, we didn’t want to take it. We were really up high and in a very remote place. We drove down the same way we went up. It’s hard to imagine that a good number of people really live up in these hills and drive up and down this little road every day.

I sat out by the pool and read some of “The Summons,” the other book I borrowed from the Nelly apartment. I think I’ve read most of John Grisham’s books on this trip. Kelly is now reading “The Testament,” since she has finished all of her kid books. She seems to be enjoying her first John Grisham book. Kelly and Charley went to feed ducks one last time and then we worked more on our packing. About 7 pm we walked over to Il Timone and had another very good meal. We had left a small tip the other evening, and the young waiter made a point to thank us for the money. It’s unclear to me how to determine if the tip is included in the bill, but it must have been because the money seemed a big deal to him and I know we didn’t leave much.

We had another very good meal. I had a tomato salad and tortellini with cream sauce and ham, Kelly had spaghetti and a mezzo (half) order of broccoli, and Charley had veal in a sauce with roasted potatoes. We all had gelato.

We walked back to the Villa Annamaria and finished our packing. I had laid everything from the kitchen out on the big table and we each decided what was really important to us and whether or not we cared enough to make a place for it in our luggage. Kelly found a place for Charley’s small jar of peanut butter, but I left my Provençal olive oil behind—just to big, heavy and messy for the train. We’re leaving some books, some clothes, and lots of food behind. Gio says he can pass the clothes onto a needy family.

The little cat Nerino came inside and spent the rest of the evening with us. He’s just about the sweetest cat I’ve ever been around. This has ended up a really good week after all, in spite of a slow start. In fact, Kelly said today that Domaso is one of her Top Five places of the whole trip. She likes the area, the village, the apartment, the cat and Gio. Her other top places are Provence, Turenne, Mousehole, and Yorkshire. She likes the smaller places much more than the cities. She likes places where there are animals and where we make friends.