July 9 – Saturday – We are leaving the Piemonte region to Lombardy where we will spend a week on the northeastern shore of Lake Maggiore to the town, Maccagno. Navi takes us through more little villages surrounded by vineyards enroute to the Autostrada taking us toward Milan. Before leaving Acqui Terme we make a stop at the pasta shop we visited yesterday since the pasta we had, and loved, we thought we should buy some to take up north with us. While in the small shop we bought a number of local specialities – ravioli, spinach/rice torte, pesto, and trofie pasta. We were able to watch pasta dough being prepared for future pasta shapes – pretty neat to see.
The drive to Maccagno was just shy of two hours. The landscape changed from the rolling hills we had been experiencing near Acqui Terme, to prairie-like flat cropland as we moved north. We wondered why there was so much corn being grown in this area, and found through goggle search northern Italians love their polenta, seems different than Germany as all the corn there was for the bio-fuel industry. Next the landscape changed to tree covered mountains as we got into the lake country. With Navi’s great help we found the condo complex easily and checked in. We had passed a grocery store just a few minutes walk away, so as per the usual routine now, we were off the store to get needed supplies for the next couple of days.
Then as T made another great dinner with the fresh pasta and fresh pesto we had bought in Acqui Terme, J and M checked out the TV channels and happily found several English language channels, then settled down to watch a stage of the Tour de France. We have come to find cycling quite interesting to watch, especially when they are in the mountains. When we were in Crots France at the castle, we learned that Le Tour goes right by there (and the castle is completely sold out to a media company for that week). As well, we regularly see cyclists as we drive around, some doing hills that make us proud just to watch them train. We end the evening watching the archery world championships being held in Turin, and are happy to see a young Canadian man win his first ever world competition in the compound bow category.
July 10 – Sunday – Today it is overcast and looks like rain is going to arrive. We are really close to the Swiss border and this being lake country there are a number of tourist things to do. We are staying in the Golfo Gabella Resort which is a complex built at the edge of the lake in Maccagno in the last few years.
This apartment has no stovetop espresso maker, something that M and T have been enjoying on the decks of every apartment that has one. So M and T head off to the resort bar to get a cap to start the day. Then M is off back to the grocery store for a couple of things we forgot to get yesterday.
Today seems like a day to just hang out. T finishes up the blog writing, and then M reviews and adds some here and there. It’s time for M to select photos and post (as we have Internet this week). Then T continues the task of photo sorting and titling (so when we get home we will have some idea where all these photos are from), and reading up on the area to see what this is to do and experience here. Meanwhile, M and J first read another couple of chapters of The Hobbit, and then find some more sports to watch. Later in the afternoon, with skies clearing, J accompanied by M went to check out the pool. It is a nice outdoor complex affording us a wonderful view of the lake and surrounding mountains.
As we have Internet, we decide to Skype folks at home. We talk to two of T’s brothers (and kids) in Calgary + Vancouver, T’s sister and daughter in Calgary, two of M’s sisters in Hartland + Ottawa, M’s Mum in Hartland, and leave voicemails in Salmon Arm BC and Winsor Locks Connecticut. It’s wonderful to hear some many voices of family even though we are an ocean and many miles of land away from them.
July 11 – Monday Well 3 months ago today we started our adventure, so today has special meaning to us! So we all congratulate each other, and bask in the memories of our adventure so far. We have learned much about travel in Europe, had many amazing experiences, and much fantastic food. We have all learned how to survive with our Italian, while T’s speech and understanding is rather amazing (and very helpful).
Our little town of Maccagno is located near the Swiss border. In fact it’s about 10km. As we are in lake country, there are many tourist things to do and check out. Based on the info book provided, J chooses today’s adventure is to Mount Tamaro. This is an adventure park operating from April to November up in the Swiss Alps within an hour’s drive of where we are staying. The gondola takes us up to 1530 m where it is a starting place for mountain biking treks, hiking as well as various adventure activities for kids and adults. It was at the top of the gondola that all three of us went down a 800m alpine bobsled that runs on tracks.
T being the chicken that she is was much slower than J and M. The boys also decided to try out the 440m Flying Fox zip line – taking them whizzing by T as she taped the action. The end of the line was quite something to watch as the guys were stopped at their top speed of 60km/h with an apparatus reminding T of a rubber band…
It was a glorious sunny day and the view of the valleys far below was awesome as we walked along the ridge, we even got to re-experience some Swiss cows with their wonderful bells.
M noticed the meadows at this height are well covered in grass – so the cows were having a good munch. The alps were beautiful – reminded T of the Rockies at home, and our map told us where the Matterhorn was (a nearby ridge was too high for us to see it today, we will have to wait until we get back to Switzerland in August). We enjoyed a touch of Ticinoese cusine before calling it a day.
When we descended after a very enjoyable afternoon, we looked for ski runs off of this gondola. However, we couldn’t find any. It would appear that this setup is only for the summer tourists who come to enjoy these Alps. They must get plenty of people utilizing this facility to make it financially viable. We make our way back toward the Italian border and slowly progress, we wonder if it has to do with so summer lake.
Upon arriving at the condo, we head to the pool to yet again enjoy the sun and scenery. To end the day we watch the movie Stuart Little 2, and have some popcorn.
Here are a number of amusing stories of our adventure so far
We had just started our trip, having taken the train from Paris to Napoli and stayed overnight in our hotel. We needed to get T’s Iphone working before we left Napoli so we got that done and then decided to have some lunch at a local restaurant before we headed to the airport to pick up our rental car, and take the long drive to the toe of the boot. So we head down the street outside our hotel and find a restaurant that has a menu that suits us all. J decides to try pizza, while T and M have some pasta. All the waiters in the place seem to speak just enough English to take our orders as we struggle to use our fledging Italian. As M likes to have lots of grated Parmesan on his pasta, he asks for some and our waiter brings it. Note that M had ordered linguine with clam sauce (and it was done the Napoli way with the clams in olive oil). So M loads on the grated Parmesan – and just then the other waiter makes a point to pass near our table and say in a rather loud tone in very clear English “Cheese on fish” shaking his head showing his displeasure. We have a great laugh even M who was the brunt of that comment.
We have all been trying to use our Italian as much as we can ever since we arrived in Italy. T has always been the top, with M and J trying their best. We were walking around the beautiful town of Erice enjoying the mountain top walled town and taking every chance we could to interact with locals. As were meandered around the town, we happen upon an older somewhat wrinkled grandmother on her doorstep. J immediately pipes up with “Ciao bella” - which for those not yet versed in Italian means “Hello beautiful”. She immediately brightened with a BIG smile and chuckled, then said “Che complementi” while continuing to smile. J had made her day!
As many of you know, M is not a small man. He noticed immediately that with his broad shoulders it was a challenge to take a relaxing shower in the apartments we had rented, as the size of the showers were tiny in comparison to home, and often the shower walls were of very thin plastic that rattled when bumped. Through experience in some apartments that things did not work when we first tried them, we had developed a routine of checking a number of things right away when we first entered, so if we needed help we could get the landlord soon so our stay would be more enjoyable. When we arrived in our apartment in Taormina, we began to check things out, and T + J had a great laugh as they heard M mutter “ Oh goody, a don’t drop the soap shower again”. The next morning M relayed the story of how he had actually measured the two showers in the apartment to see which one was bigger, then proceeded to shower thinking he had better not drop the soap as it was unclear how he could get it if he did. Then of course he dropped the soap only to find that by crunching down and grabbing the soap with his foot he could just reach it with his hand. Having mastered that, he laughed when he told T and J that he ended up dropping the soap twice more before the shower was over.
J had been looking forward to having pepperoni on his Italian pizza. Every time we went to a restaurant J would scan the menu to see if he could find some. It seemed that he could always find salame and proscuitto cotto, but no pepperoni no matter where we were. One day in Pizzo he found peperoni on the menu in the pizza section and double checked with M and T if it read what he thought it did. T tried her translator app, only to find that the word “pepperoni” translated to “pepperoni” – not much help. Well, J decided to take the plunge and see if he could finally get pepperoni and he was pumped. J’s pizza arrived and to his chagrin there was not a slice of pepperoni to be found, instead it was all slices of grilled red pepper. Needless to say, the peppers all got picked off so J would eat his pizza.
We have really been enjoying the food here in Italy, and often in restaurants when we get a chance T and M try something new. J has even been quite willing to try new foods and to his surprise he has expanded his palette greatly (although he has yet to find a love of vegetables). One of the things we have found that we enjoy is fried mozzarella. So when we went out for dinner in Francavilla Fontana, having searched for a restaurant for over an hour (we found out later we were in the wrong part of town), T was joyous to find fried mozzarella on the menu. So order it she did thinking I know what that is, and M said we should order two orders since it’s so good. So we were all pumped, as this is one of the appetizers that J likes too. Then the order arrived. To our surprise (and disappointment) we found several ½ inch thick / 3 inch diameter slabs of mozzarella with no breading, that had been briefly pan-fried such that they were warm to the touch. We were game to try it – but we could not struggle through it and left much on the plate.
Having grown up on a farm, and then as a somewhat avid golfer, M has always had the farmer / golfer tan (if tan is what you could call what someone of his complexion gets when exposed to sunlight). Yet on this adventure we have many opportunities to catch some rays as J plays in water far too cold for T and M to enjoy. So M decided to get dark all over through his proven method of many small sun exposures so that he never really gets a severe burn, and eventually gets quite dark (even if it’s a dark red). We had noticed that many of the men of all ages wear Speedo type bathing shorts here, and are dark practically everywhere. Although M chose not to get a Speedo, he has tried to take the opportunity, when we have private decks, to tan his legs above his knees where his swim shorts cover. One such evening, after a rather lengthy tanning session for M, he noticed what looked like blotches on his inner thighs, and asked T’s advice on what could be the cause. T was convinced it was just a rash from chaffing exacerbated by the very hot and humid weather we had been experiencing, and advised M to just let the open air resolve the issue. M took this advice and the next day again thought he should tan this area, which would also keep it exposed to the open air. Well that evening it became quite clear that T’s diagnosis was incorrect and M had a somewhat painful burn in an area that has likely never before been exposed to the sun.
We were on the Amalfi coast, a place where the hillsides are steep with much terracing. Our landlord had told us one of the towns to visit was Ravello, up at the top of the hill above our apartment, and if we wanted we could walk back down to the apartment on the steps that many of the locals use. T had done her research and was aware that the walk down would be 1100 stairs from the town to the road where our apartment was. We were all keen to do this as it sounded like fun. Yet what we did not take into account was that we had just done a leg work-out the day before, and one day rest proved not to be the best. T and J also forgot to take into account that even walking down one’s leg muscles are doing work as they take your weight with each down-step. So the two of them took no time to rest their legs as they continued down flight after flight after flight. Somewhere near down step 800 T’s legs were getting rather wobbly, and J felt that his legs would soon give out. M who has a bad knee had rested after every few flights, but even so his legs were not in that much better condition. We all were happy to get back to our apartment and rest after than unplanned hour long leg work-out!
J has certainly shown us his creativity in a number of ways. One thing we see regularly, in essentially all the bathrooms is a bidet beside the toilet. The first time J noticed this he told us (with a smile) that he thought it was very thoughtful for the people to install washbasins just the right height for toddlers to use. In several of our apartments we have noticed that the floors of ceramic tile, which we like to walk on barefoot as they are cool to the touch, seem to make the bottoms of our feet quite dirty. So J found a new use for the bidet, as it’s the perfect height for a footbath – which we now all use when our feet get dirty. T has even found this a useful tool when doing her pedicure.
Some different and amusing things we have seen so far
Calabrese Viagra – peperocini (sundried red peppers)
French fries on pizza
In Cinque Terre - Ordering a bottle of non-carbonated water and getting a bottle of tap water and being charged 2 Euros.
Sitting on the outside patio of a restaurant and being charged a cover-charge for each person – happens all over Italy….
One -piece bathing suits for women are the rarity in Italy. Even the Nona’s wear the two-piece, sometimes it ain’t pretty!
Riding a scooter and texting at the same time on Amalfi Coast roads
Riding a bike on a narrow busy road and talking on the cellphone
We have seen cars double parked on a street, but to top that off we’ve even seen triple-parked cars. The piece-de-resistance though, had to be a busy street in Napoli, where someone just put on their blinking hazard lights, and then left the vehicle right in one of the lanes on a one-way two lane street, and just went about their business, while all drivers in that lane had to merge into the other lane just to get around that vehicle.
July 12 – Tuesday - We are off to Malpensa near Milan today to do a couple of things. First, order new glasses for M, as he somehow lost a pair while we were in Chamonix. Secondly, to find the airport and locate /inquire about long-term parking as we are expecting guests for a month or so and need to park our car in exchange for a rental van that will fit 6 plus all the luggage.
We reversed our trek travelled on Saturday to arrive in Maccagno. We pass through a number of towns inland from the lake and arrive onto the autostrata to take us toward Milan and the Malpensa airport (which is Milan’s major airport). The drive is pleasant and lots of treed areas around this area as we near the airport. We were able to locate through “google” an eyewear shop and armed with the translator ordered a pair of glasses somewhat cheaper than at home and they will be ready for pick up on Saturday morning.
Finding the airport and about long term parking was easy and we had a plan for Saturday when we leave Maccagno and pick up T’s sister Suzanne and her two children, Juliette and Mathieu who will be with us for two weeks. J has been counting the days for when his cousins will come to spend time with him and he can introduce them to a small part of Italy while they are with us.
Once the errands have been taken care of, we choose to go check out the chocolate factory in Carslano, Switzerland. Again, we are not far from the Swiss border and figure it’ll be about 45 min. to get to where we want to go. While driving we notice how the landscape is quite a lot the Kootenai area of BC, but the lakes are warm here. Navi doesn’t let us down and crossing the border is a piece of cake. The border guards do not stop every car, they just nod and away we go, even though Switzerland is not part of the EU. It’s so different than travelling between Canada and the US, T had the passports ready and didn’t need a thing. They didn’t even speak to us, just waved us on. We figure they have their criteria for stopping certain vehicles.
We don’t take long to find Amprose Chocolat, a museum as well as an active factory. We pay our small entrance fee, are given a cookie dunked in melted chocolate and head into the museum/factory. It was Christopher Columbus who brought cocoa from South America to Europe in 1502 and the love of chocolate took over Italy and then onto France. We learned all kinds of info including that cocoa pods grow on the trunk of a cocoa tree. We walked along a catwalk where we saw the various steps and machinery needed for chocolate production as well as see the finished products on the assembly lines.
Of course like all factory tours we had a chance to buy some of these wonderful products – truffles, bag of bite-sized chocolates of various flavors and some larger bars of various degrees of chocolate, premium, dark, milk. All in all, we have plenty to share with our soon to arrive Canadian guests! This small factory produces over 30 million chocolate bars a month. That fact made us wonder “how many are produced worldwide?” The number must be astronomical.
Stocked up on chocolate we search out a place to have a bite to eat and then it’s on to mini golf. We locate the place and endure the heat and humidity for a friendly but not necessarily well-played round of mini golf. We head back home and the clouds have moved in. We had a downpour like the first night we arrived in Sicily! We rushed around the condo to close the windows to keep the rain from soaking things.
July 13 – Wednesday- After a lazy start to the day – like mostly every other day, we decide to forgo the local market in the nearby town of Luino which is supposed to be the biggest market with 351 stalls selling their wares for a 250 store outlet mall between Lake Lugano and Lake Como in Switzerland. We had recently been to a couple of markets so we know what they are like and we aren’t really interested in checking it out, besides, it’s pouring rain out and an outdoor market isn’t too fun in the rain.
The drive to the mall will lead us through yet another different border crossing than we’ve been through. This drive takes us through some wonderful treed lined roads. The drive does take along roadway we had travelled on yesterday after we have entered Switzerland. Today traffic is heavy in some areas, lengthening the drive. As we near the mall, we come across a traffic snarl having us at a standstill for a long time, travelling 600m in 40 minutes to enter into the mall! Since it’s raining, guess everyone figured it’s a day for the mall. Oh well, we drove here, so we stayed in the queue. We get to drive around for awhile trying to find a parking space, as can be expected after waiting 40 minutes to get the last 600 m we also get the opportunity to take another 15 minutes finding a place to park. Anyway, we finally get into the mall and immediately find shopping success, M finds a birthday present for T and a shirt for himself, J finds two new shirts he likes, plus some shorts and socks (he has been growing so we are replacing wardrobe not building it), and T finds some shoes. An OK way to spend a couple of hours, so we drive back to Maccagno, enjoy dinner while there is a major rain and wind storm outside. After dinner the sky cleared so M went down to the lakeshore and took many photos of the waves and the sunset.
Later we did internet research on what we will do when we go Turkey later this year.
July 14 – Thursday – Today, the weather was not great its rainy - we were going to take the ferry do to visit some islands in the south part of the lake. We found that it was too late to catch the morning ferry so we have to wait until tomorrow. We will hang today and watch some of the Tour de France. It’s laundry day as well to get ready to leave our place on Saturday. Mark enjoyed an hour-long conversation on Skype with his sister Barb and her husband, Dwight. It was great to chat with them. Everything is organized for an early departure for Friday.
July 15 – Friday – It’s our 22nd anniversary today. Boy how time flies and life just keeps getting better! We are up and ready to leave the apartment by 9:45 to head to Luino to catch the ferry down the lake to Isole Borromeo – three islands privately owned by the Borromeo family since the 1500’s. M and J locate a parking spot not too far from the ferry terminal and free to boot. T goes ahead to the ferry ticket agency and purchases day passes for the ferry as well as entrance fees to the best two islands of the three.
The ferry ride allows us to enjoy the shoreline along the west side of the lake as we make various stops along the way. The towns have beautiful promenades for tourists as well as locals to enjoy. There are many wonderful old homes surrounded by beautiful greenery and flowers – impressive and beautiful.
As often happens we meet some folks that speak English, a family from Holland here on holiday, and chat with them. A great way to spend close to two hours before we arrive at the first island, Isola Madre. This is the largest of the three, renown for its English botanical gardens with species from all over the world - eucalyptus, cypress (the largest one in Europe which had been damaged in a big storm in 2006 and is now still being held up until the roots reset securely)
, magnolia, bamboo, cinnamon, and many others. The mild climate has enabled the spectacular flowering of many plants. It was a treat to walk along the garden paths and admire the beauty around us. There were all kinds of birds such as peacocks and pheasants wandering the grounds. We were very impressed with the palace on the island. We walked through the uninhabited palace with many Italian portraits and paintings dating back to the 16th century.
Quite amazing the place is considering it was “only” a summer place - these people had serious money! We walked around the island for an hour or so, then went back to the dock to catch the ferry to Isola Bella. Originally the island was just a rocky crag and loads of soil was brought onto the island so beautiful gardens could be established as well as a summer palace could be built. This island has a huge palace that was built in the early 1600’s and it occupies the majority of the island.
Now of course there are a number of shops and a couple of hotels built at some time in the past catering to tourists.
We had a wonderful lunch at a restaurant before we were off in search of the entrance into the palace. Guidebooks suggested we get audio guides so T organized that and then off we were on a tour of the palace commissioned to be built for the Borromeo family in the 1630’s.
With the aid of the guide we learned all about the family and its famous family members who were politicians, cardinals, a pope and famous guests such as Napolean and his wife Josephine. The palace was extraordinary with its high ceilings, masterpiece paintings, beautifully sculpted marbleworks, and exquisite furniture. On the lower level, one of the Borromeo brothers had a series of grottos built (5 rooms in all) each a work of art.
Pieces of coral, marble and other rock were placed in mosaic style to create undersea-like scenes/themes for each room. It was awesome – leaving us to wonder – how long did it take to complete each room. We really enjoyed the palace, but we were running out of time before the ferry to return up north would be arriving soon. We quickly checked out the garden area,
a tiered masterpiece, with an incredible shrine, and then went in search of the path back to the main entrance of the palace to drop off the audioguide, collect T’s ID (which had to be left behind in exchange for the rental). With 10 min. to spare the guys go in search of a gelato stand and T located the ferry dock, a different one than we arrived at earlier. Another great trip up the lake by ferry and we arrived back in Luino, retrieved the car and drove back to Maccagno.
J went for a swim at the pool while M and T finished organizing things for the morning departure and get ready to go out for dinner. The resort has a restaurant run by a local family. We arrive at 7:15 for our reservation to find the restaurant empty and they are still getting organized. T should have remembered that the locals dine later and made the reservation later, but, we were there. So on M’s suggestion, we took our time, ordered one course at a time and enjoyed our meal. It was a nice way to spend the evening of our anniversary.
July 16 – Saturday - Today we are going to the Milan airport to pick up Sue, Juliette and Mathieu! J is stoked and showed it by saying as soon as he got up “In only 8 more hours I get to see my cousins”. We also have a few errands to get done, the most important is getting a van that will fit us all and luggage – so we are up early (for travelling that is, M is up at 7 fairly often but T and J sometimes sleep in to after 9), all up with breakfast done by 8:15, and car packed and on our way by 8:40. We get to Terminal 2, which we had scoped out a few days ago, where we think our van will be – but after waiting in line for about 10 minutes M learns we have to go to Terminal 1. So off we go, find a parking space in short term parking, which is more of a challenge here as this is the main terminal and MUCH busier. Then M is off to get the van, and successful he is, the only issue being they do not have GPS in the vehicles they rent in Italy (we don’t know why as the same rental company had one in the car we had in Germany)– oh well its back to using the Iphone Navi – which we did all over southern Italy. That just means T won’t have as much time to just enjoy the scenery as the Iphone Navi does not give M a display of where to go without taking his eyes off the road like we have in the leased car – so T becomes a true navigator advising of all turns in real time.
Next we do the big transfer of luggage and accessories from the car to the van. Then, M and J are off to pick up M’s new glasses that we ordered on Tuesday using the GPS which is already programmed for finding the proper street, while T babysits the van and keeps the short term parking paid up (it’s a good thing too as the parking police were out this busy day and offering fines to unpaid users). M and J get that errand done, M is pleased with his new glasses and notices the price difference versus home – M and T may well both get another cool-looking-Italian-style pair with these good prices. J gets to meet the Ottica (an optician is English) store owner’s son, who is named Marco and is six. Together they put together a toy glider type plane and test out its maiden flights, as M gets his new glasses fitted.
Then back to the airport to park the car in long term parking, and meet up with T and the van. We grab some lunch and an airport cappuccino, then head off to find a grocery store to get some supplies before picking up Sue and the kids, as we have a 2 hour drive to our next apartment on Lake Garda and need to arrive in time for the landlord to still be available to let us in. All secured with our supplies we motor back to the airport and await our arrivals. As a special surprise, J and M run into the Turkish National Basketball team who had just arrived for some training in advance of the European Championships in September, and chat with one of the coaches and shake hands with one of their centers that also plays pro in Europe.
Then we see our family come through the door.
What a wonderful time seeing family after our 3 months abroad. We all give hugs and hello’s then jump into the van for the next leg of our trip. The adults hear much chatter from the as the three kids catch up on news and greetings.
As we travel to the site another challenge arises. This van has no 12 volt plug-in so we cannot charge the Iphone while traveling – and Navi uses power like crazy. Just as we are arriving in the town and needing very specific turn directions, the Iphone tells us it must shut-down Navi to save critical power. Luckily J saves the day by getting the laptop out which T quickly starts-up and plugs in the Iphone just in time to tell M of the next turn. We find the apartment and are once again very pleased with our accommodations, we have a large two bedroom apartment which sleeps 6, and is part of an old convent of the 16th century. Our new arrivals notice the architecture and show their appreciation, and we all notice the pool! T and Sue make dinner and we enjoy the evening or catching up over a nice Barolo. It’s truly wonderful to have family with us.
July 17- Sunday – Last night we had left all the windows open trying to find whatever breeze we could - as it was warm and humid – so to our delight during the night, we were serenaded by the ringing of the church bells, every half hour, and the bell is only about 100 ft from our window. We commented on how during the night at different times we didn’t hear the bells – must have been in a deep sleep. The cousins are up by 7:30, and they continue their excited banter back and forth. They are anxious to go swimming, but must wait until 9:00 am for the complex pool to be open. At 8:15, Pavoratti is being blasted out of an apartment across the courtyard! Oh it was quite comical – I guess he figured everyone should be up by now. What a great way to introduce our guests to their first morning in Italy. Shortly after breakfast the cousins and T and Sue head to the pool. Our kids are by far the noisy ones with their excited chatter.
T and S try to explain to the kids how the other guests don’t necessarily want to hear “Marco Polo” at volume 10 while they are reading around the pool, and any other child there is quiet… Oh well, the kids enjoy themselves. After pool time, T, S and cousins go explore some of the village lanes and enjoy the village sights.
M enjoys getting some quiet time and just reads.
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