After spending the past two weeks on "house duty", vacation time is finally here! We left Berzo at 7:30 AM this morning for the drive to Milan Malpensa airport to catch our flight to Lisbon. After fighting rush hour traffic in Milan (something to avoid if you can), we arrived at the airport after 2 -1/2 hours. Thinking it would be clear sailing after that, we entered the dreaded airport security line, where we spent almost an hour waiting to get through. We made it to the gate with about 15 minutes to spare. In total, the trip from home to the airport gate took about 4 hours.
I haven't had much time to write much about the house, but now that I'm sitting here on the plane, here goes. When we arrived in Berzo, my cousin Giorgio (the architect) met us at the house for the grand tour. The outside has been transformed almost as much as the inside - we have a nice portico with an attic under which to park the car, and a walkway around the house perimeter. Our garden area still has the same fruit trees - cherry, apple, and fig. Although the cherries are out-of-season, the apple has about a dozen pieces of fruit that my cousin Franco said should be ready in about a month. We've been eating a few figs, which Lidia is loving. Our neighbor's Mario and Luisa have a adjoining garden, so they've been giving us tomatoes and green beans - yummy! Franco and Erina have been providing daily produce - bags of cucumbers, tomatoes, fresh eggs, and so much fruit - pears, apples, and peaches. We had so much that we made a delicious fruit cobbler and topped it with amarena gelato!
When we left Berzo 2 years ago, the bottom floor of the house needed so much work - it was basically a storage area, cantina (with hooks for hanging salami in the ceiling of one room), and an indoor chicken coop, and it had no bathroom. So, when we walked in for the first time last week, needless to say, we we absolutely amazed. We now have a gorgeous living area with a new bathroom, laundry area, Lidia's bedroom, kitchen and living room. We ordered the kitchen from a catalog and we couldn't be more happy with the way it turned out. I understand from Giorgio that it took a bit of revamping from what we had initially planned, but it's just perfect and big by Italy standards. This past week, our washer and dryer arrived and we bought a TV too, which gets a few English language channels, mostly older movies. Unlike the US, you don't pay for basic TV service here, so we have about 40 channels or so, including the Italian version of QVC and Fox. I struggled for several days trying to get a DSL connection at the house, but I've basically given up for this year since the wireless modem from Vodafone started working - at least when it feels like it. The upstairs rooms are equally as gorgeous, and have been updated with new marble flooring and a fresh coat of paint. The bathroom doubled in size and is a beautiful light green color. The upstairs opens onto a balcony that overlooks our small street and we've put a few chairs out there. We watched a fireworks display in the neighboring town of Grone from the balcony the other night - pretty cool! Honestly, I can't imagine what other improvements could have been made to make our house more beautiful - it's an absolute dream come true!
There was a bit of excitement before Rachel, Greg, and Sierra arrived last week. I got a text from Greg the day before they were set to leave (Labor Day) saying that he had a big problem - his passport had expired last year! Of course, I thought it was a joke but when I called him, I could tell that it was true. At first, it seemed that he would be delayed for several weeks and would miss the trip to Lisbon and Amsterdam. Because it was Labor Day, he couldn't talk to anyone at the passport office to get help. Early Tuesday morning, he was able to make an appointment at the office in San Francisco and, after a frantic drive there and facing uncertainty about whether they could issue him a new one in time to make the 7PM flight, he arrived to meet Rachel and Sierra at the airport with a new passport in hand! He wanted me to mention to everyone - "check your passports!!". His little error is costing about $1500 in airline rebooking and 7-week parking fees in San Francisco - ouch!!
On Sunday we drove to Val Camonica with cousins Bepi and Mari for some sightseeing. The area Bepi had been thinking of taking us to was closed for a car race, so we diverted to Lovere, a beautiful town on Lago d'Iseo where they we having a festival. The town was so jam-packed that we couldn't find any parking, so we continued on to Sarnico, driving on a narrow, winding road along the western shore of the lake. We walked around Sarnico for a few hours taking in an antique show along the lake.
Getting ready to land soon, so I'll post more about Lisbon tomorrow. I know, I still owe photos of the house....
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