L took Mark to the airport at 5:00 AM. It was sad to see him go. I didn’t mind coming early a few days because he was headed over to join me soon – but having him leave earlier was a little weird. 🙂

It was seriously cloudy, and raining off and on, but we decided to head up to Lugano, about an hour and a half away, to get a little Switzerland fix. We were so glad we did, despite the weather!

We drove through Lugano to find the funicular to Monte Bre, where Mark and I had driven 30 years ago with Lauren (when she was two – the same age granddaughter Martha is now). We decided it was just as easy (easier, really) to drive up. It was a beautiful 15-minute drive up despite heavy clouds and some rain, and at the top I found the little playground Lauren had played in when we were there. What great memories!

We decided we had just enough time to stop at Villa d’Este on the way back and we had a really lovely time there. The nine euros for the pot of tea was more than worth it for the photo ops and smiles on the faces of George and Martha in particular. What a great moment.

From there we drove back to pick up Luigi and head to a thoroughly enjoyable restaurant (must get name of restaurant and where it was) where we enjoyed typical food from the area – risotto with porcini, a braise with polenta, osso bucco. From there G and L headed back to Milan and we returned to PV.

The rain had cleared the skies and the twinkly lights off in the distance toward Milan were exceptionally beautiful and twinkly and the air was clear and crisp (though still not cold). I use an iPhone 5 to capture pics so can’t adjust shutter speed (though I bet there is an app for that, come to think of it). So the pic of the lights in the distance doesn’t do it justice, but those who were there (and those who go in the future) will have their memories jogged by seeing the last pic in this group.

Lake Lugano

Lake Lugano

Lake Lugano

Lugano

Lake Lugano from Monte Bré

Cemetery at Monte Bré

Up, up, up to Monte Bré, above Lugano

Villa d’Este (on Lake Como)

Villa d’Este

View of Lake Como from Villa d’Este

Lake Como from Villa d’Este

Outdoor cafe at Villa d’Este

George and Martha at Villa d’Este

Back of Villa d’Este

Terri, Mark, George, Martha, Gretchen and I at Villa d’Este

Afternoon tea at Villa de’s

Villa d’Este

Villa d’Este

Driveway of Villa d’Este

Villa d’Este on Lake Como

Grabbed a cappuccino from Fumagalli with Gretch then ran errands (stopped by goat cheese place then on to Leroy Merlin aka Home Depot), then home for lunch.

Sun peeked out late afternoon so we took lots of pics then hopped in the cars and drove to Montevecchia. Gorgeous. Had some gelato and sat on the bench and chatted a good long while. Drove on up to a parking area with beautiful vistas on both sides of the ridge – one toward the mountains to the north and one toward the hills of Brianza to the south.

We then stopped by Melyos, which is essentially a tiny honey shop in the bottom of a house a few minutes from Poggio Verde. Luigi and Gretchen (and their families) have been visiting this little spot for many years – I remember going there with Lauren and Katharine when they were little!  They transport their bees to Tuscany for the winter (lucky bees), where they also have olive groves and produce a nice olive oil.

Pre-dinner lounging in the living room, then pasta in the dining room. More great talking time over pasta, then salad and cheeses, followed by wonderful pear tart from Fumagalli.

Gretchen and George

M and I at Poggio Verde

Luigi and Martha

Mark and Terri

Mark and George

Martha, Terri and Gretchen at Montevecchia

The crew at Montevecchia

Train to Milan, walked down Garibaldi to Obika for lunch (fabulous pizza! And I loved my 2 kinds of mozzarella, veggies and salad). Walked to Brera (art museum and area around it) and La Scala, through the Galleria to Duomo. George & I then took a taxi to Gretchen’s apt, where I had a chat with a young girl who is interested in coming to the states for a couple months this summer to work on her English. The rest of the group arrived by foot shortly after and we spent about an hour at Gretchen’s before heading back to Garibaldi (maybe 10 minute walk) and catching the train back to Cernusco Merate, collecting our cars and heading back to Poggio Verde.

Gretchen and Luigi arrived around 8:15 with veal tonné and we whittled the evening away with extended food prep time (we were trying to grill carrots and discovered the grill wasn’t heating up quite right so brought them in and roasted them the rest of the way… this extended process produced phenomenally tasty carrots, though!). I thought frequently of Katharine and George and the Farm to Table dinner they were doing that evening at Elderslie Farm. Martha had brought Gretchen a box of really nice chocolates from Paris (Debauve and Gallet (?) – there’s a pic of the green-fronted shop in one of the Paris posts) and that made several rounds before we finally stopped and saved her a few. Lovely dinner in dining room, great conversation, including some history of Poggio Verde, and very late to bed. Wonderful, wonderful evening.

Corso di Como shopping bags

Corso di Como umbrella bags

Terri and Martha in Milan

Door on the street in Milan

Centerpiece at Obiká

Terri and Mark at Obika

Another excellent pizza at Obiká

Pizza at Obiká

Pasta at Obiká

Lunch at Obiká

At Obika

Walking in the Brera district of Milan

Hermes shop in Milan

Bike shop in Mmilan

There was some excitement about a shower not draining but other than that the day was pretty calm. 🙂 When Terri and Mark arrived from Malpensa around 12:30 we had some soup Mark had made from the leftover chicken broth and a pre-cut veggies/greens mix we had picked up at Rex Market. We caught up and got acquainted and mostly chatted the afternoon away. We went to Fumagalli around 5:45 for an aperitivo – prosecco and very nice little bar snacks – then came back for a dinner of pasta amatriciana that Mark had put on the stove earlier in the day and was smelling really good…

Denisons dp 5 AM for home (Nashville)

We drove with the Wilsons to Merate, missed 11:31 train and hung out with a cappuccino at the bar waiting for 12:31. Decided not enough time to go to Obika, found a spot near the train station for a bite of lunch that was much better than expected! Walked a bit in Corso di Como, got them to their train to Florence in plenty of time 3:12.

Got an EM from Gretchen that George and Martha had missed their train due to taxi issues and would be arriving 10PM, poor things. They had found a couple of kind souls to send us e-mails from their phones as G&M don’t have that capability set up on theirs.

Kept checking to see if Terri and Mark had arrived at Poggio but no word so started to be concerned. We wandered around a bit then went to Gretchen’s apt to figure out what to do next, decided to train back to Merate, get car and drive back to PV and check to see if they had arrived. No sign of them on arrival at PV.  Got a text soon afterwards that they were arriving the 9th, not the 8th. Big relief. M and I had a couple bites of leftovers then drove back into Milan to get G and M from the train. SO great to see them!

In the entrance of the Corso di Como

The restaurant of the Corso di Como

Outside the Corso di Como

The ossignol bike shop

Along Via Garibaldi