Oct 7, 2014 – Laura’s B-day, Teresa di Fragole, Cloudy Como

Happy Birthday to Laura! Charlie made us “Charlie Eggs” (eggs and whatever’s in the fridge) – great start to the day!

Gretchen had to have her car serviced in the area so she joined us for lunch at Teresa di Fragole in Vigano. Lovely little spot where a woman grows veggies and uses them in her very nice dining room. I loved the setup of her “salad bar”… prepared veggies of all kinds, with options of vinegars and olive oils to dress them as you wish. Her lunch options were all of veggies.

We drove with the Wilsons to Como while the Denisons took an afternoon to chill before an early departure the next morning. Nasty traffic departing Como around 5:30, NB. Arrived home around 7:30, Denisons had gone to Rex and made a lovely dinner of shrimp, salad, etc. We pulled out leftovers.

Charlie Eggs in process
Mark & Laura at Teresa di Fragole in Vigano
Oggiono
Street outside wine shop in Oggiono
Wine Shop in Oggiono (near Villa d’Este)
Oggiono (near Villa d’Este) on Lake Como

 

 

Oct 6, 2014 – AM Walks, Piani d’Erna

Mark, Laura and Nancy took a walk into town and then Mark and Charlie and I walked down the road to the cascina then left and up the ridge (awesome!) and back around. GREAT walk!

Lunch in (pasta with tuna and tomatoes then salad/cheese) then drive to Piani d’Erna (above Lecco). Hard to find the exit as GPS goes out under the tunnel. 🙂 Made a couple of wrong turns but got there and it was well worth it! Stunning. Parked and took the funicular up, walked around, took a short hike, Charlie looked for birds. Beautiful. Stopped at Rex in Oggiono on the way back, then at the Sports store on the north side of Barzi to look for bocce, but no luck. Charlie got foosball balls, though.

Charlie determined to gather us in the living room for cocktails – great idea. Painting discussion. Lovely dinner of mushroom risotto, then salad, then the cheese we had bought at the little cheese shop near Montevecchia along with a couple others.

Charlie found some piano music and we sat and chatted while I plunked out Chopin’s #1, then we played a little Christmas music and Mark D pulled out his penny whistle. 🙂

Map of hikes around Piani d’edna
The funicular (cable car) up to Piani d’edna (above Lake Lecco)
Another view from the top (Lake Lecco)
View from the top of the cable car
View from the top
View from near the end of the nature trail
Near the top of the nature trail at Piani d’Erna
Piani d’Erna (nature trail)
Friends on the Piani d’Erna nature trail hike
On the nature trail
On the nature trail
Another beautiful view from Piani d’Erna nature trail
Another view from nature trail
The nature trail
Another view near the end of the trail
Piani d’Erna view
Piani d’Erna nature trail
Trail options
Options for hikes at the top
Piani d’Erna view

Mark Denison’s pics today:

The entrance
The driveway to the villa
The villa and the “portico coperto”
The back of the villa
On the path behind the villa
Great spot for reading

Oct 5, 2014 – Fumagalli, Badminton, Montevecchia

Cappuccinos, Fumagalli when Wilsons woke up, Rex for provisions (and adventure), walk around Poggio Verde, badminton (highly amusing), lunch (pasta w tomatoes, basil, Mozzarella; salad), drove to Montevecchia. Beautiful. Back to prepare dinner, G & L arrived. Luigi tour of PV house, fun stories.

Wonderful dinner (roast chicken, beans, potatoes, salad) and conversation: G about TCF, L about his blog, etc. Gretchen shared a sample of the toffee she had commissioned Fumagalli to make for the Citizens Foundation as a fundraiser. Great fun!  G and L returned to Milan after dinner; hope to see them later in the week and/or next weekend.

Lunch in the “portico coper to”
Wilsons, Denisons, Wencels at Montevecchio
Mark, Charlie and Mark
Brothers in law
Mark and Gretchen

Oct 4, 2014 – Arrivals!

Woke up in the Paris apt and checked email to make sure the Wilsons had made it on the plane in Chicago toward MXP – they were on their way. Whew.
George and Martha arrived at the Paris apartment from CDG around 8, then she and I popped down to get croissants and also some baguettes for the train. We had a cup of cafe au lait and chatted while Mark finished packing. We got their phones situated and talked about a few things they could do today, or while they are there, and then M and I left for Gare du Lyon.
Left the apartment, got a great shot of G and M in the window above, then walked across the river and up a couple blocks by the St Germain Auxerrois church – so beautiful!). We caught the metro at the southeast corner of the Louvre (Louvre/Rivoli) and it took us straight to Gare du Lyon without any changes. Last year we didn’t know about this easy possibility and we made two train changes with George and Katharine and Martha and their luggage and ours. And a stroller. Lots of stairs. It was very, very impressive and I wonder if George has forgiven us yet. I fear that might have been his introduction to Paris… not good!  We had such a great time with them there otherwise, though. 🙂
Anyway, the train to Milan leaves from Hall 2 so we walked through the old station to this newer area. We waited for the sign to tell us which track and when the number 21 came up about 20 minutes before our departure, we started walking toward our train car, which was quite a long way…
It was another beautiful day so the views out the windows were quite beautiful. Part of the time we took some empty seats on the other side of the train with a bigger window (and facing forward).
We had a good little picnic of the remaining Bresaola, the bread from this morning, the remaining grapes and the last of the Trefle de Perche (a new-ish goat cheese that we tried last year and really enjoyed). Mark played a bit of Angry Birds…
Pulled into Stazione Garibaldi on time (5:51), waited a few minutes for a taxi, which took us within a few blocks of Gretchen’s apartment (a touch painful not to at least stop by) and to Linate (noted Saturday afternoon is a good time to cross Milan!). We walked up to the Budget counter and Charlie and Nancy were there. I thought they would’ve had about an hour wait but they had just arrived. It turns out that the bus I had researched to get them from Malpensa actually only runs a couple times a day so they had had to get a bus to Centrale and then a bus to Linate.
We picked up our car and headed toward Barzano. Only made one wrong step (missed the Tangenziale leaving Linate and had to turn around – no biggie) and arrived by 8:00 or so. Mark and Laura were there and they had only been here about 30 minutes. It all worked out great! Turns out, though, that they were looking for a house with #1 Poggio Verde (which is the address to use to look up the villa on google maps). Fortunately Sergio, who lives here full time, passed by and helped get things sorted out. He called Gretchen to confirm they were supposed to be here and then let them in. 🙂
We pulled out food we had brought from Paris, along with the items Mark and Laura had picked up at a market on the way (I sent them a list in case they had time to do that) and we had a wonderful dinner of prosciutto cotto, bresaola, salad, bread.) The Wilsons were remarkably awake right up to bedtime!
George and Martha on their arrival and our departure from Paris

Oct 3, 2014 – Last Day in Paris

Checked in with Mark and Laura Denison, who are driving from Bolzano in the Dolomites to Poggio Verde tomorrow. Had great fun studying the google maps to determine the most fun route – they were up for taking more time and going through the mountains. They were going to consider coming through Sondrio and then when I looked at the map and realized they could add another 20-30 minutes and go through St Moritz we got very excited for that possibility. We’ll see which one they ended up doing…
Walked around Thermes of Cluny with M, then he went over to look in Vieux Campeur and I walked down St. Michel, across the Seine, through the Chatelet to the little children’s clothes store I like. Found some possible jams and slippers for Martha but couldn’t decide for sure. So decision-challenged. Stopped at Zara on way back home to meet M for lunch but didn’t have drivers license or passport so couldn’t use credit card. I forget they always ask.
Lunch was so tasty – the usual. Pate from the little butcher shop outside the Rue de Seine entrance to Carrefour and all the other stuff… salad, cheese, wine.
M went for ride, we agreed to meet at Luxembourg pond. I stopped by Gibert Joseph (the basement has a very nice selection of toys and books. Found a fun little thing for Martha.
Walked up toward Luxembourg Gardens (new streets – it’s our goal to hit as many new streets as possible this time instead of staying on the same familiar paths) and found Mark. Another gorgeous sunny day! Walked down another new way toward Mephisto and they had the boots M had encouraged me to get a couple days previous. First pair of boots. Like, ever. Or maybe I had some white ones in junior high – not sure. Maybe I’m thinking of the white ice skates…).  Anyway, now I have some boots.
Stopped in at Descamps and there was a sale on towels so M picked up a couple washcloths. On the way back we stopped by Monoprix and picked up a couple of lamb chops to have our leftovers with. On the way back we stopped by Derniere Goutte where they were tasting a Chablis and a Cairanne. Nice but decided to crack open one of the Saint Cosme bottles we had stashed in our box in the closet at the apartment. It was wonderful!
Mark cooked the lamb, the rest of the potatoes and heated up the cherry tomatoes and had a salad (and cheese!). We cleaned up the items in the fridge as much as we possibly could and figured we’d take them with us tomorrow and do what we could to keep cleaning them up on the train.
We checked on Martha and George (flight on time – even early – from Atlanta) and Charlie and Nancy (the “early” flight they had taken to avoid the FAA problems in Chicago from the fire in their tower was more than an hour late but they still had a 7 hour wait in Chicago after that. This after Charlie couldn’t get back to Wichita from Des Moines the night before so he rented a car and DROVE. Their adventure started early).