Castles

When Jeff and I took our first overnight trip here in Italy, we went to the Valle d'Aosta and visited 2 castles. Both had their merit, but were not what we were expecting. They were smallish with frescoed walls, built to keep the family protected from anybody using the valley road. These castles I explored yesterday with my friend Linda were built to protect the land lords claim on the land. There were 3 castles in the town of Bellinzona, Switzerland. We loved all 3.
Today I'm back to Olympics on in the background, and getting everything in order to fly to Texas tomorrow.

Milan in August

Milan has a population of 1.5 million. But not in August! We went to dinner Saturday night, an 8PM reservation at Nobu with 2 other couples. Jeff wanted Black Cod and it sounded good, and was, to the rest of us. We were the first table seated that night, though the dining room did fill as the night went on. We also found out that Nobu was closing for the month after that night. And so it goes all over the city. It's hot and a/c in this country is not efficient of effective. By August 15 the city shuts down for a week and most people take a 2 week holiday to the beach. Sunday, I looked at Jeff and said 'what are we doing today?' and he said hanging around and I said NOT! So we hopped the train and went to Como for the day. We took a short cruise of the lake and a funicular to the top of the hill over Como. Jeff discovered 'granites' a slurpee Italian thing. I like the mint flavor and Jeff the orange. It was a good get out of dodge kind of day.

 

The shore along Como on Lake Como