Madonna Della Neve Pettenasco

... is that? I'm naming my next dog that, no offense to him, he's a great guy, but I think as an American I could get away with naming a dog that, but not a child) had to work, so they dropped Meghan and I off at a little town called Orta on their way to work. Orta is on Orta Lake, a tiny lake in comparison to the others (Luisa didn't even know it existed), and is also freakin adorable. We got there early-ish, and as we were walking to the center I decided I needed to ...

The first few photos on this blog are still very much in Switzerland. Day before we left Lucerne we caught a train to Bern, the Swiss capital, and spent a very interesting day there. Got caught up in a political rally, have no idea what the protest was about, but it was a happy protest. Hundred of people singing, blowing whistles, bells, handing out pamphlets (which were in German so we ...

Stresa is a pretty town on Lake Maggiore (lake is part in Italy and part in Switzerland) it is an alpine region so I expect they would be inundated with skiers in winter. There are 3 main islands on the Lake and I spent quite a while walking through the castle and gardens on Isola Bella. The castle was quite ...

... sidewalk cafes lining the piazzas, and sparkling lake nestled between two lush mountains make it a dazzling city. We really didn't do much other than sit outside in piazzas and terraces watching the world go by while we ate delicious food. And I love the Italian language. It is so enchanting. I was tempted to ditch my life in Basel and move to Lugano so I could give up learning German and switch to a much more delightful sounding language ...

... with Karen, our Tauck guide. She gave us a good overview of the city so we would know where things are and how to work the bus ticket machine, if we wanted to go outside the walking distance of the town. We followed a short tour that Fodor’s had in the guidebook, had lunch and then walked back to the boat dock for an excursion to Morcote. This was a long boat ride—almost two hours. One of the popular stops is Gandria, a fishing village. Here, the locals have ...

... At the top of the pass, a rock eagle stands guard looking for invaders. We stopped for a coffee break and then crossed into Italy.

We stopped in Stresa on the shores of Lake Maggiore. Stresa is the home of the Borremeo Family’s summer palace. It is located on an island in Lake Maggiore called Isola Bella. We had lunch at a trattoria before boarding water taxis for the island.

The Borremeo family today ...

So we traveled to many cities in one day. We went on a train ride from Chur to St. Moritz. Love it. Switzerland is so beautiful. I still remembered that one second of the shot of the train with a backdrop of snow and lovely houses :D So what we saw were mountains, village ...

... island is inhabited by some sisters who wanna be
excluded from the world. Okay, monastery is the word for that place.
On that island have many verses in different languages about silence. One
of them I could recall is 'Silence is love'. Hm.. I dunno if I can agree
with that. We looked around that church and I recognized the cross
Borgosesia, Piedmont, Italy astre

... at each other in disbelief.

That said, the chances of Michael Schumacher actually pulling it off were slim. He needed to win the race and Renault’s Fernando Alonso had to finish outside the points completely, and Schumacher was starting from tenth place on the grid. The Ferrari faithful were in full voice early on as he undertook a series of aggressive passing moves to lie in sixth place. But on lap 9 he was forced into the pits with a puncture, and all hope for ...

... that morning. Anne went to breakfast on her own and then joined the others on a boat trip out to the Isola Bella...island home of the wealthy Borromean Princes who still own much of the property around the lake. Napoleon once spent a night there with Josephine. There were over a hundred rooms in this house of which their guide conducted them through 25 of them mostly unfurnished except for one bedroom. Many were underground and therefore cool with rock and ...