A Change of Plans......rainy in Switzerland so headed for Milano!

This post needs to start with an expression of 'craziness' as I am not sure what else to call it.  Andrea and I both contributed to a narrative of this day.......in a wonderful level of detail........and guess what? I accidentally forgot to save it properly and it all went running away from us.......never to return.  We are now going to attempt, with a modicom of patience, to reconstruct what we just spent the last 40 minutes writing.  

As long as we are delving into the subject, I think it is worth saying that the writing of these blogposts requires a certain amount of time and energy.  So why would we devote this time?  Great question, and one which is probably viewed differently by anyone who attempts to chronicle their experiences.  First, we enjoy trying to put into words and images the nature of our travel adventures.  Second, quite honestly we often forget what we did only two days previously!  It is a marvelous characteristic of our age group. 

 Documentation has been a wonderful tool for us in order to not forget.  Many years ago we recorded our trips through journals and travel diaries.  We even got into the process with the kids when we traveled, asking that each of us be responsible for a balanced contribution to the journal.  The kids were wonderful with their narratives, but also with their drawings and sketches.......so fantastic to see what kindles their interests.  We often go back to these journal to extract the details, or just to see what our impressions were.  It is amazing how often we have referenced sites, hotels, restuarants and meals to others taking on similar adventures.  So much of this is just not losing the details of the experience.

Back to the task at hand, this was a great instance of measuring our plans......and deciding that there might be a better approach.  We had been watching the weather closely.  We were totally spoiled by the amazing pattern of sunny days and perfect temperatures in Venice.  This had continued in our visit to Garganano and Lafay.  The upcoming forecast, however, seemed unavoidable.  Heavy rain in northern Italy and Switzerland.  It was even worse in the Lugano region.  We gave this a bit of thought and decided to reconsider our plans.  Lugano was a 3 hour drive from where we were......probably more in the rain and over the circuitous terrain of mountains.  We also came to the realization that getting from Lugano to the Linate airport outside Milan might be more challenging than we anticipated.  Our flight was scheduled for 11:15 on Tuesday, requiring us to drive through Milan rush hour.......and then drop off our car (never simple in Italy) and get to the terminal 2-3 hours ahead of our flight. 

The solution was to reroute our plans.......heading to Milano for two nights......by way of Lecco, a town on Lake Como that we had heard of, but never visited.  It is on the 'east leg' of the lake, whereas our previous explorations had been up the western coast beyond Como itself.   It turned out to be a really pleasant decision.  The drive from Gargnano was only about an  hour. 

This allowed us to relax a bit more at L'Albereta in the morning.  We enjoyed breakfast, and then Fiske headed off to the Spa for a massage.  He actually had a treatment yesterday afternoon, as we had two Spa treatments as part of our package.  As things were evolving here in our plan, I told him to take my appointment and head over again for his second massage!  He gladly accepted.  After the morning 'treatment' we were ready to go.......and checked out around 12:30.  It was difficult to leave!

We headed out through the Franciacorta vineyards and were soon on the autostrada.  The trip to Lecco was only an hour.  While the day was generally overcast, we had no rain and the cloud formations were quite dramatic as we got close to the mountains surrounding Lake Como.  We scouted around a bit and were incredibly fortunate to find a parking space near the center of the historic 'pedestrian' zone of the city.  It's crazy how these things work out, as other outcomes could have had us driving around in circles for who knows how long.

We had a wonderful time drifting through the older part of the city.  The pedestrian only streets were wonderful.  We finally came to a small cafe  that looked good for lunch, and decided to give it a try.  As we sat down, they were serving a wonderful type of pizza to the table behind us.  It looked so good that we asked them 'for one of those!'......not really sure what it was.  It turns out that it was a foccacia/pizza hybrid with brasaeola, tomatoes, arugula and taleggio cheese.  It turned out to be incredible.  The owner of the restuarant came over to specfically ask how we like the cheese.  He said the taleggio cheese came from a farm less than 10 KM from the restaurant.  Apparently, tallegio is produced in the fall and winter season, and this was a fresh provision.  While you can find this cheese in the U.S. at Whole Foods, etc.......it is nothing like this.  Totally incredible lunch. 

After lunch and an espresso, be jumped in the car to tackle the ride into the center of Milan.  It was a crazy ride, although the path was relatively straight.....just a lot of merges on both sides of the road and crazy fast Italian drivers.  We finally made it to the hotel and they took over our car, our bags.....and things suddenly felt more relaxed.   The hotel we chose was not an easy one......so many choices in Milan.  The Principe di Savoie was highly recommended, but we had made the choice on very short notice, and were honestly quite lucky to get a room. 

The room and the service were both amazing.  Everything worked out very well.  A brief aside here.  We had several conversations over the two days we spent here with the staff expressing their appreciation for the fact that we made an attempt to speak in Italian.  Our conversation ability remains fairly rudimentary, but they really do appreciate it when we try to use their language.  This was commented on several times during our stay.

For dinner, we had hoped to eat at a restuarant called Bice.  It is a well-known institution that  has been around for decades.  The concierge tried to get a reservation but the earliest was 9:00.  We opted for another suggestion he made for a fish restaurant called Assunta Madre.  This was attractive as it was withing short walking distance of the hotel.  We are often cautious about 'concierge recommended' restuarants, but this one turned out to be great.  When we got there at 8:00 is was very quiet, but in the next 30 minutes things livened up and by 9:30 it was packed!  

The food was amazing......and the waiter, Mohammed, clearly took a liking to Andrea.  We got great service for the evening.  All in all, a wonderful, totally unexpected turn of events for the day.  We really appreciate how the 'unplanned' arrangements often turn out to be so exceptional.  Detours are wonderful!

It might also be good timing to address a certain aspect of these blogposts........primarily, why are we spending so much time doing this?  Why not relax a bit more?  This is a great question, and one that we wrestle with a bit.  The first response is that we really enjoy recording the details of our adventures.  Quiet honestly, in the flow of our travels we are 'relaxing' or 'diverting' so much that we literally can forget what we did two days ago.  This is probably an unavoidable condition of our status as 'mature' adults!  

We have been doing this for decades. Originally, these recountings were more in the form of journals and diaries, which to some extent are even more meaningful......no keyboard shortcuts.  When we traveled with the kids, everyone had to participate in the "Journal" entries.  We encouranged them to draw pictures if they didn't want to write.  The results are wonderful memories of our times together.......truly a record back into our family adventures which we can access when our brain cells have lost some of their energy!  As the digital world is upon us, this seemed like a convenient transition.  As you can imagine, there are no easy ways out.......and the time commitment remains a major contribution.  This is, however, something that we find incomparable in value. 

Fiske coming back from his morning 'Spa Appointment."  I should mention that most guests here walk around in their white bathrobes all day long........even going to meals for breakfast and lunch........very odd looking, but very cool.  Also, if you are wondering, no underwear under any of these bathrobes!

LECCO

HOTEL PRINCIPE DI SAVOIE

THE BAR......DRINKS AND DINNER AT ASSUNTA MADRE

Exploring Iseo

We have lost our perspective on what is normal in the morning, but suspect we are in a rather leisurely mode these days.  We are sleeping until 8:00 or even 9:00.......which we never do at home.  We are finding ourselves heading down for breakfast approaching 9:30 or 10:00.  We suspect that is evidence of falling into a pattern of relaxation and 'stress-avoidance' if that is possible!

Our plan for the day was to check out an old monastery and head down to the center of Iseo, which is one of the small towns on the bank of Lago d'Iseo......about 7 miles from L'Albereta.  But it is a long 7 miles on some beautiful back roads through the vineyards.

view from our bedroom

MONASTERY OF SAN PIETRO IN LAMOSA

This was an amazing find that was unexpected.  It is a monastery that was started in the 13th century, and while it was adapted over the years, there are some very nice remnants of 15th century frecoes to observe.  Before 1083, for hundreds of years, this place was probably seen and experienced by man as sacred, due to its position and its geographical characteristics, and was the seat of first pagan and then Christian cults. A few decades before 1083 a private church of the feudal de Ticengo family was erected on the area of ​​the monastery. From 1083 to 1535, the small church, donated to the Cluniac monks of the abbey of Cluny, was transformed into a monastery which carried out important religious, economic, social-welfare and cultural functions. 

From 1535 to 1783, the monastery was acquired by the canons regular of San Salvatore di Brescia, who thought of building the chapel in front of the entrance. The prestige previously acquired and the 'Roman' character some new managers favored his election as the parish church of Provaglio. From 1783 to today, the monastery has been almost continuously the private property of the Bergomi family (which later became Bonini-Bergomi); now an important portion belongs to the Valgoglio-Beretta family.

There is a lot of strange history to the site, most prolificall including the stories of the 'Disciplina' commitments to its worshipers.  It initially arose as a small church, just after the year 1000, when Europe came out of medieval lethargy and gave rise to the development that involved the whole world. So much so that the church, which almost immediately passed to the most authoritative monastic order of the time, the Cluniac one, grew rapidly and became a monastery.

In 1536 it became the property of the regular canons of San Salvatore di Brescia and the church was definitively enlarged with the addition of a chapel. From this building there is access to a beautiful cloister and from it to the Discipline of Santa Maria Maddalena, so called because it was the place where the Confraternity of Disciplini met, a movement that practiced rigid practices of mortification of the body to atone for sins.

Let us be clear here.......this was the practice of self-flagelation.......which is discussed openly in the review of the 'disciplina' room......hard to imagine, but not so much if you have seen or read the 'DaVicni Code'  This is crazy, eye-opening stuff!!!

Fall is upon us!

While the roses of summer still hang on

The waterfront in Iseo

always cappucino!

L'Albereta view from upper dining terrace

Lunch on the terrace

followed by dinner later that night! just a wonderful, quiet spot