October 2024 – Our Travels

The “Pearl”

October 31, 2024November 7, 2024ssolsen12Leave a comment

We’d planned to explore both Como and Bellagio during our stay in Nesso. Our few ventures into Como, however, proved somewhat too challenging for our taste. WOW! What a crazy, bustling city! Instead, we chose to spend a couple of days enjoying the much less busy town of Bellagio – not the one in Las Vegas, but the so-called “Pearl of Lake Como.” Ha, imagine finding a place that has the same nickname as our car!

Having worked our way through the main street of shops in the historic center and checked out the 11th century chapel, then down to the lakeshore area for a late lunch, it was time to return to the car. Whew!

First step, a lot of steps back up to street level!

Not owning a house at the moment, we don’t really have need for a great deal of shopping. Surprise! The next day, we opted to return to Bellagio not for the shops, but for a stroll through the Giardini di Villa Melzi (Gardens of Villa Melzi) instead. The complex was created between 1808 and 1810 for Francesco Melzi d’Eril (1753-1816), Duke of Lodi, vice-president of Napoleon’s Italian Republic and, later, Grand Chancellor of the Kingdom of Italy…and a, oh, well, there’s more, but enough is enough! Most importantly for us, it would close for the season on November 3. Time to go!

Melzi dwelt in the villa until the end of his political career, after which it became his summer home.

_{Not too shabby…}

The villa itself, still privately owned by the family, isn’t open to the public, but there are plenty of grounds to enjoy. One of the highlights is the sprawling, diverse garden filled with loads of majestic century-old trees that are in some cases quite massive. Even better, a great biological garden that included signs on the special plants. Todd loved it. No Todd, we can’t read them all! 🙂

Atlas Cedar that’s way taller than the villa

Scattered through the garden is a fine collection of commemorative and mythological statues.

This fine nobleman was fortunate enough to have his own family chapel on the grounds.

After wandering all through the garden, we hurried back to the car and headed off to find a “nearby” restaurant named Trattoria Baita Belvedere, enthusiastically recommended by the kind agent at the gate as her “favorite.” She failed to mention, however, that it is located near the top of a mountain. A wonderful drive until the last mile or so of the skinniest “one lane” road to date! Thank goodness Todd doesn’t have much because it was absolutely hair-raising! NO pictures were captured on the way up. (Breathe, Honey….)

Near the end, it seemed even this guy was chuckling.

But make it we did.

That’s our spiffy blue Renault parked in the “lot” at the top of the mountain.

UGH. Do we have to drive back down? NAH. It must be a one-way drive up & another down (he says, optimistically…)

One thing at a time. How about lunch?

Corner table with a view
(Villa Melzi marked by the arrow)

Our friendly young server, Francesco, delivered a spectacular lunch along with plenty of local knowledge and basics he felt we needed to know. In fact, we closed the joint while pondering (putting off?) the drive back down. Eventually, we really had no choice but to hit the road. Francesco assured us that we shouldn’t meet anyone coming up since the restaurant was now closed until 7pm. Todd thinks he winked. 🙂

Fingers crossed that we wouldn’t meet anyone

Whew! That’s a relief. Now that we’re back to the main road, let’s stop for a few supplies.

Sure. It’s right here in town, on this oh-so-wide road
Ha! 🙂

Wait. Are those “whacks” on the lefthand side??

Italian beef

October 30, 2024November 2, 2024ssolsen12Leave a comment

As we settled in last week, luck would have it, so did a lazy rain. Yup, you know, one of the kinds that drizzles on for a couple of days, or in this case more than a couple. It was fine as we were just getting used to the new world in which we landed.

It’s rumored that the villa below us and to the right belongs to George Clooney. Although that may very well be just something to tell the tourists, it didn’t stop one of us from keeping an eye out over there. 😉

We managed to sneak out between showers to drive to Como for shoes because SOMEONE actually “forgot” theirs. Oh geez… in the 15 plus years of our life together, we used to laugh at the number of times Todd forgot a belt. Well, the new Todd remembered those; this time it was his shoes! He wore only sneakers and flip flops, much to his own chagrin. He feels like an “idiota,” but luckily, we found a nice pair on our first stop!

Into every life, a little rain must fall

The clouds and rain continued as we made a quick stop at our favorite market, the Granmercato, on the way back to the rental. Hence, we tucked back in for a couple more days.

Good thing there’s the awesome view of Lake Como, right?

One never really knows what they will obtain when renting a small house. Kitchens come in all shapes and sizes. Fortunately, it’s one of the many things we enjoy about traveling and exploring – and the adventure of just cooking? Fuhgeddaboudit! We can always throw together a tasty pasta dish. Oh, and one little espresso pot waters down nicely into two lovely cups of coffee. Ha!

A few days in, the weather cleared enough for our Todd to try his hand at the BBQ down in the garden. Armed with a hunk of beef worthy of Fred Flintstone, off he went to evaluate the situation. Turned out that one ribeye was a thick one, weighing in at 1 kilo (2.2 lbs)!

This Italian life in the lake district requires steps, lots of them. In fact, 35 down from the road to our front door, and the grill is down a couple more long flights, into the back yard.

With no luck finding grill tools in the house, Susie headed downstairs with the longest fork and spoon available in the kitchen, basically a small salad serving set.

To set the proper perspective, the long path to the grill goes like this:

Out the front door, past the 35 stairs that lead up to the parking pad

The owners had provided lump charcoal and all the wood anyone could need. Lump doesn’t start quickly, but nothing a good fire can’t handle. So, Todd began the process saying, “That steak’s gonna need a good hot fire!”

Finding the proffered tablespoons ill-suited for the task, Todd headed back into the “shed” area

Undaunted – and actually having fun – he went back to work and got a “proper” fire burning. (Yes, the grill has a plant growing around it.)

Fiddle with this and that, and we have Step One:

Getting a good fire to burn down to wonderful coals took long enough that the sun set before the cooking could begin. Have no fear, armed with cellphones, a small light, and some wooden spoons, that chunk of beef would absolutely get cooked, and it WOULD be delicious (declared Todd).

And just what was Susie doing this whole time?

Hey! You mean besides photo journaling, running back and forth up and down the stairs to fetch things, cook the sides, set the table, uncork the wine, etc.?

Well, drooling, of course.

When we finally sat down to dig in, the meal was absolutely “delizioso.” A bit late, perhaps, but perfect. Wait, we’re in Italy. It wasn’t late; it was right on time, speaking from our new world perspective. In fact, that steak was great for several days!

To cap things off, the sun came out the next glorious day and we could finally do a bit of laundry, Italian style!

Supposedly photographing the sheets & clothes drying on the terrace

And that, friends, ends our tale of “Italian beef!” 😉

Hey, Italy’s to the east…

October 24, 2024October 24, 2024ssolsen123 Comments

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

After enjoying a few days in Longview, TX with friends Terry and Lynn, we garaged our trusty steed(-ette?) Pearl in her temporary digs at their place. On the way to a wedding in Dallas Saturday, they then dropped us at a hotel near the Dallas Fort Worth Airport.

Amazing planning by the super planners!

Sunday afternoon we flew to Atlanta to catch a long flight across the ocean all the way to Milano, Italy. The vagabonds are cruising by air! Luckily, we didn’t have anyone next to us on the 9-hour leg. That’s a long way! But arrival was exciting, and customs was a wonderful non-event.

At the gate in the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport

After securing our suitcase (Score! No lost luggage!), we followed the signs to the “Noleggio Auto” in the airport, pulled a number and settled in for a bit of a wait.

Once handed the key to a snazzy blue Renault, we hit the road amongst a plethora of signs, all unreadable to these Americanos. Fortunately, many of the important ones are symbols: Stop, Yield, Merge, Do Not Enter, No Parking, etc. (And at least the Italians drive on the right. Ha!) Through the magic of cellphone navigation (yeah, T-Mobile!), – not to mention, we are so young and cool 😉 – we found a mobile phone store in Milano and picked up a local Tourist SIM card for our spare phone. Poor handsome dude spoke a smattering of “Inglese” to help us now somewhat babbling oldsters.

The next task was even more challenging – find a market and purchase enough food to scrounge up dinner and breakfast at the rental so we could get some much-needed sleep before facing a larger provisioning trip. That first attempt at grocery shopping was certainly entertaining… until our “young cool side” remembered that crazy cellphone. We are now learning how to make the best use of Google Translate. And it’s Fantastico!

As to driving? Nothing like going rapidly from 85+mph (135+ kph) to a crawl (and everything in between) whilst operating a manual stick in a foreign country. Yahoo! Navigating through and around Milano’s larger roads turned out to be good training for things to come when we reached the Como area. Mamma mia!

About an hour outside of Milan, we were rewarded with our first glimpses of the famous Lake Como!

Another 30-minutes of increasingly narrow, twisting roads and several hairpin turns up the mountain (double mamma mia!), and we found our first home away from home between Como and Belagio.

We’ve spent our first few days sleeping, provisioning, sleeping, enjoying the view, sleeping, and getting used to things. We can’t wait to explore and share the adventure. For now, arrivederci, one and all!

Starting east

October 19, 2024January 26, 2025ssolsen12Leave a comment

Once we wrapped up with Mochi and Kim in Colorado Springs, it was time to begin our trip back east.

Before we could leave Colorado, however, we wanted to make the drive to the summit of Pike’s Peak. Had to check out the view from the top!

Pikes Peak is the most well-known of the “fourteeners” (mountains over 14k ft tall). Of the 96 in the US, 58 are in Colorado! And at 14, 115 ft, Pikes is only the 30th tallest in the state. Wow!

From the entrance gate of “America’s Mountain,” we began our ascent among the switchbacks.

The drive twisted up & up, looking w-a-a-y down from where we started…

At the top, we donned jackets against the 30-degree temperature change, stepped out of the car and realized catching one’s breath at 14k feet is no easy feat! Once we did so, we could enjoy the breathtaking scenery and the world-famous donuts, made since 1916 with a special recipe to combat the thinner air and less pressure.

For big brother Mike, yes, there are rumors of Big Foot, even way out here. 🙂

Despite the warnings, however, we did not spot Big Foot on the drive.

Hard to top that, right? But we had to move on, so we wrapped up departure day by driving through the mountains and the big gold mining area of Cripple Creek, the largest in Colorado, with more than 23 million ounces recovered from the district since 1890. But no, “we ain’t there to see gold.” We planned to visit another of Thomas Dambo’s trolls. Why, might one ask? Because her name is Rita! Rita the Rock Planter. Having been introduced to the Danish artist’s trolls outside Louisville, Kentucky in May when we visited the Forest Giants at the Bernheim Forest and Arboretum, we couldn’t pass up Rita.

The next morning, before hitting the road, we hit the trail to take in more Colorado views.

From Wiki – “The trail was originally the site of a wooden irrigation canal that also supplied water to Cañon City. It was built in the late nineteenth-century… and the city stopped using the canal in 1974.”

We noticed a fascinating thing along the trail. Blown by the almost constant wind, some of the plants are trying to sweep away the mountain!

After our morning walk, we were off on the week’s road trip, during which we checked off three more states: Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas!

We didn’t hustle, and needless to say through the miles of mostly flat cow country and dozens of giant feed lots, we still paused for a few touristy highlights. (It’s what we do. 😉 )

On this leg of the journey east, the goal was to meet up with friends Terry and Lynn. Wherever we’ve been in our travels, we’ve found that Texans are proud of their state, and they are no exception, gladly showing off their piece of paradise.

Thank you, Terry & Lynn, for the warm welcome to Longview and introduction to Ms. Barbara and Shawn. It was a pleasure!

What exactly is a Mochi?

October 12, 2024October 15, 2024ssolsen122 Comments

After the slight timeout for Todd to sacrifice a “spare part” (apparently the gallbladder isn’t all that essential), we made it to Colorado Springs, and the house/pet-sitting finally began. Yes! We spent a month in scenic Colorado Springs, where Kim’s lovely home is situated on a mesa (flat mountain) with gorgeous views in all directions.

One’s perspective changes here. At 6,000 feet, Colorado Springs is higher than the famous “Mile High City” of Denver and heck, we are higher than just about all the mountains in the east! And from here, the long line of amazing mountains in the distance soars another 6,000 to 8,000 feet above you for miles on end. One wonders about those pioneers that didn’t just stop but instead found a way through! Heck, it’s Sept/Oct and we’ve already seen snow on the top of Pikes Peak from here.

We could also peer out at the mountains in the other direction while enjoying the pretty landscaping in the front courtyard, where the brave hummingbirds entertained us with their antics among the flowers.

Early morning hot air balloons in the distance

On our daily walks with Mochi, we enjoyed sharing the mesa with the Magpies and several large-eared mule deer who call the area home.

Like the hummingbirds, the mule deer were seemingly unafraid. In fact, we didn’t really have to go for a walk to find them. They’d find us, stopping by to look in the bedroom or sunroom windows.

“*Hello, I know you’re in there. I can* **hear** *you.*“

So, back to just what is a Mochi. Well, in this instance it is an adorable 12-pound ball of loveable furriness, not a sweetened ball of Japanese rice.

We’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Too cute, right? 🙂

Once she got back home, Kim – with Mochi glued to her side lest she disappear again – insisted we not miss the splash of Colorado fall color and shooed us out of the house to visit Mueller State Park. Off we went. Water bottles? Check. Hiking boots? Check. Something warmer than shorts & summer shirts? O-o-o-o-ps.

It was nearing 80 degrees in Colorado Springs but in the mid-50’s up on the mountain, and our jackets were at the house, 45-minutes away. Fortunately, Todd remembered the small vacuum-packed bag of winter clothes still in the car. A quick change in the restroom and we were ready to hike… with long johns hanging out from under our summer attire. Oh well, you do what you gotta do. 🙂

After the celebration dance at the top, we continued on, as advised by the kind woman at the visitor center, who promised a fabulous view from the ridge. Or perhaps she was just trying to get rid of the goofy looking tourists…?

Mochi, not to be outdone, gamely joined us for a “hike” near the house a couple of days later.

Todd, Kim & Mochi on the trail
When she got tired, it was time to go… into the backpack
After the somewhat comical “carefully-shove-the-pup-into-the-bag” process, it was all smiles for that plan

From Kim’s backyard, we could see the standing rocks of the Garden of the Gods in the distance, so we took a ride one afternoon to see them up close. More than 1,300 acres of the prettiest, jagged-ish, rugged-ish stuff around, given to the city of Colorado Springs in 1909 by the children of Charles Elliott Perkins in fulfillment of his wish that it be kept forever free to the public. Wow.