Flying Over the Alps...The Other Direction!

Flying early in the morning from Milan to Zürich was very beautiful. The sun was just peeking over the clouds and the Alps. I took some nice shots from my window.

You can see more photos by clicking here.

Mother and Daughter, Italian Style

This is my friend Cristina and her beautiful one-year-old daughter named Maty. Maty is a delight - not fussy, very cute, and ready to smile back when you smile at her. You can see Cristina and her husband are raising her right!

Cristina is a super-nice, smart and pretty Italian lady who I'm very happy to count as a friend!

The big tree you see here is old. Tradition has it that Napoleon had a special affinity for that tree.

Cortogno Italy Chestnut Festival

This very tall man was a resident of the Cortogno Chestnut Festival in Italy this past weekend. There is nothing better than yummy freshly-roasted chestnuts! There are two varieties there, your normal chestnuts, called castagne, and marroni, which have a thinner, more easily peelable skin, though I found that the meat of the marroni is more apt to crumble easily. Both are quite good, though!

Videos and more photos from the Cortogno Festival can be seen by clicking here!

Francesco

This is my second cousin Francesco, son of my cousin Paola and her husband Dario, who I also consider family as much as a blood relative would be. They are salt of the Earth, a wonderful couple and their home is filled with love. Francesco is a lucky little boy.

More family photos and videos can be seen by clicking here!

Nutty Dog

Klaus, my sister's dog, sure likes nuts. He knows they have a delicious center and is willing to spend time cracking them open with his teeth to get to those yummy innards. Watch the video - Klaus looks pretty funny cracking open that nut!

Alessandro and Lordana

Loredana has been a friend of my sister's since we were teenagers. They still live in Milano, where we also grew up part of our lives. Loredana has also been a friend of mine since we were teens. She married Alessandro and they have two boys.

Today they drove from Milano to visit mom and to see me off before I go home in a couple of days. Of course, they also came to see Sally and everyone else! It was so good to see Alex and Lori again!

Two Confused Kitties

The saga of the kittens continues! My sister has been remodeling the house this year. A few months ago, she had two beautiful arches built into the wall between the entrance hallway and the living room. Bookshelves fill the arches and the idea was to fit them with glass on one side. Today was the day that the glass was put in.

Well...the kittens were born a couple of months ago, way after the arches were built. They had gotten quite used to scampering under the bookshelves through the arches. Suddenly, there is glass where earlier there was just air! They have had the strangest looks on their faces when walking up to the glass, pawing at it, wondering what this strange solid thing is. Play the video too!

Potato Pizza...Why Not?

It's Saturday night, so it's homemade pizza night at my sister's house. She makes everything from scratch and uses a lot of veggies from her garden. The secret to Italian cooking is that everything is super-fresh - nothing canned if possible. No preservatives or additives. Tonight I had a slice of pizza with olives and potato slices. Know what? It was yummy!

Sheepish Area

These sheep, close to my sister's place, are well-protected by the dog who stands guard and herds them when needed. Play the video to see how the dog came after us to warn us not to get to close to that wool and succulent lamb chops!

Yes, You Can Buy Amreican Bread Here

Why would you want to? Dunno...but you can buy that soft white bread that is the mainstay of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hamburgers and hot dogs! I love the labels - enlarge the photo to see them better.

Giorgia's Birthday Party

Giorgia has become a second sister to me and a first to my sister Sally. She is that dear a friend to us. We decided to throw her a birthday party last Saturday and invited several people. She is the sweetest person you could ever meet, bar none (even sweeter than I am!).

More fun photos and a video can be seen here!

Miniature House Show in Bibbiano, Italy

In Bibbiano, there was a show also of miniature houses. Built by hand with meticulous detail, they are real works of art.

A lot more of these photos can be seen by clicking here.

Bibbiano Aritisan Show

My sister's artisan work was proudly on display in Barco di Bibbiano this past weekend. Bibbiano is considered the birthplace of Parmesan cheese, so show some respect! My sister's works were among those of other artisan works, the best in the area. In the first photo, you see several dignitaries from the area, including the mayor of Bibbiano, the gentleman with the tricolor sash. (Mayors here wear the sash for official functions.)

More photos? Click here!

Uncle Attilio and Cousin Arianna

Here I am on the left with my sister Sally, my uncle Attilio and his daughter, my cousin Arianna, and my brother-in-law Settimo. Uncle Attilio and cousin Arianna came to visit from Friuli, an area in Northeast Italy, about five hours' drive from here.

More Photogenic Kitten Pictures

The kittens are still cute!

Oh, wonderful, wonderful, Matildic Territory!

I can't help it. Whenever I visit my sister, I can't help but want to take tons of photographs of the area in which she lives! It's just so beautiful! Aside from the rolling hills of green and vineyards, there's even a castle here and there just to spice things up! This whole area was ruled once by Countess Matilde so the area is called the Territorio Matildico. I've only put one photo from a large batch here but if you want to see more, click here!

Helping my Sister Teach at Fagioli Corp in Calerno, Italy

Last Thursday I helped my sister teach her class at Fagioli Corporation, a worldwide shipping company located in Calerno, not too far from here. I couldn't have hoped for a nicer group of students! The two ladies in the first photo were in the beginner's class and the other students are in the intermediate class. That's my sister posing with them in the photos in which I don't appear.


More photos? Click here!

A Visit to San Benedetto Po

My sister and her Artisan Consortium has a two-month long exhibit at San Benedetto Po, a town about 90 minutes away from where she lives, just over the border in Lombardia (Lombardy) from Emilia-Romagna, the province in which she lives. Emilia-Romagna is right above Toscana (Tuscany). Hey, go look at a map. :-)

Quite a beautiful edifice, isn't it?

It dates from before Columbus.

Note in the second photo how there were two more arched entrances that sometime in the past were filled in with bricks.

My sister Sally is in the fifth photo.

Italian Signs...Just Suggestions Really

See the photo? See the red signs in the middle? Can't see them too well? So look at the second photo for a closeup. What do those signs mean? They mean NO motorcycle parking and NO bike parking here, thank you.

What do you see right below the signs? You see motorcycles. You see bicycles. They are parked.

In Italy, signs are so much fun!

A Stop in Felina (Italy)

On the way to the hospital today, we stopped at the Slow Food fair in Felina near here. The Slow Food fair is in its eighth year and is a backlash against the fast food society, which is unfortunately becoming the vogue in Italy as well, leading to higher rates of obesity and other bad side effects. In the years I've becoming to Italy, the people as a whole have become heavier and heavier, just as we have in the States. There are many wonderful things that other countries have copied from us Americans - this is not one of them!

The fair goes on for three days and today was the last day. It was very nice with lots of booths that had either food (slow, not fast) or artisan designs for sale. There was also a band playing old style music. You can hear the music by playing the short video.

To see more, click here.