Pay it Backwards

Lovin' the Swiss Alps

An Alpine Village

Thursday we headed over to the Forest Fun Park where they have a variety of ropes courses.   Vivian had a blast on the Junior adventure park, and conquered all three ropes courses (each one progressively harder than the last).  Matt stayed with Vivian and helped her on the kids course for a while before beginning his adventure.  Isabella and I set off for the green course, then advanced to the red course.  The ropes courses were fun, and challenging – our favorite part of the courses – ziplining of course!  This is the Forest Fun Park, and a few pictures of Ella conquering the ropes course and one of the zip lines... 

After the park we headed back for a little down time at the hotel and then spent some time touring Zermatt.  Zermatt is a quaint little ski village that boasts its Alpine character at every turn.  I know believe that every other ski town I’ve ever been to is designed to look and feel like Zermatt.  We didn’t think it was going to be possible for us to find another town we loved as much as Stresa, and we definitely did with Zermatt.  Here are a few pictures of the town. (okay due to technical difficulties I am only posting one - hopefully I will be able to update this post with a few more pics soon.)

Thursday night we had a great dinner and then the kids went off to watch Peter Pan while the adults all relaxed and enjoyed a few drinks – it was a great relaxing evening.   Then time to pack up again and head to our next destination on Friday.

Wednesday morning we had to get up early, to depart for Zermatt, Switzerland – home of the famous Matterhorn Mountain.  The drive was amazing.  Crossing the border into Switzerland, is more comparable to passing through a toll both on the I-88 tollway in Illinois then crossing the border of another country. This is entering Switzerland;

 

 

Once we passed into the Swiss border (after about 30 minutes) the scenic view became amazing snow capped mountains, highlighted by waterfalls, unbelievable.  We stopped at Simplon Pass (altitude 6500 ft)  and took a few photos of the alps.  They also had a drinking fountain of “fresh” water that was delicious and so amazingly cold you would swear it should be frozen.

Once back on the bus we headed to Tasch where we boarded a train for Zermatt.  One interesting fact about Zermatt is it is pollution free.  As part of this policy they only allow electric vehicles.  Once in Zermatt we went straight for cheese fondue, but we had our first glimpse of the Matterhorn right outside the restaurant before entering.

 

Then we headed to check into our hotel the Alpine Resort.  Here’s our hotel and the view from our balcony.  Melissa, do you know where Isabella is supposed to send the picture of herself with her Camp Wapsie T-shirt on while traveling?

Then we headed up to Glacier Point, to see the Matterhorn up close, from 12,700 ft.  

After a quick break we were onto our next adventure.  One I’m not sure we will ever top.  We took a cable car up to Riffleberg, a scenic view point in the Swiss Alps in front of the Matterhorn, and well here is what we did?

Here is Vivian

And Isabella

Matt

And my foot with Matt in the distance

And the girls in front of the Matterhorn

Check out Matt's video at

http://www.youtube.com/user/IguanasCbc#play/uploads/0/GV6RWJWHp34

My only question is if you went paragliding at age 6 or 8 what would you be doing by age 36 or 39?.....

 

 

Lake Como and our last day in Italy

Our last day in Italy.

Tuesday morning we headed over to Lake Como.  Once we arrived, we were greeted by a local tour guide, Roberta.  As we embarked on a boat cruise of Lake Como she told us a about the history and pointed out a few interesting details about various villas.  Below are a few pictures from the lake.

 

 

This lake is a playground for the rich and famous, and many celebrities from around the world have vacation homes here, or stay at their luxury resorts (according to Roberta the nicest hotel in the world is located on Lake Como – Robert DeNiro was currently in residence there).  Someone else in residence at their vacation home – George Clooney – here are a few pictures of his place.  This is George Clooney’s guest house, his boat dock and park are directly to the right.  See the people at the boat ramp…. George????

Here you can see Clooney’s guest house on the left, a park on the right, and George’s house further to the right.  He has a third house, behind his main house, that is a studio, and additional guest space.  I guess the nicest hotel in the world is still not accommodating enough for everyone….

This villa we saw first from the lake is where we are headed next, for a pasta making class, and lunch.

 

Here we are at “Our villa”  learning to make pasta.  Vivian rolled out some dough into a long thin strip and here she is cutting it into pieces to make gnocchi, look at the concentration on her face!  People loved how committed Vivian was to the excellence of her work.

Next Ella went up and had to separate eggs using the egg shells – a task difficult for many adults, but she and Dani (a 12-year old girl) rose to the challenge.  They were giggling in seconds, trying to figure out how they were supposed capture just the yolk for the pasta while discarding the egg whites.  After a while they just broke the eggs and scooped the yolk out of the bowl with their hands.  (No we did not actually eat this pasta we mae– it was for “educational” purposes only).  Anyway here she is with an egg yolk in her hand.

 

Matt and I were next and we both had a chance (separately) to roll out the dough and then feed it through the pasta maker until it was thin enough to thread it through a final attachment that would cut it into fettucine.

We all had lunch at the villa which was fantastic (the same recipes we had just learned although these were made by the professionals)  then we went out the garden terrace for a few photos, I love this one of the girls.

 

 

After lunch we went back into Como (the town) and had some free time to look around.  Here are a few pictures taken in Como. 

 Our last stop in Como for the day… Gelato.  We did manage to eat gelato once a day while in Italy – YUM.We arrived back in Stresa around 6:30 and the girls took one last dip in the indoor grotto pool.   The pool area has secret buttons that are hidden around the pool if you push them it make jets in the pool turn on, or water spray from a hidden fountain, one even make a rain cloud above your head rain.  (In the first picture you can see the “cloud” it’s the rock formation hanging from the ceiling on the right hand side of the picture) The girls loved the pool.  The pictures from down there didn’t come out great because of the low lighting, but here are a few.

 

After dinner we went into town for our final Italian meal of Pizza at Mama Mia’s, and then packed up for Switzerland.

 

 

 

 

More from Italy

More from Monday

 

 

My favorite part of Monday.  Rosaria.  After we returned from Isola Bella we went to a local wine shop.  The kids had juice, snacks, then colored and glittered t-shirts, while the adults participated in a wine tasting, had a few local delicacies, and heard Rosaria’s stories.  Rosaria has owned the wine store for 48 years, which she now runs with her husband, four daughters, and son.  The wine and local delicacies were great, we tried 10 year balsamic vinegar which was more like syrup and about 10 times better than any balsamic vinegar I’ve had, fresh jams, olive oil, and a unique recipe of tomatoes and capers.   Rosaria, told us about the wines, how balsamic vinegar is made, and various tidbits about the other items we were tasting, and then she told us about growing up in Stresa.  Rosaria was born in 1938, and she told us stories about living in Stresa during WWII.  The poverty that she experienced was far more severe than anything we could imagine.  She told us everyday the kids would wait in a long queue for a cup of milk that was for the entire family to share for that day.  After they spent hours waiting in line they would hurry home, the house had to be shut up, sheets hung over the windows in case the soldiers came through at night – they never came during the day.  But one day as they were waiting in line they heard soldiers coming, they were worried because they shouldn’t be outside when they arrived, but the adults running the milk line said its okay these soldiers are different.  Then as the soldiers approached they could hear that they were singing in a language they did not understand, they thought maybe it was Italian (they were not aloud to speak Italian during the war and instead they spoke what Rosaria called a dialect called Tarush (not sure on spelling) any way it bears little resemblence Italian so they would not have known Italian to hear it, they were however speaking English).  As the soldiers passed through they could see that they were chewing, and chewing, and since the kids were starving they went up to the soldiers and tried to tackle them and make them give them what they had – it was chewing gum.  They gave them some and tried to explain to them not to swallow it, but they were so hungry they would chew it, swallow it and ask for more.  The soldiers then stayed in the area for a while and everyday they would go to where they were and beg for food, they would always give them something.  Even though she said they were not nice to the soldiers,  she said we were thieves we would steal anything and everything we could – food, clothes, even guns one time.  Rosaria knew how to tell the stories too, in such a way that was not sad or depressing – but more like action/adventure stories of how she overcame her situation.  I asked her when did things change for you, she said 1954 when she was sent away to a school to learn English.  I love traveling, and for me, my favorite part is always the fascinating people I meet and the stories they have, fascinating.  This is Rosaria…

 Matt and I enjoying the wine

Monday night we went to the Monterossa Family Farm for dinner.  Getting there is once of the interesting parts of the experience.  It is located on the opposite side of Lake Maggiorre at the top of the one of the hills.  We had to take small taxi’s to get up because there are over 50 switchbacks on the road that climbs the hill (this is not exaggerating)  and some of the turns are so tight the taxi’s had to make three point turns just to get down the switchback.  Also it’s a two way road with one lane, so if you meet a car one of you must back up until you get to a point that one can pass.  At the farm the kids rode horses and then we had an incredible traditional Italian dinner – lasting for hours.   All the food they serve is made at the farm – from the veggies to the meats, the bread, tomato sauces is fresh very delicious.  Here are a few pics of the girls riding ponies;

Monday night we got back, put the kids to bed then Matt and I enjoyed a bottle of wine in our room with the balcony doors open enjoying the music from a few floors below.

 

I realize now that I am behind, no worries I will get caught up, but I must still post in order.  Off to paraglide – but wait that’s not until Wednesday that story will be coming (yes all four of us our going, let’s see how many of us actually do it!)

Benvenuto!

Welcome to Stresa!  WOW!  When we decided on this trip I had never even heard of Stresa, Italy, and then I read about it and thought it sounded like a “nice place to visit”.  Then we saw pictures of it, and a few people (including my Grandmother) told me about Stresa and I became more excited to see what I was sure to be a charming town.  But describing Stresa as a nice place to visit or a charming town, would be like describing Pavarotti as a decent singer.  This is Stresa, as seen from the balcony of our hotel;

and at evening

This is our hotel;

And a view from the streets in Stresa

Yesterday after we arrived we had dinner at a place our guides recommended called Pappagallo’s, and for our first meal in Italy we had, what else but, PIZZA!  And it was great – completely different from home – and the place was exactly what you would picture the traditional Italian pizza place to look like;

The rest of the day was a nap, swimming at the grotto pool in the hotel basement (more about that later) and a dinner at our hotel with the group we will be touring with for the next 8 (now 7) days before we strike out on our own to Germany.  This morning after a quick run (I ran at 7am and found the streets EMPTY, Matt left for a run when I returned at 8am and was able to found a few people about, but not many).  Vivian drove us on a boat over to Isola Bella Island (the island seen above in the pictures from our balcony).

Isola Bella is an island that in 1632 was a large rock, but the Borromeo family (a very wealthy merchant family) saw potential for this island and purchased it to turn it into an island shaped like a ship (see the pictures of the terraced garden that represent the tiers of a ship).  When Carlos Borromeo, III purchased the island in 1632 he named it after his wife Isabella D’Adda, but chose to call it simply Isabella.  A few hundred years later once the gardens were complete the towns people began to called it Isola Bella which means beautiful island, but is also derived from Isabella.  Our Isabella loved this and was very excited today when she found a tank top embellished in rhinestones with a heart and Isola Bella on the front.  The palace and gardens were amazing.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace but here are a few pictures of the gardens;

We all miss everyone (the girls oscillate between having the time of their lives, and wanting to go home and see their friends), but at the same time we are wondering, wouldn’t it be nice to live in Italy…..

And We're Off....

 So this is what it looks like to travel overseas these days.  Between the cameras, computers, phones, ipods, and DS's, and Kindles, we should have this trip well documented, be able to stay connected, and be thoroughly entertained, at least that is the goal...  For the next 15 days we will be updating this blog from Italy, Switzerland, and Germany.  Right now we are at the Atlanta airport, fueling up (eating and drinking) and gearing up for our 10 1/2 hour journey to Milan, followed by an hour or two to Stresa, Italy our first destination.  Thanks for joining us, and keep us connected to all of you at home by sending us messages, we're going to miss you!  :-)