Ciao!

Hello all!

 

Russ, I think we're experiencing heat like y'all have down in Florida... whew!  Has it ever been warm... and muggy.... with no air moving... at all!  Well, sort of....

 

We arrived in Como on tje 25th.  we made it up to our little hotel WAY up above the city of Como by hiring a taxi.  The road rivaled Hawaii and any other interesting, windy, hairpin turn, single lane (but supposed to be double!) roads you can think of.  It was one of those faith building experiences.... faith in God and in your driver!

 

We wandered around looking for a restaurant other than the one in our hotel for Valerie's Birthday dinner (she turned 16!!!!), but everything was closed, so we ended up back at our rather fancy dining room.  I had buffalo milk mozarella cheese and tomatoes for dinner, Heath and Val and Gradnma had traditional pasta food, that Heather says was REALLY good (my and A. Cherille's cheese and tomatoes were good too, different, but good).  Then we had dessert and had our waiter put candles on Val's gelato and strawberries.  They brought it out and we started singing, and then a large table of older gentlemen staerting singing with us, and the people out on the veranda too, and everyone cheered and clapped at the end of the song when she blew ut the candles.  and then our waiter brought a bottle of sweet dessert wine to our table and said "vone of ze gentlemen at zat big table is a fan of yourz, and he makes zis wine, no?  he is produzer, and he vants you to have it for a birthdaty gift, you vant?"  We graciously accepted, so they brought out wine glasses and filled them up, and we all toasted Val.  The wine was DELICIOUS!  Not "wine-ish" at all, really.  But then we realized that in order to be polite we needed to drink the whole bottle...... so we did!  Before we went upstarirs fro bed (perfectly steadily, I assure you!) we had the men pose for pictures with us.  Needless to say, I think it is a birthday Val will remember!

 

On the 26th we took a boat up Lake Como to a little village called Varenna.  The scenery along Lake Como blew me away (once again!  I've been taking in a lot of beatiful scenery on this trip!).  There were picturesque little villages, with brightly painted buildings rising up from the lake edge, and grand villas with private docks spaced between the villas.  Whne we got to the village, we had about 2 hours before our 2 and a half hour ride home, so I took off and wndered up those little step-streets alley things, and Heather and Val found some cement near the water to work on their tans.  Grandma and Cherille wondered around shopping in the little shops.  I wanted to get up to a monestary, but I couldn''t find the way up.  I ended up at a dead end step-road, up in the stickers dripping with sweat because it was SO muggy and I'd just climbed 400 feet almost straight up!  I had to find some gelato after that, and ended up taking a break in the little tiny village church were people were decorating for a wedding.  It was beautiful too!

 

We met up at the docks as it started to cool down and the wind picked up.  The rain began before we'd even got to our first stop.  Heath and Val had gone upstairs, so Gma, Cherille and I decided to head back to teh meager protection that was still outside (se we could see).  The rain REALLY started coming down then, but we were OK with it until it was windy AND rainy, and we were getting soaked from the sides.  I don't know how long it was - maybe 20 minutes - but it got progressively colder, and windier, and wetter.  The lightning and thunder was going good, and everyone had eventually given up and moved downstairs (to the VERY hot inside area), but Val, Heath adn I thought we'd stick it out.... and then the hail came!  Those things were seriously the size of marbles!  And because we'd spent our whole 2 and a half our boat ride TO Varenna sitting up front getting fried, the hail hitting our burned shoulders was VERY painful!  When we realized that we were all huddled together, screaming "This REALLY hurts!  Ow!!!  Oh, that one was HUGE!  Yikes, it just went down my shirt!!!!  I'M SOOOOOO WET!!!!!!  Heather, you're squishing me!!!!  Guys, I'M on top!!! This isn't fair!!!" we decided that maybe we should go downstairs.  So, we made it to teh little landing inside, and everyone just started grinning at us.  Seriously, we were absolutely drenched.  Both Heather and I were wearing white shirts, too, which made us look all the more like soaked, stupid, stubborn, American rats!!!!  We got chilly in a hurry on the landing, so we went further inside to the tables and chairs, where it was muggy and warm.  A bunch of older Italian ladies laughed at us, and one of them finally said "you need bikini to be that wet!"  We agreed.....  The lightening continued,  and the thunder crashed, and the waves bounced our little boat around, but we made it back on schedule, and found some dinner near the boat docks.  We made quite a sight, but it was tasty, and our Turkish-Italian waiter flirted with Val and HEather the whole time anyhow.  (Smile!)

 

Today we got to Venice.  What (another!) an amazing city!  It is JUST like the pictures and stories.  Canals, cobblestone alleys, people, and beautiful buildings.  The bridges alone are enough to take a whole role of film on!  It was an adventure getting to our hotel.  Despite what anyone says, I really CAN (sort of) read a map!  But Venice is hard to find your way around in!!!! And, I will definitely be the first to admit, heather is MUCH better at reading maps and finding her way around in Venice than I am.... but I COULD do it if I had to!  But I have her, so I don't need to all the time!  Besides, we have a good arrangement worked out... I take off, get us lost (fairly close to the hotel) and then she gets us un-lost and to the hotel, and everyone is happy!  Hot, but happy!

 

We had to find the internet cafe, another adventure, after stopping in to say hello to a Barber friend of Rick Steves.  He was so cute on the video that we saw, that we just HAD to say hi!  He was vary gracious, treated us warmly, and we left feeling like we were friends.  We even got to see him in action!

 

I better hop off so Heather can use the computer.  The days of free internet access are over (Another perk about staying with you, Jamie and Catherine!!!), so sorry for the typos... I'm not taking the time to correct all of them!

 

Love you all!  Take care... more to come!

 

Hugs,

Dani (and Heather at my side)

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