It Journal
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Today was another lovely day at La Traversina. Breakfast was yummy with toast and jams, cheeses, apricot pastries, oj, and hot tea. They don’t serve lunch here, so I just took the leftovers from breakfast back to have a lovely repeat in the middle of the day.
It was a cool morning, so I ran on the road until it got too steep, where I turned around and went back and forth to the inn for about 45 minutes. I was running on top of the mountain where the inn is, and the view was splendid. I hope I can do that again tomorrow with Peter.
I was plenty hot from the run, so their pool sounded too good to be true! Vijay had been cleaning it from the leaves dropping all around, so it was fresh and ready for me to paddle around for a while. It was my first time in that pool, and I’m glad I didn’t dive it. The water was barely up to my waist! Great for swimming, though!
In the afternoon, I spent some time studying my Italian notes and getting ready for my class on Tuesday morning. We’ve had 2 weeks off, and this is the perfect place to have lots of time and quiet to study. I also like being here because all the guests have different languages. Last night at the communal table, there was a family of 5 from France who spoke at least 3 languages each. A couple was there from San Francisco, but she was Chinese and spoke 5 languages and he was American and spoke 6 languages. The last couple was from the Netherlands and he spoke 5 languages and she spoke 4. I felt so very backward coming in with only English and a nonfluent smattering of a few others. Rosanna makes a special effort to place people at the table next to others whom they will be able to communicate. It always works to make everyone feel comfortable. Rosanna and Domenico, as well as Vijay and his wife Sumjana all speak some of several languages, too.
Katarina and Bert from the Netherlands were next to me at the table, and before dinner was finished, Katarina was ready to take over our apartment next March and attend the program that Peter is in this year. I can’t wait to see what happens about that. I was watching her husband carefully while we talked about Peter’s program. He is retired and is now a portrait painter…free to be away from home for lengthy periods of time….but he’s not quite bought into the year in Bra while his wife goes to school…we’ll see, huh? She has a job, but is near retirement and has been considering what she could do after she retires. Who knows? This might be just the ticket. They were going 12 more hours of driving in the next two days to get home, so I’m sure some of that time they will discuss this option. I gave her my email address.
I just saw Rosanna coming back from the garden with fresh vegetables for supper. I hate to miss her meals, but I do want to be at the airport in Milan and get Peter back here. He loves this place as much as I do!
I sent pictures of La Traversina earlier. Maybe I’ll have some more tomorrow.
Love to all,
Colleen
It Journal
Sunday, July 8, 2012
I could get tired of this peace and quiet…in about 50 years! La Traversina has a gift of keeping you either calm and peaceful or raucously laughing. There are lots of good conversations going on in many different languages at the same time. People just say what they can say in Italian; then throw in the English, or Spanish, or French, or German, or Dutch, or Russian, or Portuguese, or Chinese, or Japanese or dialects from lots of places any time they can’t think of the translation in Italian. Very cool!
Peter and I (Yes! We got to La Traversina about 11:15 last night from the MXP airport.) had a beautiful breakfast this morning with a similar fare to yesterday, but with strawberry tarts. Then, we were invited to join the staff family for lunch “because we missed supper last night and there’s plenty left over.” Of course, we were most happy to accept that invitation.
After an hour of sitting around the breakfast table telling stories and jokes, Peter and I took short walk, and he fixed the wifi stick so that we can Skype tonight with our MJ1 group from our church in the USA. Yeah, Peter!
Lunch was what we had expected…delicious! Arrozzo was mixed with peas and cheese, then rattatouille (sp?) came next fresh out of their garden. Then, there was a dessert of a strawberry refrigerated something that had strawberries, rich cream of some sort and a sweet something made with egg whites. I can’t wait to get that recipe. It was circled by a sweet strawberry sauce. YUM!
Our afternoon was relaxed…siesta, run, swim, study Italian, and write in my journal. Then, another marvelous dinner and Skyping with the group. Life is tough!!!
Quotes from Monica’s visit:
Next door neighbor Enzo about Monica: “And so, she was baking the cake, and she opened the oven door and found the cake done, and…(2 sharp whistles with his finger pointing out then in quickly) it was done, just like that, and on the table!”
Dear friend we visited in France Jean to the dog,:“Flora, YOU are not ze chief! I am ze chief! We will go for a walk when I say we will go!! NOT when YOU say we will go!”
Monica: “Lisa’s mom makes the best gelato in all Italy.”
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