Lago Maggiore

We had another great week.  Peggy and Sister Dibb took on the job of cleaning and organizing the storage room and our two garages.  It was a major undertaking and they spent 1.5 days in their Levis cleaning.  We have been parking our car in the upper garage (here in Italy they call it a box) for several weeks now.  I like it because we are no longer parking under this tree - where the birds used the car for target practice for their droppings.  This week I paid rent and did all I could to prepare for the end of the month which is tomorrow (Monday).

Spring just keeps getting better.  For a week or so, temperatures have kind of cooled off.  But on Saturday we got up to 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.  Absolutely perfect!  Friday afternoon the Burgers dropped by and told us that the Kitchen had been installed in the new apartment in Varese and on Saturday the plumber (Idraulico) would come to connect the water and gas.  The Elders who moved in there several weeks ago have been using a hot plate.  And of course they do not have the 180 euros cash that is required to pay the plumber.  So - we decided to drive to Varase on Saturday and deliver the money in person.  Varase is about an hour drive and only about 30 minutes away from Lago Maggiore - the 2nd largest lake in Italy!  So we had a destination for Saturday.

After dropping off the cash in Varase we drove 30 minutes to the lake.  There was a ferry ready to leave so we ran in and bought a ticket and were the last ones to drive onto the ferry.  It was a fabulous ride across the lake.

When we got to the other side of the lake we were in Verbania

We drove off the ferry and we were in the city center.  We found a parking garage and began to walk around.  This is the back side of the church.

There was a street market going all around the church.

We bought some dried fruit from this booth.  This must be the trader Joes of Italy!

Different patterns on the raised panels of this door.

Front of the church.  Very nice.

Horrible picture, but this accordion player was playing jazz on his accordion.  It was great!

We walked through the down town shopping district and came to this square

Very nice!

As we wandered more we found another area with a street market.  It went for blocks and blocks.  All of it was very nice stuff.  Same quality you would be buying at a normal store. Peggy bought some shoes. I also found some shoes.  I even bought a shirt!

After shopping we walked back to the main street and found this side walk cafe and had lunch.  I had a pizza, Peg had some pasta.  You can see how brutally they trim their trees.

A private family door

A door to a store.

In this one window was our Hero Ted.  I don't know if Ted Hero is world wide or only in Italy.  But it reminds us our Ted.

This was walking back to the car by the couch

We then drove around the south end of Lago Maggiore.  One of the of the very interesting towns was Stresa.  It had this tiny island called Isole Burromee with a castle and fabulous garden on it.  You can also see the cables above for a ski lift type cable car that goes up to the mountain way above the town.

This was a town for the rich and famous!  Fabulous old hotels

When we got down to the southern end of the lake we came to Arona.  There was a park up on the hill above town that had fabulous views of the town looking south.

And views across the lake to the east.

And views North up the lake.

There was an old castle up on this hill to add to its beauty.

We had a wonderful day!