We drove to Italy (thanks for the GPS for Christmas, Dad!) and we left from Oberursel and headed south to Freiburg, Germany for a few days (I actually came a bit late due to an emergency kiddy surgery), home of the German Green Party and some great sustainable community projects.
We spent another night in Zurich - this is the view from our hostel room. The city wasn't actually on fire, but it's surrounded by mountains and is besides a large lake and it just might be "on fire".
We drove through some serious mountains in Switzerland, the GPS liked to take us the back way somtimes, especially on dark, snowy nights.
The "freeways" in Switzerland is mostly 2-lane, curvy roads with lots of tunels and switchbacks. STS9, podcasts from Seattle radio station KEXP, and Vampire Weekend got us through.
We stopped along the way at various architectural accomplishments of interest to Chelsea - like this chapel in the tiny town of Sumitvej designed by Peter Zumthur. We also treated ourselves to a day (5 hours in the water, we were absolute prunes) at the thermal baths in Vals, another design by Peter Zumthur -
Therme Vals (photo http://www.therme-vals.ch/en/spa/
We couchsurfed with Tom, a carpenter in Mels, about 20 minutes away from Vals, located in a beautiful valley. We wandered around the little side roads which zig-zagged up the mountains, through little towns with traditional wood houses like this one...doesn't it just make ya want to put slippers on and drink hot tea?
And when we made it to Chiere, Italy, we were welcomed with big hugs by Emanuela and Vittorio, Daniela's sister and brother in law, in their big beautiful house in the countryside. We stayed with them for our time in Italy and ate cookies for breakfast every morning.
Christmas Eve dinner with the Martinis at Dani's parents' house! (Me, Dani, Vittorio, Michele, Magda, and Manu) We ate so much spectacular food...but that was only just a start!
Modeling our new Christmas hats (Chelsea, Dani, and I all had the same idea somehow)
Chelsea and Silvana preparing Christmas dinner in the kitchen - check out that great alien necklace!
Manu sets the table for Christmas dinner
We ate for 4 hours...
Thank you so much for letting us be part of your family for Christmas!
Thank you so much for letting us be part of your family for Christmas!
The Post-Christmas-Dinner YaYas. .
Dessert = chocolate mousse, tiramisu, popcorn cake, sweet bruchette, lemonchella, and a tiny coffee.
Manu and I take in some fresh air at Superga.
We visited Auntie Rita and Uncle Ernesto, who are 80 years old and live on a farm in Chiere (the town grew up around them) and, until 2 years ago, kept milk cows. She insisted we take this home-grown squash home with us and was prepared to hack it to bits to give us a part, if we couldn't take the whole thing, because this one was the best. We left with two comparably smaller beasts.
Auntie Rita's bike. She's never ridden in a car before. She bikes or walks or drives her tractor everywhere.
Vittorio and Chelsea snowboaring and skiing Val Tournanche in Val d'Aosta
Chowing down on cheesy polenta and wine after hitting the slopes (a variation of beer and sausages in Germany)!
Chowing down on cheesy polenta and wine after hitting the slopes (a variation of beer and sausages in Germany)!
A woman stirring polenta in the mechanical nativity scene hand-made by a man in Dani's village. It filled a small chapel behind their main church.
Footbridge from the Lingotto center (where they used to test-drive Ferraris on the roof) and the Olympic Village from the 2006 games.
Eataly!
Dani, me, Chelsea, and Silvana in front.
1 comment:
I love your pictures Liza! It was wonderful to have you in Italy.. So,now, what's next? When are you coming to Tallinn? You must visit it, it's gorgeous! See you soon!
Post a Comment