A Weekend with the Angolettos

On Friday Marco picked us up in Monterosso and drove us to Milano. He wanted to drive us so that we would have time in the car together to catch up on family, work, and the state of our economies. When we arrived to their home in Milano the girls were just home from school. Sofia age 10, Clara age 9 and 5 yr old Irene were all very active, lots of toys and dolls and activity. After school they had an English tutor visit the house for their English lesson. Laura arrived home from work and then ran off to a meeting for her church. We ordered pizza delivery and sat around the table in the kitchen with the girls. Their favorite pizza is patate frites (with French fries)!
On Saturday we went to a great place for lunch owned by some friends of Marco & Lauras called La Collina d'Oro it is a Chinese/ Japanese restaurant. Food was fantastic. The girls had a birthday party to attend after lunch so Marco took us to the center of Milano to the Duomo, Galleria and we visited the new museum of 20th century Italian artists. A fascinating museum with a great history of the Italian painters of the 1900's. For dinner Marco treated us to a meal in the Galleria at Biffi the restaurant has been there since the late 1800's.
On Sunday we attended Mass with the family and had a home day. Laura's sister Angela and her son who is The age of Sofia came by for a visit. We had cake and coffee and a great visit.
Monday morning came too soon and we walked the girls to school in the rain. Mike & I were invited to visit Clara's 4th grade class to speak English and talk about ourselves, the US and Montana. A joyful morning before getting on a train headed for Firenze.

Cinque Terre Italy

It is As beautiful as the guide books and reviewers say. We spent 3 nights with Kevin in Vernazza one of the 5 villages of Cinque Terre. We arrived on the train after spending a few hours walking around Firenze with Kevin. He was eager to give us a condensed walking tour of the city that he calls home. It was drizzly raining but we were able to see the beauty. After a great lunch in at Osteria Cantinone in his neighborhood we got on the train for the 21/2 hr ride. The next morning the rain stopped so although the sign said it was closed we walked the trail from Vernazza to Corniglia. Wow, beauty around every bend. All trails in the area were closed because of threat of mud slides from all of the rain in the past view days. From Corniglia we took a short train ride to Manarola. We took the ferry back to Vernazza at sunset. I felt like I was in a movie! We woke to more threat of rain on the second day so we took the train to Monterosso which is the 'beach' town. We spent much of our time there in a small beach bar drinking red wine, nibbling on prosciutto and cheese, playing cards and listening to the pounding rain. When the rain cleared we did wonder the town.
On Friday morning we put Kevin on the train back to Firenze and our friend Marco Angoletto picked us upon Monterosso. A great start to our adventure in Italy!

The Beginning of a Journey

On October 6th we flew to New York and spent a great few days with the Taleff family in Brooklyn before leaving for Italy.
We went bowling at Brooklyn Bowl, saw a movie at NiteHawk theatre and had a great brunch courtesy of Jill Roberts at the Mondrian Hotel.

A Bountiful Harvest

We had our best harvest in 9 years. Our first day of frost was also our first day of snow. On Tuesday October 2nd it was 75 degrees and on Wednesday morning October 3rd we woke to 3 inches of snow! We bought an apple press this fall and are looking forward to next years apple harvest to give it a try. We've lost several chickens to raccoons (5 raccoons total) this year. We've trapped em all and transplanted them to near Park Lake over 10 miles away.
Left the house on October 6th for a 3 week trip to New York, Italy, and Paris. Cory, Anna, & Aven Baker are staying at the house and taking care of things.