Month: April 2023

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Living way up high on Monte Brè

The apartment house where we’re staying is in the small village of Aldesago, which is located more than halfway up Monte Brè (I believe it’s one of the yellowish buildings circled in the above photo).

I wanted to provide a better idea of how high up we are, so I took a video of the view we see each time we drive to town.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t such a great video — seeing as how I was in a moving car, on a bumpy road, with the view intermittently blocked by trees and houses — so I extracted a couple of “snapshots” from it to give you the idea.

The mountain you see across the lake is Monte San Salvatore, a famous Lugano landmark.

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A walk by the lake

Manu and Ramesha

Today felt like our first real visit to Lugano itself.

We parked at our usual autosilo (parking garage); made a stop at the bank; and walked to a pizzeria near the lake. There we had our first real pizzas (le prime pizze!) of this trip and they were delicious.

Le prime pizze

Then we walked down Via Nassa and along the lake to Parco Ciani, where we met up with Ramesha’s sister, Manu. We got gelato, then went for a walk along the lake. An altogether lovely afternoon in centro Lugano.

Lake Lugano
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Mercury is about to go retrograde

This explains so much of what’s going on for me right now.

Complications galore in getting something forwarded on from the States. Not being able to send or receive normal texts (only WhatsApp and Messenger). Feeling kind of slow and heavy and like I don’t really want to go out much.

Mercury going retrograde brings the “re” words to the fore. Basically it’s a good time to re-treat, re-flect, re-new, re-lax, rest…to simply slow down.

Of course, that’s the exact opposite of the plan when we come to Lugano!

So, my goal (as a Mercury-ruled Gemini person) has to be to find a way to balance the need for friends and family social time with allowing time for myself — to be still and to simply BE.

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Torta di mele = YUM!

One thing I loved about living in Europe were the desserts, because they’re so much less sweet than those in America.

As usual, Silvio made lunch for us, but today Fulvio provided dessert: una torta di mele. The literal translation is “apple cake,” but it isn’t cake the way we think of it at all.

Bottom line? It was literally so good that Ramesha and I — who never bake! — asked Fulvio for the recipe so we can make it once we’re back home in California.

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Family times

I’m writing earlier than usual — before we head out to visit our friends, Dudo and Karin.

The last few nights spent with family have been great fun, but kept us out late. When I still have my blog to write it means I get to bed later and later, which is not so good when we’re trying to catch up on rest, not get more tired!

Today was still more family time: lunch with Silvio (father), followed by a short visit to Ponte Capriasca, where Manu (Ramesha’s sister) was having a picnic reunion with friends from her days of playing hockey on the Swiss women’s national team.

Altogether very pleasant, especially driving through the Swiss countryside — where even the normal neighborhoods are amazingly beautiful.

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Excellent advice

This really struck me when I read it earlier today. Although I’m not going through any storms at the moment, I hope I remember it when the next one (inevitably) appears on the horizon.

“Calm yourself” (or calmati, as they say in Italian) really is the most excellent advice.

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Happy brothers

Today’s photo is of Ramesha and his brother, Fulvio, whose birthday was today.

For the first time in seventeen years we’re actually in Switzerland and able to celebrate Fulvio’s birthday in person. We all went out to dinner as a family, eating great food and having a whole lot of fun.

In fact, I haven’t laughed so much in a long time.

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A photo that says it all

This photo captures the essence of why we’re here: the joy of being together after almost four years.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Ramesha’s father, Silvio, quite this happy before; he’s absolutely radiant with joy.

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San Francisco to Lugano: we made it!

A beautiful day for a beautiful view of our San Francisco departure

We drove to Palo Alto; flew from San Francisco; switched planes in Munich; landed in Milan; were picked up by Ramesha’s sister and his Dad; had lunch in Canobbio (the village near Lugano where he grew up); and finally arrived at our little apartment in Aldesago around 4:00pm Switzerland time.

Even through a car window on an overcast day our approach to Lugano is stunningly beautiful.

We slept very little on the plane, so the goal was to stay completely awake until at least 8:30pm so that we would be more likely to sleep through the night.

It’s now 9:30pm, so as soon as I finish this it’s lights out for me.

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A lot of work but worth it

I needed to scroll through some random photos of past trips to Switzerland to remind myself why the stress of traveling is so very, very worth it.

There’s the incredible beauty, of course. But way more important are the people we haven’t seen in almost four years.

We can’t wait.