Okay, no I didn't. But I saw his house (maybe)! Yesterday I went to Lake Como and I'm happy to report that it is totally worth the hype! We mostly drove around the lake and then stopped at Villa del Balbianello, which was totally beautiful. The picture is a view across the lake from the villa's gardens. It was built in the 18th century on the site of an old monastery and was eventually owned by an Italian explorer named Guido Monzino. Guido died in the 1980's and donated the villa to the Italian National Trust. Monzino was pretty much a total badass; he led early Italian expeditions to the North Pole and Everest and then lived in this ridiculous villa filled with ridiculous collections of art (like ancient Mayan statues, reverse glass paintings, collections of Chinese art, and antique British and French furniture). You know those Dos Equis commercials about The Most Interesting Man in the World? I'm pretty sure that man is Guido Monzino.
We also stopped in Como and wandered around a bit to check out the city (and I got a little shopping done, to Giacomo and Federico's dismay). Oh, and of course it rained in the afternoon, along with the requisite thunder and lightning (though, I must say that the lighting across the lake was pretty cool). The rest of the evening, we got pizza (Yay!! I love that Italian pizzas are the size of a giant platter, but so thin that you can eat it all yourself) and gelato (double yay! I'm a pig). Gianni and Giacomo also took me on a mini tour of their town and we saw Giacomo's high school and elementary school (he wasn't too excited about this, but I thought it was fun).
Hi Jackie:
ReplyDeleteLooks and sounds (from your comments) that you are having a wonderful and exciting time. Good for you. Please say hello to Giacomo and his family for us. I do hope the treatments he is receiving are doing good things for him.
Love, Grandma Wallin