Europe Spring 2019 Italy & Switzerland

We’re in Italy!

Wow! Italy! This is great! We can read the signs, understand when someone talks to us, and we are able to speak the language. What a difference! For almost a month we have been in countries where not only are we not able to understand the spoken language, but also not able to even read it. This is refreshing!

We left Croatia by boat. It was an overnight trip that took 11 hours. We slept. Arrived in Ancona, Italy around 7:00 in the morning, and immediately took this train to Bologna. And then on to Reggio Emilia.

This three day stop in Italy was not on the original plan. But as we intended to take trains north to Ireland, this stop just made sense. We are already very familiar with Reggio Emilia. We visit our friends here almost every year, and so this was an easy decision.

The young man in the middle is Allesandro with his gilrfriend Letizia. He was a foreign exchange student that we hosted many years ago, when he was only 16 years old. He has now finished higher education, and works as an engineer.

And that is his dad Paolo. We were invited for a dinner at their house, and everyone pitches in.

Homemade porcine risotto, fresh salad from the garden, fresh vegetables, and strawberries for dessert. Yummy!

We are very fortunate to have friends and family in foreign countries. And we always remind ourselves of that fact. Their hospitality always warms our hearts, this supports our idea of our own welcoming home for others.

Only a few days in Italy, and we were off to Lucerne, Switzerland. Here we are in separate photos in the Reggio Emilia Mediopadana high speed rail station. Look it up, it is a modern work of art for a train station.

We are taking the Frecciarossa high speed train which can reach speeds of 250 mph!

Before we go on, here are a few more photos of the Reggio Emilia area,

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There is something about train stations in Europe. Many times they are a throw back to another era, since the building was from two generations ago. And there is most times good food and good coffee. Unlike air travel, you don’t have to get there 2 or 3 hours early, and wait in security lines. Then once you are on the train, there is great scenery, more seating space (sometimes a table, and wifi), you can also walk around without bumping into everybody. And sometimes you also meet people. This woman was heading back to Switzerland where she lives. Despite having lost her luggage she was in great spirits!

Lucerne, Switzerland. This is the first visit for us here. We had seen beautiful photos on the internet when we researched this city. And they are true to form.

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The architecture and murals all around the city are astounding. There is a real mix of old world and modern. Plus there is also the lake. So where to start. We have so many pictures of this area worth showing we’ll show them in divisions.

First the architecture division.

Okay, that’s some of the architecture. Lets go to statues and fountains!

There are literally statues and figurines everywhere! You can’t possibly show all of them. Next for something a bit more unique, decorated signs.

Let’s see now we’ll go to art, murals, and maybe some fashion!

We don’t think that any of those fashion statements will be coming to the states anytime soon. The purse with the imprint of a handgun is quite interesting though, what do you think?

Then there is another piece of art that has a cooking theme.

Well, actually this is not really a piece of art. It is actually a display in a cooking store of cookie cutouts. But we thought it was worth showing.

This is one of the cookie cutouts. We bought a couple, but it was really a struggle to not purchase a lot, because there were so many different types!

As we are big walkers, we run into unusual things on a regular basis. On one day we saw these alpine horn blowers. It was just barely raining, but still they were out on a bridge playing these instruments. The sound kinda reminded you of Gregorian chants.

Well as it is not possible to fill this blog with all that we did in Switzerland. You will have to wait for the next writing to see what else we have for you from this alpine land. Here is a mix of photos to end with.

Come see us again as we continue our adventure in Switzerland!