Barchis Adventure

Ciao! I am sitting here at my kitchen table, listening to the thunder rolling in the distance, the fountain splashing outside of my window, and the occasional hum of a car engine passing by. All is quiet in my little village. I know I mentioned this in my previous posting, but I feel that I must repeat my sentiment and tell you that I feel very much at home here. Riposo is ending as signified by the church bells; soon the shops across the street will reopen their doors and foot traffic and chatter will increase.

I must catch you up on our latest adventures! I have started driving over here-it's rather terrifying as the roads here are very narrow, and often, the road signs are confusing. Roundabouts are the name of the game here (which I find quite the way to go-traffic tends to flow much better), but sometimes, the direction signs off of the roundabouts look like a plate of pasta with all of the roads shooting off of the round to different destinations. Thankfully, I'm not attempting to venture anywhere alone yet so I have someone else to tell me which spaghetti arm to take. In addition to the narrow roads which often are surrounded by houses on both sides, and the challenging navigation, one also must be aware of the speedy Italian driver (everyone is a Formula 1 racer) and all of the pedestrians, bicyclists, moped riders, tractors, live animals, and other obstacles on the way. A friend here has advised me, "don't drive like an American-you'll cause a wreck, don't drive like an Italian-you'll end up in the ditch, drive somewhere in between..." Still trying to find that happy medium, but I think I'll figure it out pretty quickly.

Saturday, after chores, we went to Barchis which is a gorgeous area in the Dolomites. There you will find turquoise-blue, ice cold water fed by the mountains and springs, beautiful mountain views, a dam, pretty little cafes, and relief from the summer heat and humidity. It was pretty chilly up there-at least 20 degrees cooler and a lot less humid. The views are stunning, and I plan on spending more time up there this summer! From Barchis, we took a seldom used, secondary road up to Piancavallo (a ski resort town). Two thirds of the way up, after an eternity of switchbacks, I had to get out and get sick all over the place. Rather embarrassing, but thankfully, my family occupied themselves with picking wild flowers and no one else was on the road to watch me lose my lunch! The valuable lesson here is two-fold: 1) don't take secondary roads up the mountains and 2) always keep Dramamine in your purse if you have trouble with motion sickness!

In spite of my rather unfortunate bout of carsickness, I thoroughly enjoyed the day. It is cooler this week than last (thank you, rain), and yesterday, we managed to get my main kitchen put together. I am thrilled with the way it turned out. One room at a time...slowly, slowly. This week...more meetings, a panel, more unpacking, and perhaps another adventure!