Sunday
Dear Elsie
Today was the day I got over my shyness and went confidently into an all-Italian, no-English speaking coffee shop and boldly asked for 2 cappuccino and 2 croissants. I didn’t even ask the price. It had been pouring with rain overnight and continued this morning, so my strategy was to go to the closest cafe with a cappuccino machine. After a 2 minute walk, dodging puddles, gripping tightly to my blue umbrella, we shook off the drops and opened the door. Clearly a popular stopping point for young and old, we followed suit and dropped out umbrellas onto the floor by the door. A few minutes later, we were seated with the breakfast treat before us.
I debated in my mind what the price would be for 2 cappuccino and 2 croissant – 10 Euro, 12 Euro? We would pay whatever it cost. Imagine my surprise when I went to tap the machine and this was spewed out…
Cafe de Lago, you rock – it doesn’t give a breakdown and the chocolate croissant may be have been more expensive than the plain, but it was a good price either way. Apart from the concern of daily croissants not being part of a healthy balanced diet, we will return – just not every day! Later in the day we passed a larger restaurant with similar prices, so we may try that out too.
It was then onto Carrefour where we perused the aisles looking for the ‘special’ signs and comparing what we were buying with what the sign said. Desperate for veggies, I found a few for dinner tonight.
The cost…
With the rainfall, we spent a few hours in the apartment before mid afternoon, the rain stopped & we took a long walk along the lake front.
We passed the creeper house….if this was South Africa, I don’t know how many spiders, snakes and other creepy crawlies would be in that foliage…
Quite a sight. We also passed the yacht club… 
And many more yachts dotted across the shores of Lake Maggiore..
We walked on to the next town where we found a fruit and veg stall. We bought some fruit and returned home. Reentering Arona…
Arona seems to be below a well flown flight path. We often hear planes flying overhead. There has been so much cloud we haven’t seen many, but I opened Flight Radar to have a look. I decided to take a screenshot so you can see where we are in relation to Milan. When we came in November 2022, we were at Varenna, just north of Lecco which is on Lake Como. Varenna was at about the tail of the small plane above Lecco.
Our plan for the next couple of days is decided. Tomorrow we hope to take a ferry across the lake to the castle and maybe a little further to a very popular town of Stresa. Tuesday, we have booked train tickets to Zermatt which will be a long awaited trip for Mike to (hopefully) see the Alps. He would love to see the Matterhorn but the weather isn’t really favourable. Maybe it will clear but just the train trip on its own will be worth it.
Another wonderful day in Italy. I am grateful for good health and tonight, a home cooked meal!
Psalm 99:5
Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool;
It’s not about now – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Gran xx 🙂