A big thunderstorm is rolling above Muslone right now, rain pouring down – this is an almost daily pleasure we are looking forward to! The days are sizzling hot, humid, and I’m dripping of sweat. I never knew that the skin can produce so much moisture… But the thunderstorms, short, loud and forceful, are a highlight for sure!

Last night we said good-bye to Assunta & Giancarlo, our dear neighbors, who had invited us for a glass of wine from his extensive Chianti collection that he has displayed in a „camere“ below their house. It is a cold room, dark and somewhat spooky: no wonder, it used to be the prison!

By the time we left, with wine and a plant they gifted us, a big thunderstorm was heading our way – refreshing! Saying good-bye was very hard, Assunta couldn’t let me go, her hugs are long and genuine; what a sweet lady she is! Reminds me of my mom in lots of ways: both are 82 years old, both have macular degeneration and both have a heart as big as a … I’m lacking words, but it is BIG!

Today we’ll have a good-bye dinner with our friends Christoph and Raphael. This father / son combo is a lot of fun to hang out with. A pizzeria up in the mountains (Running Point) that we had visited before and really enjoyed!!! I’m already hungry and by the time the thunderstorm is over it’ll be nice and pleasant (I hope).

And tomorrow we’ll say good-bye to Fausto (unless he is driving around in the mountains) and Enzo of course. The „mayor“ of Muslone. The one who knows everything and everybody Oh I love it here. It’s hard to leave and I’m looking forward to next year!

When I grew up in Germany in the late 1960s and 1970s, we couldn’t wait for the summer to arrive! Only those months without an „r“ we were allowed to run outside barefoot, so we waited till May (which was not so difficult considering the inconsistent weather), but the whole fun was over in September, and that was a problem. In Bavaria, September starts in the middle of our summer vacation. There must’ve been something wrong with their calculations or with their spelling or: both…

My siblings and I would grab our bikes, a towel, a book and some cards and bike over to the Auwaldsee, 3km away from our house. Half of the lakeshore is covered with bushes and trees, the other half is beach. A row boat rental, Minigolf, a relatively big campground with a restaurant and a beergarden. We would always end up at the same area on the beach, always meet neighbors kids, schoolmates, friends. Playing cards, chasing each other, or challenging to swim out to the wood cross that was anchored in the middle of the lake and seemed FAR away! There I got my first kiss and I hated it! I was exhausted from swimming, unable to just turn around right away and kind of caught between two legs of that cross… I never enjoyed swimming out there again despite being a competitive person, especially in sports.

The beach was great. We tanned like Rotissery chicken, using Tiroler Nussöl as a sunscreen, but all it was: it made your skin shiny and good smelling. SPF 5! Kids squealing everywhere, sometimes crying, too tired of that beach life, ready for a nap. Toys set up to make them happy and fulfill the parents dream to get some tan before they had to return to the Netherlands or Denmark.

Sometimes one of us locals would bring a bag of chips (gone in 30 seconds!) or a bottle of lemonade that, upon opening, would cover everybody nearby with a spray of sticky sugar water, because it was cooking in the hot sun for too long. Oh life was good!

And here we are, in the 2020s, at a beach in Italy: a mixed crowd of people of different nationalities, all ages, all at the same beach. Kids squealing because it’s way past nap time, teenagers showing off their bodies, swimming challenges, toys everywhere… of course now we have unicorns innertubes and you can rent windsurfing boards and paddleboards not rowboats. The kids are drenched in sunscreen SPG 50+, they wear longsleeve sunprotection shirts and parents bring a whole bag full of snacks to satisfy everybody’s needs. Tatoos are visible on lots of bodies, now pieces of art. When I was a child, a tattoo was the unmistakeable sign of somebody who had spent time in prison, nowadays it shows a love for body art and a higher discretionary income. Girls giggle, boys are boys, in and out of the water, nothing has ever changed it seems. The cicadas are screaming: summer – summer – summer! And we? We are enjoying our day on the beach like we did way back then. It is hard to get up from that towel on the ground, but hey, we outgrew the chase, we settled into a relaxing enjoyment that you’ll find with age. Life is good!

Amoroso is the name of a small boutique hotel in the oldtown of Iseo. It is the only one of two hotels there, right on the lakeshore and man / woman, it is gorgeous! We only stayed there for one night, but I wouldn’t mind spending many more nights in this gem.

Parking is somewhat tricky: first you’ll have to find nearby parking in the restricted area, go to the hotel, get a parking validation, then find your car again, re-park into a blue marked spot or – as we were – just put that validation into your car because you’re already on a blue spot. Right on the waterfront.

Iseo is beautiful, great shopping, lovely restaurants, friendly people and – OMG – no American tourists, because they hang out on Lake Clooney, I mean Lake Como! And no German tourists either, who we left behind on Lago di Garda! Funny is that all the lakes are called Lago thisandthat, but Como is Lake Como, so the Americans have one word less to learn 😇.

From Iseo we drove west to Sarnico to visit a boat supplier (who happens to sell Riva merchandise), but Siesta made us take a break in Paratico (both towns are connected by a bridge), where we found this adorable flower shop / cafe in an old railroad station. I just love the way they set it up, their merchandise, the cafe was super cute and I took a ton of photos – couldn’t help it! This business should be in a textbook for my “visual merchandise and display” class!

I definitely want to go back there next time we are in Italy!

Last year in September we adopted Monalisa

She was one year old at that time, she settled in, and very soon, she taught us an important lesson: who is the queen! A few weeks inside the house for adjustment, followed by a successful hunting carrier outside, she followed her passion and rewarded us with occasional gifts, mostly gophers from our garden. A win-win situation!

We hired house/pet sitters from “Trustedhousesitter.com”, an organization who links people in need of a petsitter with people who are looking for staying at a new location, who work from home and love animals. We’ve had a few trips, long weekends, 1 month trips, 2 month trips, and each time we had really good experiences with our sitters. We love the concept, Monalisa can stay at home, in combination with our sitters who love to live in the house! And the best thing: except for a minimal signup fee, it is free of charge.

For our current trip we chose Tess and Tess is wonderful! She gives us updates, sends photos, alerts us about important looking mail, she waters our plants and she got Monalisa’s approval! Purrrrfect 🥰

A few days ago Tess send us an alarming text: Monalisa got insured, her leg looks really bad, maybe a cat fight or something. What should she do, go to the vet? After seeing her photo, it was no doubt: emergency vet visit! that doesn’t look good 🫣

No problemo, except that it is nearly impossible to convince that animal into a cat carrier. She must’ve had a very traumatic past, a life changing experience, something that makes her scared of being in enclosed situations. Paperbags: no! Boxes: never! Cat carrier: hell no!

Our first attempt ended with me needing 7 bandaids for bleeding wounds on my hands, arm and down my leg. And I thought I have some cat experience with 7 previous cats I’ve had over the years, one or two at any given time. Like with all my cats, if tried the same with Monalisa: we planned vet visits for check-up, but we had to postpone and finally cancel.

And then there was that nasty eye injury that made it unavoidable to see a vet, that time it was the emergency vet hospital. Long story short: it took us 3 days to get her there and it was only possible because we bought a raccoon trap where we put her food and water inside. What an ordeal! And by then her eye was swollen, infected, and started bleeding because of her getting crazy in that trap. It was awful! For her and for us!!!

When Tess contacted us about Monalisa’s leg injury, I was hoping that it’ll be easier this time. But it was not. Strategic planning, detailed instructions, many text messages and phone calls later: Monalisa went to the emergency vet hospital again. This time it took only 2 days – I hope this is becoming a trend 😎!

Considering that we are in Italy right now and Monalisa in California, considering that the time difference is 9 hours, it was a long night shift for me on the phone with Tess, with the nurse, the doctor, the office, etc. Several hours later she was treated, wrapped up and sent home. It was 6am when I could go to sleep, knowing that everything is alright. The easiest part of the whole deal: paying the bill over the phone!

Apparently Monalisa did not have a catfight. Her injuries were rather sharp and deep, more like she was trapped somewhere and couldn’t get out. But it is impossible to find out.

She has to stay inside for a few weeks (easy cheesy) and Tess has to bring her back every few days to change bandaids and to see if the would heals. Otherwise they would need to amputate, but that’s another story. Bringing her to the vet again and again and again….. I hope that trend from 3 days to 2 days of getting her into the carrier is kicking in!

She’s back home and was hiding somewhere the entire day. Now she starts cuddling again. I hope she’s getting over her fear of the vet. Her trap is there, with food and water inside, set to remain open. Until the first bandaid change…..

Our neighbors Assunta & Giancarlo took us to Brescia, a town 1.5 hours west of Lago di Garda, 0.5 hours south of Lago d’Iseo. Ted and I were here twice before, but those visits didn’t leave any remarkable impressions. It might be because we came here to drop off a car for repair, get a rental car, and come back to pick up our car again?!? That was a year ago and we just circled around car dealerships who are always in the least picturesque areas of town. Rental car companies are mostly located near train stations (also not very picturesque + lots of weird people), so all in all we got the “where-not-to-go” tour back then. Good that Assunta and Giancarlo “washed our heads” as we would say in German, kind of like “setting the picture straight” in English

Assunta had prepared a 3 page list of things she wanted to show us: piazzas, statues, churches, Roman amphitheater excavations, arcades, opera house, art galleries, etc etc etc. another day with almost 100 degrees and high humidity, we walked around for hours and she referred to historical events, dates, stories – of course everything in Italian! And I just learned numbers in my textbook, which is page 9 in the first chapter! But magic has it, we had great conversations and we learned so much about their lives…

Their daughter Fiorenza, who lives in Brescia as well (they showed us the apartment building on the way into town) lives on the second floor. She is married and has a 13 year old son. They have an aquarium with 3 fishes. They are on vacation somewhere on the Mediterranean right now.

Giancarlo’s father died when he was 6 years old. That’s why he had to go to boarding school in Boghliaco at Lago di Garda. He fell in love with the lake; that’s why he ended up in Muslone.

Both of them grew up in Brescia, the got married there 57 years ago (they even showed us the church) and raised their daughter there.

Assunta has macular degeneration and can’t see well. So the moment she got out of the car, she grabbed my hand and didn’t let go until we sat down for dinner. So sweet!

They are an adorable couple, both 82 years old, but (she said) their marriage only works because they don’t live together. She lives in Brescia (in the Oldtown) with culture and people around her. He lives in Muslone, where he has his wood shop and nobody bothers him. Once in a while they visit each other for a few days and when she misses the busy city life when staying in Muslone or he missed the peaceful tranquillity when staying in Brescia, they go back home.

Many more stories were exchanged and again, we had a great day with them. Ending with dinner at a good restaurant, live music hanging in the air, an open air movie at a plaza where every visitor wore headphones for the audio, we walked back to the car, leaving Assunto’s paradise, and Giancarlo brought us back to his paradise.

No, I’m not pregnant! But today we got a huge surprise. I think the last time I had tears in my eyes when my son & his wife told me that I’ll be a grandmother soon. And before that, Ted surprised me with a ring… And today. Let me tell you, but one step after another:

Our neighbors Assunta & Giancarlo had invited us to come with them to Brescia this afternoon, they want to show us the oldtown and we’re going to have dinner together. Very lovely and I’m really looking forward to that! We have great conversations without speaking the same language (see post: we are the new kids on the block).

Yesterday they came over when we just had guests with whom we made fresh pasta and Gorgonzola sauce. They said we should come to their house today at 9am, but the rest of why and what disappeared in the black hole of language discrepancies…

So Ted and I went over at 9am. Then they showed us Giancarlos woodwork shop and a few things he had made of olive tree roots and that just blew our minds;

We were so impressed, it’s very hard to express your appreciation, especially in Italian. The opera house cabinet has a parket floor made of alternating wood chips, each measuring 2×2 mm. And there are hundreds, thousands, he even said the whole piece has 1.300000 pieces! It took him 2 years to finish.

And then he unwrapped another piece, a beautiful box with three open slots for papers, letters and envelopes. Made by him, another one-of-a- kind beauty. AND HE HANDED IT TO ME AND GESTURED THAT IT WAS A GIFT FOR US! I was speechless, I had tears in my eyes, I didn’t know what to say…

Crema sapone is not a lotion, it is liquid soap. We learned it the itchy way, putting on our newly inquired Crema “cream” that made my skin smell really good, but itch. First I thought it is all the lemons 🍋, but finally I checked my translation app: Crema sapone = liquid soap.

Miele is a German household appliance company. In Italy it is also honey 🍯.

Te caldo is not cold tea, te caldo is hot tea. So I order “te caldo nero, per favore” and the waiter usually asks “is English breakfast ok?” So much for that. “Yes, English breakfast is ok”

Piovere, another little village nearby that can be reached by an hour long hike. Our friend Laura has the hardest time memorizing that name, so she came up with her version of a brain fart: “pee on ovary” – pee ovary – Piovere. Easy cheesy! Btw brain fart would be called “donkey bridge” in German. Eselsbrücke