Monday, it was suppose to be another relaxing day.....

Pauline and I headed off early (around 6:30) for a walk thru the local village and a stop at the local bakery for some fresh bread for breakfast and at the local grocery store for some sausage and Gorgonzola,(each just one small room). I have never cared for gorgonzola, but Andrew had purchased some here last week and brought it for dinner. I never new it could be so good. I'll bet that we buy more before the week is up. Strolling thru town that early was really enjoyable. Lots of sights that you don't get from the car. Especially if you are driving, since one glance away from the road means trouble. One thing we saw at the top of the road that goes down to the house was the neighbors way of getting home. The photo on the right shows the small glassed in car that rides the rail in the foreground from their yard up to the street level. And, yes, the hillsides really are that steep around here. Someone downhill from you only 200 ft or so could build a two story house right in front of you and it would not block your view one bit.

After breakfast we decided to take a quick trip up Mt. Bre to see the view of the lake and the mountains. I think that it has been the scariest drive for me so far. It is not wide enough to pass along most of the route, there are just occasional wide spots for passing oncoming cars. And downhill cars have the right of way. Which meant that if we met someone coming down, I had to back up to a wide spot. The first time it happened I was so nervous backing up that I stayed so close to the rock wall on the right I almost tore off the rear view mirror. The lady coming down was laughing and ended up passing us on our right. It certainly was a white knuckle drive for me. And on top of that I had to listen to everyone else in the car commenting on just how steep the drop off was. Then we missed the correct turn and ended up heading along the side of a mountain on an even narrower road that soon turned to dirt and mud. Time to turn around, but where? We parked and walked up the road a bit, found a few spots but realized that the car would not make it over a stone drainage gully that ran across the road. It took three of us, but we managed to back the car around two corners and turn it around at a spot not much wider than the car. Dad stood in back to make sure that I did not go into the waterfall there, and Pauline stood in front to make sure that the front tires stayed on the road. A rather important position since at the edge of the pavement it just dropped off into nowhere. On the way back down we found the right turnoff, but had already had too much fun. Actually the views of toward Centovalli and Valled Maggia were very rewarding, even if I was sweating all the way up. Cappuccino's at the Hotel in Mt. Bre sounded much more enjoyable. Plus it would give my knees some time to stop shaking before the ride back down. 

On the way back down Pauline saw an abandoned house that she said she would love to move into and fix up. I mentioned that if we moved up here, we were staying forever as I was not driving that road every day to get anywhere. Afterwards we headed down into Locarno for lunch and to wander around the area for a bit, including making the required stop at the local chocolate shop in town. Then it was back home for dinner and to prepare for the busy day we had planned for Tuesday.