Matt and Jen's Excellent Italian Adventure

Verbania

40 minutes or so north of Arona is a town called Verbania and they have a wonderful botantical gardens and this is the perfect time to view the tulips.

Originally we intended on heading to Antrona Lake and camping out, however mother nature had other plans for us! As we were driving down a winding, slightly more then one car width lane road, we came across this van just sitting there and we could see why. Before we got to Antrona, a huge mudslide occurred and took out the road. So there is only one way back down a road that even the mini cooper can't turn around on....Matt backed the car down the way we came up.

We parked the car on the side of the road and decided to start hiking (making lemonade, right?).

We hiked for a while and took some pictures, but the snow and mudslides we too bad to cross in many areas so we decided to turn around. :-( Oh well, another time.

So we drove home and hopped a train to Torino for a 1 night trip. I loved Torino! It is not only of the top cities in the tour guides (Venice, Milan, Rome, Florence, etc.), but it is great city to visit if you can fit it in. In Torino we checked out the Auto Museum, the palace, and they have a really nice thermal bath (4 floors!).

Isola Bella on Lago Maggiore

In March I went with my mother in law, father in law, and Mary and Stan to Isola Bella on a boat trip across the lake we live on. Isola Bella is one of the Borromean islands. Here are a few pictures that highlight the palace gardens. We were not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the palace.

A week under the Umbrian Sun

We have taken many weekend trips (Friday night to Sunday morning) and finally we had a full week of vacation at Easter!! I know, I am sure you are feeling so sorry for us ;-) but honestly it is nice to have a full week to take the time to explore an area.

What is the best place to go at Easter? Umbria and Assisi of course! We used an agriturismo in Assisi as our 'home base' for our week long adventure of bicycling, wine sampling, and sightseeing. We were fortunate this week to have a crew of visitors to share this experience with us at Easter. Our visitors included Mom and Dad Sodergren, Phil and Harriet Cowan, and Karen Gunlock.

Malvarina Agriturismo

taking in the view and a little wine with Mom and Dad Sodergren

Even Sasha enjoys the view here

You can't leave Umbria without a few wine and olive oil purchases

Karen, Mom, Harriet, Phil, Dad, and Matt

Sasha and I made a new friend who helped himself to my lap

And we even put Matt to work the old fashioned way ;-)

We spent our Easter Dinner partaking in a family style, authentic Italian Easter meal that lasted for 4 hours! No joke we arrived at 1pm and left at 5pm.

The next day we took a tour of Spello and did a wine tasting lunch with a tour guide I found on tripadvisor called "Ann's Italy".

Matt's new car (he wishes)

The rest of our party took off for Venice the next day so Matt and I returned another night on our own to have dinner and Spello and take more pictures...