Festa di Sant’Antonio alla Motta Varese

I dropped the ball on making a reservation for our Saturday night date. Fancy didn’t appeal to me, and I kind of liked the idea of stumbling into some place unexpected. We were turned away from three different restaurants before I suspected that something big was afoot. We made our way toward the new sushi place, which was…

Funivie del Lago Maggiore

Have you ever agreed to do something that you realize is insane only once it’s far too late? That happened to me this weekend, as I clung to my toddler inside a bucket that dangled from a cable over a mountain at Funivie del Lago Maggiore. It was the price to pay for not wanting…

Missed Messages

Today I had planned to meet some kind strangers from the internet to try rowing. (This is part of my strategy for making non-American friends. It will be fine.) Then the kids put up a fight about getting to school. Then my phone stopped receiving text messages or an internet signal, and there I was, late,…

Borromean Islands, Stresa, Italy [Take 1]

Each week I fall a little more in love with the region we’ll live in for the next three years. We’re close to Milan, but as nature lovers we’re most excited about the lakes and mountains. By which I mean some of the world’s most beautiful lakes and the frickin’ ALPS. I grew up amidst cornfields in Indiana.…