Friends in high places

The rumours are true. Michael and I were supposed to be home on Saturday, but because Zoom Airlines went bust, we are in Paris until tomorrow. Visa tells us that we will get our money back, and we managed to find cheap tickets with Air Canada, so aside from extending our trip a few days, we are in good shape.

Even though exciting things are happening here in the city of romance, I want to stick to the chronological account of our trip, so cast your mind back to Zurich. After one night in that city, we took the train through the Alps to see my friend Holly and her husband Corrado in Porlezza, Italy.

It's fun to know people in unfamilar places. Don't you wish you knew these Italian buddies?

Seeing Holly and Corrado worked out better than we could have imagined. We weren't sure how much we would see them since it has been years since I saw Holly last; I was hoping for a couple of meals and maybe a cup of coffee or two, but Holly had other ideas. A whole itinerary, in fact, which included introducing me to the finest Italian delights (pizza, wine, cheese, gelati, brioche, cappucino, limoncello and so forth), taking us to Bellagio (the town that the famous hotel is inspired by), driving us by George Clooney's villa (he was in town, but we didn't see him), teaching us how to order food (easier in Italy than in Paris) and sun tanning with swans at a lake that may or may not have been Lake Como. I can't remember.


We also got to tag along while Corrado fulfilled a local tradition. We woke up at 5 a.m. on our first day in town to ring the bell in a little church on a cliff in honour of San Rocco, the town's patron saint. It was the town's annual holiday in honour of the saint, and that meant that in addition to getting up early to be the first people to ring the bell, we had to stay up late to enjoy incredible fireworks. It was a better show than the Celebration of Light, yo. There were parachutes involved.


Finally, I will always rememer this leg of the journey because it helped me fulfill a long standing tentative plan to own red shoes. I bought them from an Italian leather shop in Bellagio, and they are a dream. Holly likes red shoes too. Those are her Campers in in the top of the photo.

After Porlezza we went to Siena. I have a lot to say about Sienna, so you'll have to wait until I get home. Deal? Also, stop checking your mail box for post cards from us. We didn't send a single one.