Buddy's Blog

I’m having computer troubles. You’ll have to wait for more vacation slides until I get it straightened out. (What’s that cheering I hear in the background) And it might be a few days. I have a guest coming in tomorrow, and then at the beginning of the week I have a rather unpleasant medical episode to endure.

Related to that, did I ever tell you about a sigmoidoscopy I had about 15 years ago? My doctor, great guy, was an amateur banjo player. I saw him the week before, and I told him that I had a banjo. I brought it in with me the following week when I was to have my procedure. I was showing him my banjo in the waiting room when the nurse came out and told me it was time for my sigmoidoscopy. She left me in the exam room. I dropped my pants, turned around and assumed the position. When the doc came in I played Dueling Banjos. He told Frau G that he thought I was nutz.

  BTW, the guy who is coming in tomorrow is my old friend and terrific musician, Tom Saputo. I was out today renting a keyboard for a gig he has tomorrow night. After my episode with the doctor I gave Tom my banjo.

Frau G has relatives all over Italy. Her grandparents were from Sicily. Her cousin in Camaiore is a world renown surgeon, and after Lucca we stayed with him for four days. Camaiore is about 30 miles from Lucca. Frau G met her cousin when he was about 21 and she was 17. His house has been in the family for many years. It was built in 1475. It’s full of classical works of art hanging on all the walls. Beautiful antique furniture. Rooftop terrace. Just gorgeous. I’m sorry, I would show you the terrace, interior and paintings, but that would be an invasion of his privacy.  He showed us a wonderful time. Took us to his Camaiore Beach club. Perhaps you’ve heard of Viareggio. The beach starts there and then runs north for about 25 km. It’s very beautiful with cabanas up and down the entire length. I swam in the sea there. His club has a beautiful swimming pool as well. Swam there too. We went to the beach on  three days. It was really really nice.

While we were in Camaiore they were having their annual week long festival. Music, about 50 or 60 flea market booths, puppet show, a concert by an excellent Abba tribute band. And lots of food.

While we were in Lucca we took a tour of a couple vineyards. This is Tuscany.

Notice all the olive trees to the left and behind the vines.

If you happen to see this wine at your local Walmart, buy it. Delicious.

This next vineyard was very old. They still made wine like they did hundreds of years ago.

They use hickory barrels in Tuscany, so the wine doesn’t have much flavor of oak. The hickory comes from the Black Forest.

Then we went to Lucca which is an old walled city near Pisa. We stayed in a very nice B&B which had AC. It was awfully hot, just as in Lecco.

Puccini was bornin Lucca. His family home is a museum:

Even some postcards:

That shot was taken from the wall which encircled the city. It’s wide enough to drive on.

Lots of churches…

On our last day in Lecco we took a long walk down along the river that drains Lake Como. This is Chiesa Parrocchiale dei Santa Materno e Lucia e Convento dei Cappuccini. It was built as a Capucian monastery in 1576. The inside is very cool:

The altar is beautiful. The little figures in the glass cases depict events in the life of Christ.

Along the river is a lovely park

I’m running late today and we have folks coming over, so, and I’m sure you’re devastated, no pictures from Italy today.

Hey, Summer’s not over for Ernie yet…

The City of Como lies at the bottom of the western branch of the lake. It’s much larger than Lecco, and also a tourist hot spot.

This was the Saturday replacement for the one I posted yesterday. That one was going nowhere.

As I said yesterday, Bellagio (not the casino in Las Vegas) is at the tip of the Lake Como Peninsula. It’s possible to drive there, but parking would be a problem. We took the ferry from Lecco which, if I recall correctly was a 45 minute ride, stopping at several towns along the way. Bellagio is a small town, and there were easily 2000 tourists there. It’s on a steep slope and the streets, if you could call them that, are very narrow. It’s a picturesque town to say the least. We had a fabulous open air lunch in Ristorante Bilacus under their trellis. The fish was perfect. Mind you there isn’t much AC in Italy. I bought a nice Italian shirt and silk tie in a little men’s shop across the lane. Here’s Bellagio:

I didn’t publish that one. First, it wasn’t funny, and second, it kind of a dead end. Tomorrow I’ll post it’s replacement.

One day while in Lecco we took the passenger ferry to Bellagio, which is at the tip of the Lake Como Peninsula. The lakeside villages along the way are quite picturesque.

Tomorrow I’ll post photos from Bellagio.

This just in from my old friend, Fred.

Coilico is at the northern tip of Lake Como. One great thing about Italy and most of Europe is that you can get almost anywhere on the train. Like we did to Colico.