Exploring Varese & Sacro Monte

We were lucky enough to hitch a ride up the driveway AGAIN to go into town on our day off. Rita (barbara's mother) was going to do errands, so we hopped in the car and off we went! Unfortunately we didn't realize we would make multiple stops before arriving to town haha..

Exploring Varese

Upon arriving, Robin guided us to the "info point." Here, they have information on events in Varese, as well as a map! On the down side, the map is not very detailed.. so Autumn and I spent the next hour wandering through tiny, cobblestone pathways from plaza to plaza. The only way to orient ourselves was by plaza names (when we came across one), because those were fortunately labeled on the map!
After a bit of wandering, we had our first taste of true italian gelato (in italy that is). I got "latte e menta" and "cioccolatto," milk/mint and chocolate. I really enjoyed the chocolate, but not so much the mint :-). We then wandered into a small cafe to find something more substantial, however after sitting down to analyze the menu and figure out how to ask for the things we wanted, they were all out of most things! There was no salmon for autum, and although they did bring me milanese... it was small, and not very delicious. So, we each got a plate of tomatoes & fresh mozarella, which held us over for quite some time.

Sacro Monte

After exploring, we got on a bus to Sacro Monte, a high point in Varese with a beautiful view of the city. We accidently got off the bus at the wrong stop, and didn't realize it until it had already left! So, we sat on a bench for 40 minutes waiting patiently for the next bus to bring us to the right place! When it did come, it was about a ten minute bus ride up a very windy road! We hopped off the bus, took some pictures of the view and hopped back on (in hopes to not wait another 40 minutes). It was very beautiful. We could see most of the city and even some snow-covered mountain peaks!

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When we arrived home, we re-arranged the room we are staying in. Robin had already left to return home, so Autumn took her double bed, and I moved my bed closer. We also swept because I accidently dropped a lamp & glass shattered everywhere :( Oops!
Rita kindly offered me some delicious anguria (watermelon), but when I attempted to eat it at the table outside of our room, I was attacked by mosquitos! I had to finish it alone in the kitchen :(...

----------------------------------NEXT DAY----------------------------------

Last night, Rita asked us to be awake & ready by 8:30 a.m.! Yikes, that is earlier than we have ever been asked to wake up. Low and behold, we were up and ready, waiting in the kitchen for someone to come give us a job to do! We had a very unproductive morning because it is difficult to communicate with Alessandro (Barbara's shy brother).

We ended up scraping a little bit of cow poop, feeding a few animals and then asking barbara for our next job. She set me up with the lawn mower in her garden. I spent a couple of hours mowing the grass with a push mower. It wasn't so bad because it was a beautiful day & we were able to take a water break every 30 minutes or so. However, I saw one of the BIG BLACK SNAKES today!!! It was while I was mowing, and I screamed and turned off the mower. With no exaggeration, the snake was about as round as an oreo and 2 feet long! I am no longer so fond of the garden...

My terrible afternoon

We stopped working in the garden around noon because Barbara says the sun is too hot to work midday. I took some frizzante (sparkling water) to the patio and sewed a pair of autumn's pants for about 15 minutes. I then started to feel a bit nauseas, and it only got worse as more time passed. My stomach hurt, I was a bit dizzy, and all I wanted to do was lay down. So, I went inside and relaxed on my bed for a few hours.. I felt so sick and I didn't know why...

At one point, I asked Autumn to google some information on Sparkling water. That was what I had been drinking all day, and aside from that I only had one egg and some yogurt! So, she checked it out and found out the bad effects of sparkling water... Basically, it is not good to drink a lot of it (like I had done), because it leads to dehydration, and it is very acidic due to the carbonation. I think the fact that I drank so much, in place of natural water caused me too feel very sick.

So, after laying down for a few hours to rest, I felt somewhat better by 4 p.m. (when we were suppose to meet barbara for more work). Unfortunately, she had a meeting with an advertising guy that lasted until 6, so we wasted a bunch of time waiting for her in the kitchen, clueless as to why she was not there. Then, when she finally did come, she sent us to ask Alessandro what we needed to finish in the barn before the day was done. He said "feed the horses," but we needed him to prepare the mix, which he said he would do. We asked him multiple times, but each time he was distracted by something else and we ended up waiting around for an hour in total. In the end, we didn't feed them -- he did.

It is a bit frustrating to work with alessandro, only because he is shy and hard to communicate with. He speaks very quickly because he is nervous and doesn't tell you what to do unless you keep asking and follow him around -- but even then it's hard. So, we asked him tonight, what we can do when we wake up in the morning, and he told us to feed hay to almost all of the animals.. So, we'll do that and hope for a better day tomorrow!