Cooking Class with Laurie

We all woke up early today. Laurie and I were up first to shower and get ready for the day. Everyone else woke up soon after.

Katrina would be working from home today so she could pickup Brandon after school. Carolyn and Heather walked Brandon to school, then headed to Florence for a couple of days. Laurie and I were heading to Varenna for an Italian cooking class.

Laurie and I drove the hour and half to Varenna where we would meet the chef and he would drive us to his restaurant somewhere in the hills overlooking Lago di Como. We parked at the train station and walked to Piazza San Giorgio, the meeting point listed in my email and in the book. We ended up waiting for 45 minutes and called him twice (with no answer) before giving up. Bummer!!

We decided to make the most of the day since we were already on Lago di Como. I gave Laurie a short walking tour of Varenna and tried to filled her in on the interesting facts I could remember from when Katrina and I visited the town.

We made a loop around town and along the waterfront before returning to the car. Katrina had wanted me to take Laurie through Bellagion after our day of cooking, so now we had more time to do that. We drove down to the waterfront and waited for the next ferry to Bellagio.



Snow capped Alps on a cloudy day at Lago di Como


Fall colors in Varenna


Leaving Varenna by ferry




Varenna


Bellagio

We had a nice 20 minute ride across the lake. When we arrived in Bellagio I had some troubles getting the car started!?!? I don't know why and its done it a couple times since then.

I parked near the ferry landing and we walked around Bellagio a bit. What a ghost town. I suspect that most of the shops only open on weekend and holidays through the winter. Almost everything was closed. We were hungry and found a nice restaurant near the waterfront. Katrina and I ate there on our date weekend back in May and it was very good. Laurie had a raviolis stuffed with fresh lake fish. I had linguine con pesto. Of course, we had to have some wine as well.

After lunch I showed her around Bellagio a little more then we headed home.



The sun was starting to peek out a bit as we were leaving Bellagio.

We arrived home just in time for Laurie walk with Katrina to school to pickup Brandon.

Brandon had a bit of a rough day at school today. He's been having some troubles with his social skills and controlling his emotions when things don't go the way he thinks they should. We've been working with his teacher and have been making progress. Growing up - and being a parent is a continual learning process.

This evening we had a great pasta dish that Laurie chose from the pasta cookbook I bought in Florence recently. Mike came by for dinner, to meet Laurie and so that he and I could go to a movie. Yes, its an English movie Monday night at the Monza theater. We went to the 9pm showing of Inglourious Bastards.

Overall, it was a good day and it is nice to have visitors. Its fun to share our Italian lives with everyone. I hope more of you will come for a visit!!