Formaggi

"Ammiriamo i monumenti di Italia." - We admire the monuments of Italy.

Its Thursday and the forecast is: times of clouds and sun, high of 23c.

I had a hard time waking up this morning. Katrina slept chose not to get up at 7am like she usually does and ended up waking up at 7:45 with me and Brandon.

This morning I took the car and ran a couple of errands. First stop, the bank for more cash. Second stop, the model shop in Monza to see what they had in stock. Like all the previous model shops I've found so far, this one was 90% diecast vehicles of every make and size. I did purchase a couple of 1/87th racecars and the owner helped me track down two model train shops in Milan. Next time we head into the city I will try to track them down.

My Italian class went pretty well this morning. I am making progress. Language is a long slow journey for me, but I'm understanding more and speaking a little more each week.

This afternoon I walked over to pickup Brandon at school. We made a stop at Supermarcato Punto on the way home. They had fresh flowers at the front of the store, so I bought some petunias to add to the flower boxes on our balcony. We have several flower boxes on the ledge of our balcony. We also have a couple of large ones on the floor. One is a against the wall and has a trellis attached to it. I found a boganvilla in downtown Monza last week. I hope to return sometime soon and purchase it.

Formaggi (Cheese). Have I mentioned how much we are enjoying the varieties of cheeses available here?! In the almost four weeks we have been here, I don't think we have ever had less than 4 or 5 varieties of cheese in the refridgerator. Looking in the fridge right now we have Pecoricco, Grana Padano, Edelpiz, Gorgonzola Dolce, Parmigian Reggiano and Provolone. About once a week all we have is cheese, olives and wine.

Brandon had a pretty good Italian lesson this afternoon. Its a bit of a challenge keeping him focused after a day a at school. He's making great progress and is catching up to me quickly with basic vocabulary.

Katrina arrived home as Rosella, our Italian instructor, was finishing up with Brandon. She was anxious to show us her new laptop and pictures of her cats and dogs. She's a sweet woman and a lot of fun to learn Italian from. She wanted us to join her for dinner at her favorite cinese (Chinese) restaurant in Lissone, then next town over where she lives. We followed her to the restaurant and had a great meal. Brandon had pollo fritto con noci. I had pollo in crema d'arancio and Katrina had pollo con sedano e limone. Mine was great but Katrina's was excellent. The cinese food here is a bit different than in the states.

Its been a busy, but good day.