It's a lago!

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Verbania is beautiful!
Today, we woke up kinda later in the morning (hooray for sleeping in!) to find Parker and Paolo sitting outside at the stone table, eating some cheese and bread and fresh coffee while chatting about something or another. Sooner or later, we four joined them for a wonderful breakfast.

We decided that today's plan was to head to a wilderness area 30 minutes away and hike up to the top of a mountain. We wore our most outdoorsy clothes, strapped on some sturdy shoes, and started on the winding drive up. Paolo decided to bring Sam, his dog, along on the journey, which was exciting for all of us. On our way we grabbed some food to take to the top to picnic on.

We stopped by a bridge over a river on our way up. There were some beautiful waterfalls and green trees surrounding us. It was quite a sight, but it wasn't the mountain, so we continued our drive up. It was a very windy (as in, the road winded, not that there was wind blowing) two-way one-lane road... at one point, we met up with a car going down that ended up backing up for about a minute until we reached a point wide enough for two cars. Yikes.

Finally, we got to the town below the mountain. We parked and hiked up. It was all very reminiscent of our outdoor ed trips, except we didn't have a huge backpack. A little less than an hour later, we broke through the tree line and got to the top of the mountain. There was a house/bar at the top where people can stay/have food/parties/whatnot. There were some old men sunbathing in very little clothing. Hooray for Italy! We found a spot on the hill to settle down and have a picnic of fresh mozzarella, bread, salami, tomatoes, and a Toblerone that Adi brought for dessert. Mmm.

After lunch, we chilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllled on top for a while and kinda bathed in the sun for an hour. Then we headed back down. Sweet!

Next stop: Lago! We went to a lago. That's Italian for lake. It wasn't Lago Maggiore (the big one), but the smaller cleaner nicer one next to it. There were quite a few locals sunbathing and splashing around. We decided to join them. The water was cool, but not cold.. it was pretty perfect. We tried catching the small fish in the lake, but they were quick.... After, we played some cards then went back home for dinner. Oh, Eleni went for a run.

Dinner was amazing. Paolo cooked (though he's very modest and said it was very easy to prepare). It was pesto pasta (some special kind of pasta whose name I forgot but it's made for pesto), a wonderful salad with olives and potatos and lettuce and onions and such, some warm bread, and some nice cheese. There was also some smelly cheese, but it was pretty good nonetheless. We also had some vino bianco and some licorice drink stuff that warmed us up. Dessert was some cream filled pastries (like millefoglie or something italian like that) which were delicioso.

After dinner, we headed up for some relaxation and, eventually, sleep.

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Photos

On top of the mountain
Relaxing after lunch

Paolo's dinner
Sam helping herself to the yummy pesto