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Published: June 14th 2017
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Geo: 46.1445, 8.72654
A wonderful quiet day, waking up at Il Monte and having the kids race to the windows and exclaim at the view! Then a lovely slow start to the day, with the kids running around the garden and feeding the 10 pet fallow (bambi) deer that live outside our apartment. Only low point was making coffee with hot water from the tap as we couldn't find the controls for Zia's stove (who would have thought to make a stove "touch screen" controlled!)
I should explain Il Monte. In the village of Ronco, where the aunties and uncles (zia and zio is Italian for aunty & uncle), the streets are tiny and pedestrianised – only the larger streets are 1 metre wide, some streets would be lucky to be 50cm wide and mainly stairs. Further up the mountain, (and I mean, about 500m straight up!) there are a lot less houses, and Zio & Zia have another house – the top part is a recently rebuilt home, where their son, Tino lives, and the downstairs is a little (1 bedroom and a sofabed) apartment, perfectly built for 5! It has the most amazing view, straight down to the lake, and
a lovely terrace which (in summer) is often the scene of family gatherings!
We went for a walk around Ronco before lunch (keeping our voices down – with three sets of relatives in the village, you can only go for a walk without being invited for coffee if you are quiet!) We showed the kids where, at the end of the village, the women gathered to wash each morning, only 50 years ago, and all admired the fantastic views over the lake, and posed for the obligatory photo at the panoramic point at the end of the village. Then We went to Zia Gabriella & Zio Marcello's for lunch (Marcello is Elio's brother, and very much like Nonno Elio – one of the little Swiss cousins (same age as Matthew) looked at them both and said “Two Nonnos now – I can't tell the difference!” It is more personality than looks, but they look very similar too). A lovely lunch, but I am always aware in these little houses that 3 kids make a lot of noise, and their movements are almost guaranteed to knock knickknacks off shelves and radiators. The Nonnos took the kids to the playground and we had
a good chat with Gabriella (to add to the cosiness of the relations living in Ronco, Gabriella (Marcello's wife) is the sister of Luciano (Natalina's husband)). Then the little house really swelled, as the cousins started to arrive to say hello – first Eurosia and her daughter Raissa (about 13yo) and then Martina!
We then went back to Il Monte, where Teresa & Romano joined us for coffee, whilst Matthew slept. Rita, Steven, Tommy & I ducked off to the Coop (local supermarket) to get some provisions, and then we had a lovely dinner at home at Il Monte with Tino (Steven's cousin, who lives in the house upstairs from our little apartment) and his children, Taira (10) and Matteo (8). These kids are very shy – Steven compared them to the deer which also live (as pets) here at Il Monte! But (without any real shared language), the kids (particularly Georgia) seemed to make friends with them, and we all had a great night!
Almost forgot - this was the night G got stung by stinging nettle on the hand - when she "grasped the nettle by the hand" - it rates big in her memory!!
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