Cari

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Geo: 46.1445, 8.72654

Today, we went to Steven's cousin, Danny de Bortoli's mountain house at Cari (near Faido, and the southern end of the St Gotthard tunnel). We drove for one hour along the main freeway up the valley, and then climbed and climbed and climbed! When we reached Cari, there was ice on the unmade road, causing a few moments of excitement - I don't enjoy feeling a car go backwards even when it is in Drive and Steven is touching the accelerator! Danny met us, and we walked the last 100m to his house, past the highest tennis court in Europe -1800m above sea level. Normally, at this time of year, they have 1m of snow, and they are able to ski down the mountain and into their garden, but now there are just patches of snow and ice, with much of the mountain grass still visible.

Danny (son of Natalina Perissinotto and Luciano de Bortoli) and his wife Sandra have a girl, Yasmin, who is 12yo - 11 months younger than Georgia, and a boy, William, who is 15. The kids all did really well - we sent them up to play in the bedroom, and Georgia managed to work out the rules of a board game that she had never seen, and then they all played a game of Jenga (tumbling towers). Tom was happy as he read a Guinness Book of World Records in Italian - he says he has the same one at home so just remembers the stories but it is amazing how much Italian the kids are understanding.

After a lovely pasta lunch, the kids went out to play. There wasn't much snow - much less than yesterday at Bosco Gurin - but they found some patches, and it was enough to toboggan, and to "penguin" i.e. slide on your tummy or back down the hill. Much hilarity - though when I tried the toboggan, I realised that the darn things don't have brakes, and I was headed for a stone wall!!! Steven and Matt went together on a toboggan, and we could have won Funny Home Videos when they nose-planted and both somersaulted into the air!

We all then headed off on a little walk up the mountain, towards the snow cannons. The views across the Alps were just incredible - apparently, we were seeing the other side of the mountains that we saw the previous day in Bosco Gurin! Danny's house is the last one accessible by road all year - there were little cottages as we went higher, but those have to bring everything up by skis in winter!

When we got to the snow cannon, an ice pond had been formed, and the kids had a great time slipping and sliding on the ice...I was nervous that limbs would be broken, but the only injury was poor Steven's bruised knees, when he fell. And to get back down the mountain? I thought they were joking when they said to slide down the snowy slope for a 100m, but they weren't!!!! Wet bums and many giggles!!!!

After a quick coffee and warm-up, we said our goodbyes and headed back to Ascona, as we were due for dinner at another cousin and Danny and Sandra were also packing up to return to their home in Brione s. Minusio (near Ascona).

We were early for dinner with Davide (son of Marcello Perissinotto and Gabriella de Bortoli) and Eva, so we stopped for a window shop at Mercato Cattori at Losone and bought fire starters...the wood stove at Il Monte is temperamental! Then, the GPS took us the oddest way to Davide's house - down an unmade private lane way, then up a street that was unfortunately closed for roadworks! Then, in the dark, we struggled to find which was Davide's house....but all is well that ends well!

Davide and Eva live in a big house in Losone, on the southern side of the Valle Maggia. They have 3 lovely daughters - Lisa (17), Linda (15) and Alice, who is the age as Matthew (8). The kids were really good - Lisa, who has good English, took them upstairs to play table soccer and much laughter followed. Davide is a Swiss border guard, and his shift work means it is harder for us to catch up with them, but it was a wonderful night with lovely people. Linda is vegetarian, and our kids dealt very well with the vegetarian lasagna (which was, by far, the nicest I have ever tasted!).

A lovely end to a great day - it is so nice to spend time with these cousins and realise that, even when you don't see each other for years, there is a an instant connection with these lovely, friendly people. We are blessed.

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