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Aug. 23rd, 2006 12:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lollardfishWe're home safely, happy, and our digestive systems are more or less functioning normally. It make take a day or two for our bodies to re-develop the ability to digest dairy (the body expels those enzymes along with the bad stuff), and I'm wondering if we had salmonella. It lasts a little longer than other forms of food poisoning, and the culprit may well have been a chicken-egg-mayo-potato salad we bought in France on our last day. As long as we don't have various types of recurring symptoms, no lasting harm done.
At any rate, we spent our last few days in Italy in a grand old hotel on Lake Orta, the most western and one of the smaller of the Italian lakes.
Orta has few attractions, but they are stellar. In the midst of the lake is an island, once populated by dragons and serpents and other such pests, but in the 4th century St. Julius sailed across on his staff (using his cape for a sail), slew the beasts, and founded a church. Today, there are some delightful shops, a 12th century church with 15th century frescos (and some later), and a 15th-16th century crypt. The crypt holds the relics of Julius and a number of saints, replete with a big stone that has a 13th century inscription on the internal translation. This stone is useful to me, academically, and the whole thing was just a treat. The center of the island holds an active convent, and one can see the nuns about town.
The aforementioned town is "Orta," the spot closest to the island. It's build on a hill, and one can only drive to the center when one is taking one's bags to the hotels there. The roads are about an inch wider than my fiat panda, and people don't really like to move, so it was an adventure. The piazza and surrounding streets are laden with gelaterias, gourmet food shops (one of which sold me truffles), and other typical tourist "traps." The thing about Italian tourist traps, however, is that a lot of them sell nice stuff. We walked along a stone path that takes one far around the lake, road on boats, and otherwise had a splendid time. After two nights, we drove back to Milan, dropped off our stuff at the hotel, then drove the car to Bergamo and took a bus back. We had a lovely evening in Milan, although all of this would have been better if we could have eaten without fear. The trip home was long and not entirely pleasant, but at least we weren't actively sick during it. Enough said.
Lunch is one of my green-yellow striped tomatoes from the garden (the only two ripe when we got back) with balsamic, basil, olive oil, salt, pepper, on some of my home-made pasta from the freezer. On the side I've a little rucola and blue cheese salad. Yum.
At any rate, we spent our last few days in Italy in a grand old hotel on Lake Orta, the most western and one of the smaller of the Italian lakes.
Orta has few attractions, but they are stellar. In the midst of the lake is an island, once populated by dragons and serpents and other such pests, but in the 4th century St. Julius sailed across on his staff (using his cape for a sail), slew the beasts, and founded a church. Today, there are some delightful shops, a 12th century church with 15th century frescos (and some later), and a 15th-16th century crypt. The crypt holds the relics of Julius and a number of saints, replete with a big stone that has a 13th century inscription on the internal translation. This stone is useful to me, academically, and the whole thing was just a treat. The center of the island holds an active convent, and one can see the nuns about town.
The aforementioned town is "Orta," the spot closest to the island. It's build on a hill, and one can only drive to the center when one is taking one's bags to the hotels there. The roads are about an inch wider than my fiat panda, and people don't really like to move, so it was an adventure. The piazza and surrounding streets are laden with gelaterias, gourmet food shops (one of which sold me truffles), and other typical tourist "traps." The thing about Italian tourist traps, however, is that a lot of them sell nice stuff. We walked along a stone path that takes one far around the lake, road on boats, and otherwise had a splendid time. After two nights, we drove back to Milan, dropped off our stuff at the hotel, then drove the car to Bergamo and took a bus back. We had a lovely evening in Milan, although all of this would have been better if we could have eaten without fear. The trip home was long and not entirely pleasant, but at least we weren't actively sick during it. Enough said.
Lunch is one of my green-yellow striped tomatoes from the garden (the only two ripe when we got back) with balsamic, basil, olive oil, salt, pepper, on some of my home-made pasta from the freezer. On the side I've a little rucola and blue cheese salad. Yum.
