June 21

We have spent much of the last several days exploring the town of Ponte Di Legno. The life is so layed back here and the beauty cannot be conveyed in words. The town is simple and quaint with shops blending seamlessly with homes and built around a furious torrent of melted ice water that flows down from the mountrains through the valley. The people are so friendly and nice, but unfortunately for us do not speak English. This is something that we really cannot fathom. The Italians seem to be so nationalistic that they don’t teach English in their school. Whenever we try to communicate with locals we have speak slowly and use hand gestures to get them to understand. They also seem frustrated by this language barrier but do their best to help us. I have to say though, the language barrier doesn’t bother me. The Italian language is so beautiful that it sounds like poetry as it rolls of their tongues. I just love it!

While in Italy we also wanted to try the food, and when we went to the “supermercato” we bought some of the local meats such as “salami nostrano” and “cotte d elle”. The food in Italy is amazing and the people here take great pains to make sure their food is fresh. One day we decided to try “gelato” at a local gelateria and were pleasantly surprised at the numerous flavors of ice cream one could get such as pistachio, hazelnut, tiramisu, walnut, and others. During the past week I was also able to take in a World Cup match at local bar and drank a lovely frothy cappuccino and ate pizza margheretta with a bunch of German fans who cheered on as Germany routed Ecuador. Here is picture from the town of Ponte Di Legno.