Another beautiful day weather wise. After grabbing coffee we took off on foot for the Unesco Heritage site right here in the middle of Orta San Giulio. Winding up the path (my legs are getting stronger) we passed by some huge private homes with beautiful landscaping and sculptures. Finally we reached the entrance to the park:

There are 20 chapels, built in the 16th century, of varying sizes and in each one are painted terra cotta figures depicting scenes in the life of St. Francis. What a dude! Buying into the Christian mythology is easy for me and I found the experience really moving . The focus of the site is the parallels of St. Francis’ life with the life of Jesus. Below, the first chapel, when Francis is born.

Some of the figures were more lifelike than others, especially this one of Pope Innocent III:

I enjoyed the small herb garden but things are still looking wintery.

We worked up a good appetite for lunch and had leftovers in the apartment. After a nice long rest, we took a walk around the village. There was a big wedding in the Palazzo Comunale and the town was full of dressed up folks. We went to sit by the docks for a while and some of them came out there too. Here was my fashion pick for best dressed wedding guest:

And here’s us sitting by the lake:

We went back to Pan&Vino for a very nice dinner. They boast “No Pizza No Pasta” on their sign outside. We started with Franciacorta and some marinated vegetables–peppers, mushrooms and artichokes. Then, I had polenta with gorgonzola-type local blue cheese and well cooked radicchio. What a great combo of bitter and sweet! Ken had a rice dish with sausage and vegetables which was very good. It was called “It’s Not Risotto.” We shared a glass of Gattinara red. Dessert was a plate of cookies with a wonderful sweet moscato, slightly sparkling wine from Asti. We finished with a local amaro wine–served with an ice cube, it tasted like vermouth.

So full, we took a very little walk and came back upstairs. We got a VPN so we watched some TV and said goodnight.