Our dear friend Linda took us to the Tallahassee airport where we flew to Atlanta for a nice long layover in the Delta Lounge.  We had a nice little lunch there, although I had a chocolate chip cookie AND a brownie—not a good start.

The non stop flight from ATL to Milano Malpensa was long—9 hours—but super comfortable. Thanks to modern medicine, I slept a solid 4 or 5 hours, Ken, not so much.

We got our rental car and started our drive to Lake Iseo.  Just past Bergamo, we turned left off the freeway and headed north to Iseo.  After finding a parking spot we got out and met Camilla, whose family owns this place.  We had a perfunctory introduction to the apartment.  Funny, there always used to be a “house book” in each place with restaurant recs, garbage instructions, city maps etc.  Now, she just sent us a bunch of links through the airBnb messaging system—no paper involved.

Here are the views, left and right, from our little balcony:

Feeling pretty disconnected from reality, but functioning on fortitude and in fog, we walked over to the supermarket.  I was thinking of making a pot of soup that would last us a few days.  Half-way home, however, I realized we forgot to buy olive oil and beans.  Oh well.

Actually it was Ken’s birthday so we had a perfect excuse to go out for a nice dinner.  The restaurant, San Martino, right on the lake, was hopping and we were lucky to get a table.  Most people were getting beautiful pizza but I wanted something else.  We ordered a bottle of Franciacorta, the fabulous, sophisticated, sparking wine of this area which is much more like Champagne than Prosecco.  I had pasta with seafood and Ken had a mixed fried seafood and potatoes plate.  

A big table of young women celebrating a graduation came in.  The graduate was adorable with her laurel wreath.

Walking home, I realized I was a little tipsy—no more full bottles for us!

Though I am a bit rusty in my first day of blogging, make no mistake that we are both thrilled to be here. Breathing the Italian air, hearing the language, and figuring out all the quirks of the local culture….priceless, which suits us just fine.