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| Map of the mountain villages near Cravegna |
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| Our house was at the arrow on the lower left of the picture, "a suburb" |
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| Pathway to our house - the white one |
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| Pathway to our house - going back |
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| Neighbor's house |
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| Other end of the house on the previous picture |
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| Neighbor's steps |
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| The front of our house |
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| Ramona at our bedroom balcony |
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| Old carved wooden front door |
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| Kitchen window with wild flowers given to us by the neighbor girl |
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| Kitchen with collection of coffee grinders |
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| Living room with tile fireplace |
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| stairwell with foreign flags |
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| Country Restaurant |
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| At the restaurant shown on the previous picture |
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| Looking in the other direction - up the valley |
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| Our car (Renault Twingo) at the only business in Cravegna - a grocery store |
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| Close-up |
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| The "street" to our house! Our directions said :left at the church then right at the crucifix: |
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| Rush hour in Cravegna, so we must wait |
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| Another street out of town, through the archway (and the house) |
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| View from our kitchen window of a typical old stone barn |
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| View from our porch, down the valley |
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| Day trip to Lake Orta - Isola San Giulio |
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| Monastery on the hill across the lake |
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| View of Orta San Giulio from the island |
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| Church on the island |
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| Doorway to lake for private residence |
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| Looking from our boat back to Orta S.G. |
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| Main Piazza in Orta |
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| We walked up to the Sacred Mount |
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| The trail up to the Mount |
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| Map of the Sacred Mount Orta |
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| Dedicated to Saint Francis |
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| Arch with St. Francis |
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| Signs to guide the way to the 21 chapels |
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| View of the island from the top and the approaching storm |
| 7/28/2011 |
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| One of the 21 chapels with life-size terracotta statues depicting a scene from the life of St. Francis |
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| Rest of the chapel |
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| The pilgrimage church at Bacena, a mile from Cravegna |
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| Fresco of St. Christopher |
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| Interior of church in Baceno |
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| Pulpit in the Bacena church |
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| Somebody turned on the lights! (2 Euros) |
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| Nave |
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| Frescoes everywhere |
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| View from the front of the church |
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| Priest's house |
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| Map of pilgrimage churches in our valley |
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| Toce River ele 10,000 ft. at the end of our valley |
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| Toce flows over the waterfall |
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| tumbles down the mountain |
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| and continues below |
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| Notice hotel and restaurant at the falls |
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| Close-up of the Toce falls |
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| Cascata, or waterfall - the story |
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| Very bizzare meal - risotto + venison + chocolate! |
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| Edelweiss Restaurant - our favorite and only 1.5 miles away |
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| We would sit here to use their free wifi... |
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| We arrive in Zermatt, take a picture on the hotel terrace with the Matterhorn peaking out of the clouds |
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| Historical Swiss house |
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| Historic area |
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| This one is ready for winter - some can be rented |
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| A little Swiss bar |
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| The goats are herded up the main street of Zermatt |
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| Matterhorn from the bridge, early morning |
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| We hiked up to Furi - about 1500 ft above Zermatt |
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| and found Edelweiss at a restaurant in Furi |
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| Mountain village on the way down, with split house |
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| Mountain "Rest Stop" although modern inside |
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| On the trail |
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| Getting ready for Swiss National Day, Aug. 1 |
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| Fuchs bakery for the Fuchs relatives |
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| City hall |
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| "Oklahoma style" BBQ |
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| Grilling Brats |
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| Raclette cheese |
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| Alpen horns get ready to play |
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| Tables on the main street |
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| Fife and drrum corps |
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| Fuchs bakery for the street food festival |
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| We had roasted pork and raclette for dinner - hard to choose what to get |
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| Amazing fireworks booming through the valley |
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| Peak of the Matterhorn as we prepare to leave our hotel room and return to Italy |
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| back in Cravegna - Dave reads his book under the grape arbor |
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| Top floor guest suite |
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| we used this as our reading room |
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| View of the neighbor roofs from our upstairs room |
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| View out the other direction |
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| Key to our front door |
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| Panoramic train to Locarno, CH on Lake Maggiore |
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| View from the panoramic train (Centovalli) |
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| We arrive at Locarno |
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| Lots of flowers |
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| Our boat we will take to get back home |
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| Still in Switzerland, but the Italian flag flies |
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| Peek at the golf course in Ascona where Dave played in 2001 |
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| Ascona dock |
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| We stayed at the Hotel Moevenpick in 2001 on Europe Semester |
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| Cannobio, another pretty town on Lake Maggiore |
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| Beautiful day to sit on the top deck |
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| Town of Verbania |
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| Borromee Islands off of Stresa |
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| Gardens on the island |
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| We say goodbye to Sophia, our neighbor and head back to Milan |
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