Torino w/ Thom and Rosa

Lunch in Piazza San Carlo with Thom and Rosa...

Thom and Rosa popped in for a short weekend visit - we toured Torino center Sat, including a trip to the Egyptian Museum - claimed to be the best in the world behind Cairo. Clearly some early Italian Indiana Jones types brought back everything they could!

Fortunately, the many MUMMY'S did not cause any bad dreams - yet!

Eze, Cap Ferrat & Monaco

While our Portland friends were riding in the 4th annual "Not Dead Yet" Cancer fundraiser, we all raised a glass in Cap Ferrat and thought about you all - sorry to have missed the lobster bake afterwards!

"Not Dead Yet" at Cap d'Azur

We drove down to the SE coast of France, between Nice and Monaco to visit Peter and Mimi from back home (who were here for a few fun days away). While they stayed at the luxury Grand Hotel d' Cap Ferrat, we hung out with them at their beautiful pool overlooking the Med and watched the mega yachts roll by.

With the Monaco Yacht Show starting in a few days, the mega yachts were parading buy the hotel and into the harbor here in Monaco.

Below, Claire is thinking about becoming a Princess, so she can live in the Royal Palace here in Monaco - the girls enjoyed the changing of the guard which we happened to stumble onto.

At the Grand Hotel Cap Ferrat - wonderful warm salt water pool, the girls spent most of the day in the water and Peter, Lila and I later had a nice swim in the Med. Julia here enjoying the life...

This was the pool restaurant at the hotel - wonderful view, you too can get a hamburger for about 70 bucks!

The view from Eze, where we stayed, overlooks St. Jean Cap Ferrat - it's really beautiful up here! Eze d'alpes was a nice small town only a short drive up the mountain and had a neat old village at the top.

With the steep roads up to the really nice hotel (we didn't stay at this one) - don't fret, use the baggage carrier (the "Bagagiste").

Torino images

Ciao! Thought you all might want to see a few more pictures. Enjoy!

For some really awesome photos of Torino sites, visit this blog I found of great images: http://torinodailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

View from our living room balcony over the river Po and Torino Hills. The dome on the left is Gran Madre di Dio and the top of the hill is Monte dei Cappuccini(http://www.comune.torino.it/chiese/cappuccini.htm). Just across the bridge there in the gran Madre area is some great grocery shopping, restaurants and more.

Piazza Vittoria at dusk, before the restaurants open or the bars get going. This pzza is just one block from our apt- great coffee shop (called bar here, and it is that at night!), just near our side of the pzza.

Lila and Claire at their new school in Moncalieri- so far they love it! They are making new friends and learning Italian faster than I am (Julia on the other hand is already speaking in Italian and through the school and a International Womens group well on her way)! The school is only about five miles away, but with the traffic in the AM, it takes a good 30 min to get there.

Bootsie (Jim's Mom) here for a visit. This is in our living room - we love the 15' ceilings and TALL windows! The apartment has worked out great and were feeling very lucky to have scored this spot for the year. Parking on the other hand has been slightly more challenging - after several 35-Euro parking tickets, I think we have started to figure it out. The little Smart cars are perfect for the city as they can park straight in on parallel parking spaces when no one else can possibly fit.

Weekend up at Lago Maggiore

Hello all! The Brady's are well and getting all settled in. The girls started school on Sept. 8 at the International School of Turin - which is an English speaking school. We will update you further when we have internet access at home (things move very sloooooow over here).

Ciao for now!

Claire at the Superga ( http://www.comune.torino.it/chiese/superga.htm) - which overlooks the city of Torino from the hills - built by the ruling Savoy family in the 18th century- lots of royalty buried here...
The 5 photos below are all from a weekend we had in Stresa up on Lago Maggiore, only about an hour and a half NE of Torino. The Borromeo islands are beautiful, as you will see here.