and more barga!

we spent several days here in the barga area. and today, we visited raymond and joan at their house. they spend a few weeks every year in barga in a house the raymond's father built in the 50s. it is a duplex that on the other side an aunt lived and that is where carl had stayed for awhile in 73 and probably some other years as well. after exploring both homes (the aunt had passed away and left it to her 7 or 8 nieces/nephews inc carl), we headed to a tiny mountaintop village that raymond and joan knew of.


there are literally like two buildings here and they are built in to the mountain.


a fresh water fountain straight from the stream.


i scaled the wall. just because.


dad overlooking the wall i was standing on.


the church. part man-made, part cave!


the inside of the church.


another building built into the side of the mountain.


joan, mom and andrew stopped and look at the birds. this is on the trail to a restaurant that is up there on the mountain.


at the mountaintop restaurant. it was a gorgeous view!


i really liked this tree... i thought it was so cool looking.


carl and raymond on the path back to the car after a great lunch.



after lunch, we headed back down to san pietro in campo to stop and see the church. it had been completely redone about 5 years ago and this is a picture of the school area and the priest's living quarters above. when my grandpa was a little boy, he was going blind. he had guacoma and his mom took him and his older brother to italy when my grandpa was about 5 to see if a doctor could help him since the doctors in america could not. my grandpa lived with his mom in the old farm house where lauro now lives and since there was not enough room, his brother who was 8, lived with the priest who was his uncle in the priest's quarters. the church is a 2 min walk from the old farm house. this would have been around 1917.

isn't lauro the cutest!!? this is just to the side of the church.


carl talking with lauro and nilo.


as they were chatting, i decided to play on the playground!


this was close to our hotel and a delicious gelato place. i liked the strawberry/lemon combo. there was the cutest lady working there!


this is a beautiful home in barga.


a pretty bridge in town


gate to the old part of barga


at dinner, we were joined by carl's other cousin, sergio, and his wife (gosh, can't remember her name!) that he had visited while we were in slovenia. they did not really speak english so i didn't really get to know them at all. raymond and joan joined us as well. they are all related to carl's mom's side of the family - so not related to me. we ate at the l'altana and this is a picture of their house wine. it was one of the best dinners i ate in italy! YUM!!! and the vino was so good. the reason the label is missing from the bottle on the left is because everyone wanted one for a souvenir. i became the label peeler. i've got my label and plan on framing it. it's got a nice drawing of the duomo and old town barga. it was a very long 4 hour-ish dinner and i was exhausted by the end. but carl's cousins were very nice and i had a great time!