2011.03.28 Switzerland and Italy

We have just completed our second visit to Steve, Maria, Anna (9), and Kate (7) at their home in Switzerland. In October of 2010, we enjoyed gorgeous fall colors and clear cool weather. This time the flowering trees and spring flowers were at the height of their splendor, and the skies were mostly clear again. We had a bit of drizzle the day we were in Bern and one rainy morning that gave us an excuse to stay home and relax. The rest of the time we enjoyed sunshine and lovely views of Mont-Blanc and the French Alps across Lake Geneva. We spent some time in the area around Geneva on weekdays, but on Friday night Steve took us to the Piedmont  wine region of Italy for the weekend. We stayed in Alba for two nights, which allowed us to walk around in several villages, tour two wineries, and, of course, do  some tasting.

This house and neighborhood, complete with the family's own furnishings and toys, is perfect. Both generations have made friends--as they do wherever they land.

Bill and I took the train to Bern one day and walked around in the old city on a peninsula formed by the river Aare. This picture shows the Zytglogge (Bernese German for "TimeBell"), a medieval clock tower with moving puppets, and the city's medieval covered shopping promenades. We were glad for these covered arcades, since it rained lightly for much of the time we were there.

Since the 16th Century, Bern has had a bear pit. We walked to it, but the four resident bears were not out. While we didn't see the bears, we did see some great views of the city and its bridges from the bear pit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNacdVUM4ig

We returned from Bern in time to go to Kate's first grade spring concert. She was SO excited--as were we! The quality of this video is not great as we were sitting near the back of the auditorium, but it was such fun I just had to include it. Kate is in the second row from the back, third from right,  concentrating hard in spite of the two antsy little boys on her right. It would not upload here, so you need to click the link above to see it. It's sure to brighten your day!

Here's a happy Kate with her mom and sister after a successful concert.

 

This is the 1939 art deco League of Nations building, which is now a part of the United Nations complex in Geneva. In 1968 Bill did research in the archives here for his dissertation on Poland and the League of Nations between the two World Wars.

This newer United Nations building had not yet been built when we were here in 1968.

Here we are in one of the meeting rooms in the old building.

This is a view of the 1939 building from the newer building.

Across the street from the United Nations is the International Headquarters of the Red Cross / Red Crescent.  After our tour of the UN, we visited the museum here as well as a special exhibit on the intertwining lives of founders Henry Dunant and Gustav Moynier. While both were moved to humanitarian action, they differed on how to accomplish it and their friendship dissolved as they competed and Dunant suffered financial difficulties. Dunant is widely considered the founder of the Red Cross, but Moynier, who was its president for forty years, isolated Dunant. They never reconciled.

We ate lunch outside under these canopies in the courtyard of the Red Cross / Red Crescent International Headquarters.

These striking statues stand at the museum entrance.

We accompanied Maria when she picked Anna and Kate up at school. Kate took us into her classroom to meet her teacher and see some projects.

We saw acres and acres of grape vines and fruit trees, all carefully pruned and trained. These are fruit trees, but Maria didn't know whether they were apples or pears as they had not yet started to bud or leaf out.

Our trip to Italy started with a beautiful journey through French Alps, with amazing views like this one on the approach to Chamonix.

This statue and the flags stand at the entrance to the Mont-Blanc Tunnel on the French side.  The tunnel, which links Chamonix, France, and Courmayeur, Italy, is 7.2 miles long and took from 1957 to 1965 to build.

Bill and Steve are walking from our Hotel Savona in Alba to the Saturday market, where Steve wanted to find the cheese vendor from whom he'd bought Parmesan off a huge wheel when they were here with Maria's folks.

Steve buys his cheese.

Steve made appointments in advance that allowed us to visit the cellars of two Barbaresco wineries. Favio of the Andrea Oberto Winery gave us a very nice tour. Working for Diageo for several years gave Steve a good working knowledge of the business, and both he and Bill study wines as a hobby. 

Maria knew that her great grandfather had emigrated from the Piedmont region. You can just imagine how exciting it was to discover during her parents' visit that Bernardo Antonio Vittone was a great 18th Century architect. We saw two of his churches, one in Alba and one in Bra. As a young architect he had also done a restoration and remodeling of the municipal building in Bra. This is the altar in his church in Bra, Saint Claire.

This is the outside of Saint Claire Church in Bra. Both the exterior and interior designs of the Vittone churches in Alba and Bra are very similar to one another.

This is a typical view of the countryside in the Piedmont area of Italy--acres and acres of grapes. The best known wines from the region are Barolo and Barbaresco, which are made from the Nebbiolo grape. We can attest to the fact that these grapes make very drinkable wine!

Here are a couple of happy guys at the Marchesi di Gresy winery, where we enjoyed a tour and tasting conducted by Australian-bornCellar Master Jeff Chilcott. We were joined by five lively Russians from St. Petersburg who were on a wine tour.

The photo doesn't do justice to the steepness of this hill, but let's just say I'm glad I don't have to bike up this grade!

Before returning to Switzerland on Sunday, we indulged Steve in another of his hobbies, Napoleon, by visiting the Marengo Battle Museum and Napoleon's Headquarters. We lifted these muskets, which are unbelievably heavy.

Bill and Steve both got to pose in this hat.

Here's Napoleon himself outside the Marengo Battlefield Museum.

Napoleon established his headquarters here at Torre Garofoli. It took us awhile to find it as you need to follow a maze of country roads to get here from the museum.

We saw several tiny chapels alongside the roads.

On the drive between Italy and France we saw many towers perched on tops of steep hills.

Back in Switzerland, we took a train trip to Morges. This is Grand-Rue pedestrian shopping area there.

This is the Chateau at Morges.

And this is the Chateau at Nyon, the city nearest Steve and Maria with shopping and a railroad station.

From Nyon, one can see Lake Geneva and mountains in France from the town.

I am fascinated with the way Europeans prune back trees each fall. They come back lush and lovely in the summer.

Anna and I biked to a nearby marina on Lake Geneva to feed the ducks and swan.

Swans, we have learned, are not as friendly as they look. I got a serious hissss when the bread wasn't coming fast enough.

They don't need people throwing bread; they can find what they need by doing this. 

Anna took this picture o me at the Crans Marina.