A Day in the Mountains

I met Allesandra at McDonald's on a Friday afternoon. I was most likely yelling at one of my children in English when one of her twin sons made his way over to his mother and said, in Italian, "Loro parlono in inglese" (they speak English). As life would have it, a friendly Allesandra introduced herself and told me that her boys go to an English-speaking school and thus her interest in American culture was heightened. We continued to see each other for several months on some Fridays and then finally we got our families together. They have a lovely little flat in the mountains and they invited us a few weeks ago for a "grigliata" (a barbeque). It was a beautiful day in Sestriere, home of some of the winter Olympic games in 2006. We walked a trail through the luscious green hills, in the midst of the French Alps and hunted for mushrooms, watched for prairie dogs, drank from fountains that are always running with mountain water, discovered a little cheese farm, complete with a little puppy that followed us all the way to the car, and enjoyed the great company and their knowledge of their little mountain city. Thanks Allesandra and Roberto! These pics are for you guys!