Yesterday we left Annie with Aunt Suzi, Lili and Rebecca while Markus and I drove to Italy. He wanted to meet with the owners of The Hotel to try to finalize their decision on whether or not he can renovate and run the hotel. It looks fairly positive…we should know for sure by the end of the month.
The drive to South Tirol was beautiful. I adore the Austrian farm houses perched on the sloping foothills of the Alps. We passed ancient churches, and castles that were older still. I still find the time frames of the buildings mind blowing, as I am from a country that is less than 150 years old.
I walked around the little town where Markus had his meeting, and enjoyed the warmth of the last days of summer. It is a very beautiful area; Markus explained that it was part of Austria before they lost one too many wars, which is why everyone speaks German as well as Italian. From the outside, the town seems quite rustic and rural. However, there must be some serious tourists, as there is a large store I poked around in that sells high-end Burberry and Prada (€2000 purses anyone?). I did see a very cute pair of sneakers for Annie, at a mere €115 (multiply by 1.5 to get the Canadian equivalent) with a matching pair for me for €170, but I refrained.
On the drive home we took a short detour to Brixen for lunch. What a great little town! They have an amazing old town with shops, restaurants, cafes and outdoor markets. Lunch at an outdoor cafe was house-made pasta with saffron, chanterelle mushrooms and crab, served with an interesting twist on a Caesar salad (none of the heavy creamy dressing here.) The pasta was so flavourful and not too big of a portion, which was a welcome change from the loaded plates served in NA. After lunch I looked around for a purse to buy, but didn’t see anything I liked. Well, I saw many that I liked but I’m not up for spending $500 on a handbag.
I’m sure these day trips are going to be my favourite part of spending this time in Europe. More to come!
