Adventures nearer home...

Today Mufasa and I slept late. The bells from the neighborhood church woke me up -- after mass. It was late. I was thinking I needed to get out of the house -- I've been sitting around here by myself too long. I called my friend Alesia to see what she was up to. She was going hiking with a Ticinese friend. Perfect. She came over and off we went.

Her friend Lisa(Leeeeeza)'s family has been in Carona for at least three generations. Carona is a small village in the mountains above Lugano. This was sounding promising. We drove to Lisa's house with Mufasa in the back.
I forgot my camera, so all these pictures are pilfered from other sites, but Carona is too cute -- a perfect old Italian village with streets so narrow one car barely eeks through.

We hiked pretty intensely for three hours -- all the way around the mountain, I think... through forests and the San Grato botanical garden, where a benefactor had imported azaleas enough to cover an entire hillside. It was all in bloom. Magnificent.

Mufasa's exhausted, but Alesia and I were hungry, so we asked Lisa where we should eat afterward. Oh. My. Goodness. We sat in an old walled garden and were served the best asparagus lasagna you could ever imagine -- no, you can't imagine this... fine, thin sheets of handmade pasta liberally coated in creamy, creamy, creamy bechamel sauce with fresh, tender asparagus in between the layers and a crusty topping of toasted parmesan cheese. We ooohed and aaahed while we ate. Alesia noted that it's Asparagus Month in the shops. I like asparagus month.