We have been in Switzerland for 3 weeks, and we are still marveling at the beauty we see each day. Every new place we go we think “Can it get any better than this?” And then the next days comes, with new sights and experiences and yes, it just gets better and better!

So here is a summary of the things we’ve been doing. First of all, the “non-tourist” events.

We made some trips on our own to see the two schools Rick will be working at. At SPAI – that is a vocational high school, the secretary was very nice and showed us around a bit. As long as she spoke a bit slower in Italian, I was able to understand everything. We made an appointment for the next day to meet with the principal. That day, he gave us more of a tour of the school, and was very pleasant. A few days later we went to the main teacher meeting for the beginning of the school year. We briefly met some of the others in the PE department, and then our first teacher there who spoke English – a good person to know!

We also visited STA/SAMS – those are actually two schools near each other run by the same director. One school (STA) trains seamstresses in the production of clothing for the industry, and SAMS is a fashion design school which designs clothing for an individual. We had a few meetings there with the vice-principal and the principal – fortunately the principal speaks English. Our previous meeting with the vice-principal was held in French and I translated for Rick. This past Friday was the beginning of the school year teacher meeting for STA/SAMS. They introduced Rick, and he spoke a bit –all in Italian! He said just about everything he knew how to say in Italian! They really appreciated that.

We have also been doing errands to finalize all the paperwork for our 1-year permit to stay in the country. Apparently the visa from the consulate is not enough. The bureaucracy here is crazy. When we brought our paperwork, they worked so hard to find something wrong – something to make us go back and correct – whatever. But we won! I finally had everything just right and they couldn’t find a fault – yeah!

In our free time, we’ve still been tourists. Everywhere we go, we say “Can it get better than this?” And then each new place we go, we find that it gets better and better. It’s so incredibly beautiful here – I think I would say that of all the places I’ve been in the world (well, I haven’t been that many places), this would be the most beautiful – along with the Grand Canyon.

One day we took a quick train ride to the town of Ponte Tresa – a town which is ½ in Switzerland and ½ in Italy. We went to the Saturday market on the Italy side – where the Swiss go to buy things cheaper! Rick and I each bought a pair of Capri type pants – the kind that everyone is wearing here. Of course we also bought fruits and a sausage!

We took a train ride to Locarno, which is only about a 30 minute drive, but on the train it was about an hour. It’s like Lugano, but on Lake Maggiore, and the town is steeper – going straight up from the lake. Although it was raining in the morning, we sat out the heavy rain during our lunch, and afterwards the sun came out and we had the opportunity to explore the local castle and also the gorgeous gardens along the lakefront. We’re looking forward to returning to Locarno.

We also went to the little town of Gandria, Switzerland, which is really a short drive from our house. But it is a town that hangs off the cliffs into Lake Lugano, so it’s nicer to arrive by boat (not much parking!) We spent the day walking the steep little streets, but the best views were along the lakefront, with the flowered fronts of buildings growing right out of the water. We also had a great lunch hanging over the lake!

We also drove to a higher mountain town called Cademario – a town we can see from Comano. It only turned out to be about a 20 minute drive from our house! The view up there was spectacular, and my favorite part was finding a mountain meadow and taking a nice hike with Rick.

We have been very lucky. The last two weekends in a row, there were festivals happening in our town, Comano, and we didn’t miss out on them! Last week, on Sunday, Rick and I decided to take a hike up to the top of the small mountain we live on –called San Bernardo. We packed the cell phone and food and water – “just in case”, but as we hiked up, there were a number of cars parked along the way in the woods. Arriving at the top, we found the entire town up there! It happened to be the yearly festival for the patron saint of the town – Saint Bernardo! There was food and drink and games to play – an all day affair for the town. I even participated in the women’s “rock throwing” contest! (a heavy rock!) Then, we were told the fest continued into Monday, where for lunch risotto was being served! So of course we hiked back up the following day for the risotto!

Then, the following Saturday, there was a free concert in the park in Comano at 9pm. We fortunately ran into the woman who runs the little grocery store earlier in the evening, who told us that at 7pm there was a free macaroni dinner for all the Comano residents! We didn’t know about the dinner, but of course took advantage of a great evening to be with our town. There were nice tables set up for everyone, and a sweet table with desserts made by the townspeople. It was a great evening of food and music – and the setting!  Under the stars overlooking the lit-up towns below. It was another super moment – can it get any better???