On our way to Monttarone

Orta San Giulio

Fri 25 Sept – Sat 26 Sept 2015

Our five year anniversary was spent visiting some amazing spots in the area. On our actual anniversary (Friday) we packed a picnic lunch of egg salad sandwiches, popcorn and little ‘juice box’ sized white wine. We drove up the mountain to Mottarone which we were told had amazing views of the surrounding lakes and Alps. We were not disappointed. Luckily we had a beautiful and warm day and we could see for miles in the distance. Mottarone is a small ski resort in the winter and makes claims of being able to see seven lakes – we could only spot six though. Lago Maggiore was the largest and most impressive but we could see our little lake too (it was great to see it from such a different perspective)! After our picnic lunch we went for a ride on a little luge track, come roller coaster. We each got our own car because Matt wanted to go much faster than Natalie (you controlled the speed and breaks yourself).

Our original plan was to go out for dinner but there was a group leaving ‘Centro’ and the chefs were making their special lasagna and tiramisu which we absolutely couldn’t miss! So we headed up for a romantic dinner with our fellow working guests. Then we stayed and had a few drinks at the bar.

Celebrations continued the next day with a quick swim in the lake after lunch and then we got dressed up and headed to Orta San Giulio to explore the little town and have our private romantic dinner. Orta was really special because it has a lot of historic buildings and there is a little island within the municipality that has a monastery on it. You can see it from most points around the lake but the main piazza in Orta has great views of it. After poking around the town we had a lovely meaty meal and a generous portion of gelato for dessert. The whole experience was an anniversary to remember!!

View form Omegna looking down the lake

Fishies

Jazz art

Omegna was the biggest town on the lake, located at the northern tip. It had lots of amenities like banks and a hospital. We had a few trips here during our stay – very lovely. That is all.

The ‘small’ waterfall

the ‘big’ waterfall

Oh the elusive waterfalls! We heard about these waterfalls when we first arrived, a ‘must see’ for any working guest at ‘Centro’. It took us six weeks and many explanations later to find them. It wasn’t that they were hard to find or very far away but the directions were somewhat confusing when they were verbally explained. Also, we didn’t get around to it as we were spending lots of time at the lake.

To clarify there are two sets of waterfalls; the ‘small’ and the ‘big’. The small waterfall was actually pretty big the day we visited as it had rained for a few days before so there was lots of water. We weren’t quite sure how to hike up to the big falls (so named as there are many falls flowing down) so we returned to the big falls a few days before we left. It was a wonderful autumn day – we saw lots of different mushrooms along the way and the leaves on the oak trees were turning glorious colours! Glad to say we ticked those ‘must see’ destinations off our list.

View from Dolphins Bar

Matt, Ash & Lennart jumping off the dock

Lennart & Jess

We spent a lot of our free time swimming in Lake Orta at the town of Pettenasco. The lake shore was only a few minutes drive from our house. We were lucky to have lots of free afternoons and days off to enjoy it! During our two months stay, we had (what seemed like) a lot of rainy and rather cold days but we still managed to go for a quick dip almost every week. Matt was even swimming in the rain one day. It was warm enough to go swimming on Thanksgiving Sunday (our last swim of the season). Near the end of our time at ‘Centro’ we discovered Dolphins Bar. While we had seen it many times on our way to the lake, we popped in for a cappuccino a few times in October. When it wasn’t warm enough to swim, it was still lovely to sit by the lake with a coffee and enjoy the views.

Best view on our way to work

Toni the pony greeting us on the way to work

View from the pool terrace

Big spider in one of the rooms we were cleaning

View on the way home after a dishwashing shift

Casa Bisetti

Casa Bisetti (view from our balcony)

Otto – Casa Bisetti cat who is always up for a lie in the sun

One side of our room on the day we left

Found this little guy in our room on the second night

Volunteers handprints on the kitchen wall

Chill cat

Matt tending the bar

Canadian Thanksgiving

The wood shed

Butter and chocolate melting together and an excited Matt

Sun 23 Aug – Mon 19 Oct 2015

We spent the last 8 weeks volunteering at Centro d’Ompio, located just above Lake Orta (near Lago Maggiore and Lake Como, in Northern Italy). ‘Centro’ is an international seminar center and hotel for conferences, training and workshops. We were lucky enough to be two of around 12 volunteers working over the last two months. We met some amazing people and made life long friends.

We arrived on a Sunday evening and crashed a birthday party for one of the workers but got to try some yummy birthday cake! It was a great way to meet everyone. We lived in the staff house, Casa Bisetti, with the other volunteers  in the village of Pratolungo and hiked the 15 minutes up a rather steep hill for work and meals. We had a cozy bedroom on the first floor with a low ceiling,  dark wooden floors, an old closed up fireplace and one of the windows was covered in ivy – very romantic. We did have to go on a bit of an adventure to the toilet or to have a shower, but it was a bit like camping and all good fun (when it was warm and sunny, not as much fun in the rain, cold and middle of the night).

When there were paying guests, several professional chefs cooked the most delicious vegetarian food (buffet style) and we discovered some yummy things like nutritional yeast, gomashio (toasted sesame seeds) and lapacho tea that we will incorporate into our diets when we settle down again someday.

We did a lot of different tasks during our stay and we even had a schedule – Natalie loved the organisation and structure of it all. Matt was usually assigned to handyman duties which included chopping wood, painting and moving things around. He even got to tend the bar when Barmichael was away for two nights. Natalie mostly did housekeeping that involved cleaning and making rooms for the guests. She also did a lot of kitchen shifts that involved prepping the many, many vegetables needed to feed between 30-60 people. She even prepared meals for the volunteers (when there were no guests) including breakfasts and a special Canadian Thanksgiving meal. We both did our share of washing dishes too! All in all we learned a lot of new skills and picked up a few tips about running guest accommodation and working in a professional kitchen.

Most evenings were spent hanging out with the other volunteers. There were two BBQs, a few jam sessions, many nights of playing cards, sharing stories and laughing a lot. More to follow on that and some of the day trips we had during our stay…