A Simple but Good Day in Varese

Thursday, January 24, 2019

It was a glorious, crisp day today in Lombardia, a good day for a walk.

It started as I left the Villa Skorpions II

complex to go to the local bar for

a delicious cappuccino

There are seven separate apartments in the Villa Skorpion II complex which is a converted 17th-century inn originally built for travelers from Zurich heading towards Rome by horse drawn coaches.

My next order of business was to get myself a library card so as to gain access to English language books and, hopefully, a slew of DVDs as well.

The Varese City Library

was just the spot I needed

GOODNESS, they still have a

classic card catalog

I'm already loving this arrangement!

 Lots of English language books

Some are listed as being in the American language too.

Federica who speaks good English

and visited California a decade ago

helped me get a library card

I am now a full fledged member of the Varese Library body of users.

It was time to celebrate with another café and a small pastry.

STYLIN' at my favorite

Varese café bar

Love those glasses, don't you?

For lunch I had my first Arancini

ball of the New Year

It was a solid ragu arancini by northern standards but it would not fly at Catania's famed L'Etoile D'or where the arancini is straight from Sicilian heaven.

 A shopper in a fine fur coat

at the Carrefour Market

You have to look good when you are going about the city in the wintertime.

The Lions Club is a

fine organization indeed

I just liked this bright

yellow downtown home

A small urban park with

two interesting monuments

This one is dedicated to the Italian

Army's Logistic specialists who passed away

either in combat and/or by freezing to death

138th Anniversary of Glory

138th?

 A great looking soldier

on the 138th Anniversary Statue

Cool feathers in that hat! 

A municipal building with a bit

of a Fascist architecture look to it

What the deuce is an agility dog?

In the evening, we met with others in the Skorpion family in the village of Vedano Olona to attend the Rosary for our friend Attilio Chiurato who passed away Tuesday night.

As a result, our normally scheduled Thursday night practice was cancelled.

 We met at this bar that serves

XXXX Australian Beer

Mexico's great beer only rates XX.

The Rosary was said in an SRO church full of people offering their strength and support to Attilio's family.

This was a strong showing of the positive family bonding experience that is a fantastic by-product of being part of an American football team.

After the Rosary, many team members and their families met at Skorpion Field to share some pizza and a beverage or two while swapping Attilio stories and simply enjoying a meal with one another.

The typically thin crust  pizza

is order one pizza to a customer

  

That means we needed a LOT

of pizzas!

Attilio's funeral will take place tomorrow morning.

There is strength in family.