blog3dici

Why not visit Milano when you're in the neigborhood? You could buy the same flashy green trousers I bought there!
If you go, we recommend driving to Como (San Giovanni station) and taking the train from there to Milano (Porta Garibaldi)
It is cheap to park your car for the day at the station. The trains in Italy are also remarkably cheap. However, there is an expensive catch: After you buy the ticket(s) you should make sure to VALIDATE them by getting them stamped in one of the hidden, unobtrus...
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Just saw a video on Youtube by Dave Renkema featuring Elvira (his wife), Morena (Clay's daughter), Vera (Doriano's daughter) and Clay, the chef himself. See it here then go visit yourself when you're in Lezzeno. Great views, great food, great people. If you see Doriano (lives at number 25) he will suggest you go there anyway.
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In July we spent 2 wonderful weeks in casa3dici. We happened to have great weather. Not all of us have been that fortunate, but there is nothing we can do about that. Garden and house are finished. We installed a new oven, cemented the barbecue and painted the gate to the garden which now clearly marks the casa3dici property. Apart from that we just relaxed and had fun. We bought 2 mountain bikes and lost a lot of breath cycling along the lake.
We also went on a great hike with the Zwaan fami...
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Jaap's adventures  on Lake Como:

Now that we finally finished the restauration of Casa3dici, we can start using it in the way it was ment to be: as a shelter (the spanish call this Parador and created a chain of lovely hotels in the most beautifull places all around Spain) to be used when escaping from work and other less thrilling business in and around the place we live.

To enlargen our possibilities to "live" the lake we thought it a good idea to get ourselves a little boat, a RIO 500 40HP...
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We just spent a long weekend painting in Lezzeno with 12 friends from Holland. This time we did not paint the walls. This was ART weekend. We used casa3dici and my sister's house Fitzcarraldo just around the corner. Weather was much better than predicted. One of the friends is an art teacher and did a wonderful job providing useful feedback. First day we painted in the frazione itself. Next day in Villa Melzi (way too many flowers and leaves....). Day 3 we painted in San Giovanni. Here is my ...

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If you have a navigator in the car, here's another easy way to learn some directional Italian. Switch language and ... "andiamo".
Destra, sinistra, lascire autostrada tra otto chilometri, entri in la rotonda ed prendi la terza uscita, arrivato a destinazione. If you get lost, don't worry, Francesca (my patient navigator) will do a recalculo percorso. Unfortunately, you don't learn to spell it right.....

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Last week my wife and I spent a long weekend in Lezzeno to do some work on the house and garden. Jaap came along for 3 days. Apparently the week before there was still snow, but during our stay the weather was fantastic. We had lunch in the garden everyday.
We sawed the remaining wood in the garden and now have enough wood to burn the barbie for the next years. Barbecue to come soon after the gardiniere will have leveled the garden and put grass on which will happen in the coming weeks. With t...
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Some time ago, when staying in Casa3dici the shops were closed so we did not manage to get panini. However, we still had some pre-packaged sweet dough-ie things. The wrapper shouted these were Più Morbido!
Just to make sure, we checked the dictionary to find this did not mean More Deadly but merely that they were now Even Softer. Oh, well, better safe than sorry; we learn every day.

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