No zzz in Zurich

At the airport in Zurich we were met Elio and his son Paulo and it was great to see some friendly, familiar, welcoming faces. Within minutes my first Italian was in use. In the carpark "e lontana l'auto?". YES! Spoken like a native!

After a trip in Elio's Golf through many tunnels Kathy and I discuss our arrival. Would Rina have a meal waiting for us? Surely not. Remember, we had had brekfast in the hotel, light lunch at the Incheon Airport, two meals on the flight and a snack on the flight from Vienna to Zurich. Our primary need was BED, not food! But our lovely hostess Rina had prepared a lovely welcoming dinner for us, so we chat over a lovely traditional Italian meal before crashing into bed after midnight. We thought we would be sleeping in the spare room but the was no spare room and our lovely hosts had prepared their own bed for us.




Elio had spoken to me as I arrived at their apartment in Italian, and though I had not understood I had laughed and did not want to let on I had no idea what he had said. When Kathy told me later, I realized my reaction was inappropriate. I was moved to find Elio had told me to treat his apartment as my own; meanwhile, he and Rina were staying at his son's place in circumstances we didn't know but suspected were less than perfect.

We awoke only at 9am to find the table already set and a lovely Italian breakfast awaiting us. Ah, the REAL coffee, croissants, mmmmm.





The rest of our time in Zurich was spent catching up with old friends who Kathy knew in her childhood in Southern Italy, who now work in Zurich. Not many jobs in the South. It was a special, rich time of renewing old relationships and catching up on where life had taken each person.

I was so heartened to find I could communicate in Italian and when one of the friends asked if I could speak Italian, I replied modestly "solo un po" (only a little). Elio added "abbastanza" (enough) which I found enormously encouraging.




We also had some time to look around Zurich. The Lake dominates the city, which is also very sophisticated.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day but towards the end I was trying to keep Kathy awake by neck massage before we bade our hosts good bye and slumped into bed!

Location:Zurich, Switzerland