Visioni de Bellinzona

My first day at the practice was uneventful. It was a Friday and Carlo's partner was out of town so they didn't take on as many cases; consequently it was rather slow so for me it was a lot of standing around listening to people talk in Italian since most of them don't speak English. You have to change into scrubs and wear croc-like shoes and I felt really official even though I didn't really know what was going on. Carlo wanted to give me a day to watch and get the feel of everything and I will start for reals on Monday.
Mi mama italiano, Marie-Helen is an avid reader, so she took me to the Bellinzona library. They have a large section in English so I got some books then we were off to one of the castles! There are no cars allowed in the inner portion of Bellinzona and its all these little shops and cobblestone streets.
These pictures took FOREVER to upload so I hope you enjoy them. :)

The castle is built into a big piece of rock.

The colorful town as seen through the arrow hole things.

This is me with Marie-Helen. She's awesome. Over our left shoulders is the second old castle and up on the hill is the third. 

They have this traveling exhibition of sculptures in the center of the castle. Naturally, I needed a picture.

Yay feet! I had to take a picture to prove to myself I was actually there. :)

A vision of the old through the new.

A lot of Bellinzona seems to be a mixture of the old and the new, like here with the colorful modern houses in the shadow of the castle.

On Saturday, I slept in till almost 10:30!! That was shocking because 8 is usually super late for me. I guess its just left over jet lag or something. Anyway, every Saturday morning there is a market in Bellinzona so Carlo and I rode our bikes there to pick up some fresh fruits, vegetables, and cheese. 

That's Carlo in the foreground. He knows everyone in this town. Literally. 

Carlo waiting to buy vegetables. 

These are probably cow or horse. I actually tried horse but I didn't like it that much. That may be because I felt like I needed to make an apology to the equestrian world afterwards. 

I was digging this guy's outfit. Especially the hat.

A very large flip-flop. 

The cheese here is beyond amazing. Whoever named swiss cheese (the american kind) clearly did not have eyes or taste buds, or had ever set their pinkie toe in Switzerland because cheese here is creamy and smooth and non-rubbery and basically the best thing ever. It's funny how much they hold cheddar cheese in disdain here but after having some of their cheese, I can hardly blame them. 

Look at all those herbs! Marie-Helen has a basil plant growing outside her kitchen window and puts it in salads or with tomatoes and cheese.

You know, I was just saying to myself the other day how much I would use some gigantic fake flowers! They shall go nicely with my oversized flip-flop.

Just your average telephone call. (He was about 5 stories up)

FORMAGGI!! (One of the first Italian words the Kellers taught me)

A walk in the market.

A different sort of contrast between new and old.

An interesting group of trombonists. Not sure what the wine was for, but I'm sure it was helping in some way. Maybe they were supposed to break the glasses, like an opera singer but with trombones.

Carlo waiting for the cheese. 

After this, Nevio, Marie-Helen and I went to the Bellinzona swimming pool which is a compound of about 5 different huge pools and tons of grassy fields in between. After swimming we came home and Nevio and I went biking up this mountain which absolutely positively kicked my butt. He's training for a triathlon so he skipped right up all 6 miles it like it was nothing. I only made it halfway up before he came zooming back down. Going down was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I've had in a while. Then we had a massive dinner of barbequed fish which was super delish and now I'm here getting rather sleepy so I guess its time for me to say "bonna notte" and sign off. :)