Our dear friends, Marina and Luca have invited us today for lunch at their newly renovated "cascina" (stone mountain house) in Nante, which is at the end of the Levantina Valley, just before the San Gottardo pass.
For those of you who have followed my blog, Rick and I had taken a ride out to Nante last May 15, 2014. When we saw the area last year, the record snowfall was still melting and many trees were broken from the weight of the snow. This year, unfortunately, it was raining and the ground was soaked!
Marina had picked us up at the Airolo train station and we are driving to the cascina. It's raining, it's muddy, and there is a drop off to our right - and I'm scared to death!
When Rick and I saw the cascina last year, we didn't think this road was drivable. Maybe not for us, but for the Swiss, no! Up ahead is a little, narrow wooden bridge. Marina, you are NOT going to drive on that little bridge!!!?
This is the same view from the picture before. I had taken this one last spring - it gives you a better idea of what we were driving on and why I was scared!
So not only did Marina drive over the bridge, but she turned the car around in this little space in front of the house. Can't believe we didn't slide down the mountain!
The San Gottardo pass is behind the house on the left end of the mountain across the valley.
Another view of where we had just driven.
Last year there was nothing inside the house - it was stone inside and out. Luca is very handy, and first he added supports to the underside of the house. Outside, on the side of the house facing the downward slope, there is a door, like to a basement. That was originally the stall where the cows were kept. Do we know anyone who keeps cows in their basement? It is now used for storage.
This is the main room in the house. There is also a small bedroom, bathroom, and little living room. The spiral steps above their daughter lead up to an additional loft sleeping area.
Another view of the kitchen and eating area. They use a few electric heaters and also a wood burning stove to heat the house. It is possible to live here year around, but it is used as their summer/weekend home.
Notice the original stone that was left in view on the wall. Luca has also insulated the house very well and has put a new roof on too!
As we are sitting at the kitchen table, Luca brings out from the cabinet 5 little pitchers, called something like quints in dialect, which means 1/5, as it's 1/5 of a liter. He tells me to pick one out as a gift! This is not just any gift, it is VERY special! When they were renovating this mountain house, under one of the floors in the house they found these 5 quints buried in the dirt. They knew they were very old and had been hand painted. These are very traditional in Ticino. The wine in this quint would be poured into small, white ceramic bowls which usually have a red and blue stripe around them, (the colors of Ticino).
At first, since these quints in the ground looked so old and dirty, they were ready to throw them away, but Luca cleaned each one up and they were like new!
I am very honored to have one of these very, very special quints!!!!!
Thank you Luca and Marina!
Later in the afternoon we drive over into the town of Nante to have a drink. As it continued to rain hard, Luca brought around his jeep, which would have better handling on the muddy, mountain road. See, I KNEW it was a little dangerous!
While we're having our drinks, I notice the cows coming home to the barn to be milked. Yep, just a parade of cows through town!
Marina and Luca told us that sometimes a dog will herd the cows back in, and sometimes it's the farmer. This woman is leading in the last cow. It was really a fun sight to see.
Thank you Marina and Luca for a wonderful afternoon! Sorry there was so much rain we couldn't hike the area, but the rain gave us a fun adventure too!
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