February 5, 2026

Sondrio, Italia

It is a beautiful sunny day, perhaps still on the cool side of the thermometer at 7 C, but still a beautiful day. It is still early in the morning but you can hear the activity outside. The workmen are getting ready for the Olympic activities which will start in Piazza Garibaldi on Friday, the opening day of the Olympiad. Serra and Pietro managed to get tickets to the opening event in Milano. It is probably a good thing we are getting out of Sondrio on Friday morning.

The program today is to try and relax and spend some time with our cousins here. Alfio is picking us up at 10:30. We have agreed to meet him on Via Antonio Caimi behind the hotel so that he doesn’t have to find and pay for a place to park. Beyond all expectations, he is actually about seven minutes early! Which is ok because, again in true Falk fashion, we are ten minutes early.

Following our meeting and pickup we head to Iperal “mall” on Strada Statale 38 (abbreviated SS38) in Castione-Andevero. This is called the “centro commerciale” which is what malls are called here. There is a very large, almost Walmart large, Iperal. However, there are also several other stores; some offering clothing, cosmetics, a pharamacy, dentist, eyeglasses, and even a McDonalds. In the strip along the highway there are also other retail stores and restaurants.

We park on the north or backside of the mall and then walk through the mall where Alfio and I drop-off Mary in front of the Iperal entrance while we go to get a coffee. Now I am surprised as everyone else would be, Alfio says we can get out coffee at the McDonalds. I protested. McDonalds? He assured me that it was equal too any of the other coffee places in the mall. I didn’t believe him, but he is the local, so whom am I to argue, well argue a lot.

Surprise, the cappuccino and brioche at McDonalds is actually good. Interestingly, a cappuccino, un café and un brioche cost all of 5.50 euro. Less than a cappuccino alone at Starbucks. We talk about the weather, the prices of rent, and the cost of property taxes. The bottom line is that rent in Milano or Torino are really high, rents in Sondrio or any of the small towns and villages around it are very small. Property taxes are enough to make you cry. The property tax on Alfio’s house is about $400 a year. However, this includes garbage and gas. They recently decoupled the internet from the property tax.

At 11:00, our appointed time for meeting Mary we walked back to where the cashiers for Iperal are. No sign of Mary. We do eventually see her walking towards the cashiers. She wasn’t able to find everything she wanted, but she did manage to get a few things. After she completed the check-out we headed back to the car. We stopped in a couple shops along the way looking for the things she still needed. We managed to get one of them.

We went back outside and into the parking lot. Got in the car and drove up the hill towards Postalesio, a small town on the mountain above and west of the mall. The purpose was to go and see the property that Serra and Pietro were building a house on. It was difficult to picture exactly where the house would sit and the configuration of the property, but the view across the valley was really good. The construction is supposed to start soon; soon in Italian time means within the next decade or so.

After that we drove back to Berbenno di Valtellina and up to Alfio and Mariagiulia house. Mariagiulia is making lasagna for lunch. We keep telling her she makes the world best lasagna, and she does. She tries to tell us why it is so good. She says it takes three days. One day to make the meat sauce, one to assemble to lasagna, and one to rest and cook.

We both know those things maybe important, but what is more important are the ingredients. Fresh tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and good quality meats for the sauce. All sauce is better the second day. She says it is important to make a good Béchamel. We agree, you need the fresh butter from the latteria, without salt, you need fresh whole milk, and good quality flour. Oh, wait, those are really hard to get in the US. Oh, you can go to the market and purchase “fresh butter” but it probably at least a week old. You can get milk, before its expiration date, but it is highly pasteurized and probably still several days old.

You can buy any number of overly processed flours, even some that claim they aren’t, but they will all be inferior to any Italian flour. You can get olive oil. None of which will be fresh. Enough bitching. You can and should make your own pasta so that it is fresh. Cheese, good luck.

Cheese is one of the many issues. We have tried to make polenta taragna for Luisa. What we have found is that the cheese we chose in Torino, Fontina from Aosta, was too hard and didn’t melt into the polenta as it should have. We are going to have to go to Serra’s cheese shop, Latteria Bera, and ask them for the right cheese for polenta. The instructions from Mariagiulia is that the cheese must be young and soft.

Mattia joined us for lunch, he was working from home today. Mariagiulia served us another plate of really good lasagna, then brought out salad, then there was salami, brasola, bread and cheese. Once we had all that it was important for her to bring out her homemade, and really fine, tiramisu. We were stuffed. About the time we finished Alexandra returns home from work bringing Filippo home from school. We visit a little longer before we decide it is time to go visit Pina.

Alfio drives us across the valley to Colorina where Pina lives. Alfio not only takes us there but comes in with us. We share stories, photos and communicate with Pina. She said she answered my WhatsApp message but I didn’t get one from here. After a lot of checking we find out that not only her messages but that from Karol have been archived for some reason and don’t show up as active. Still don’t know how to fix that but at least I now know to check archived messages.

We said goodbye to Pina. Alfio drove us back to Sondrio and our hotel. We walked around the corner and could see all the facilities being built in Garibaldi Square for the Olympic events tomorrow, and where glad we were leaving in the morning. We went to the room where Mary took photos of the things she needed, so we could explain what she needed to the shop clerk. Then we went for a short walk to see if the pharmacy near the square. There, without the photos, I explained what we were looking for. The clerk understood me, did clarify one thing in English, to make sure we got the right thing. We scored everything Mary needed.

Then knowing that Luisa will want us to make polenta again while we are babysitting next week, we walked a little further up Via Dante to Casa del Formaggio Sondrio and bought another kilo of polenta taragna so Serra had some extra after we left. We know know not only what type of cheese but homed in on where to by the cheese in Torino. If we were heading back to Torino in the morning, we would have bought good young soft valtellinese cheese for the polenta, but we are off to Bologna.

Back in the hotel and time to begin packing everything up for tomorrows train ride. Layout the clothing for tomorrow, get the passports out of the safe. We went down to the Caffé Felix and had a ham and cheese toast, played a game of canasta, then headed up to the room for the night.

Buonanotte e ciao,

Enrico e Maria