Three weeks ago, around mid-November, 2009, Bruce and I took a road trip from France to, our first stop, Montreaux, Switzerland, the so-called Swiss Riviera. Montreaux is a city, built actually right off the cliffs on the north-western corner of the Lake Du Lac, (Lake Geneva), half an hour from Losanne, with gorgeous views of the Lake and Mont Blanc across the Lake. Really, unreal views. We spent 2 days in Montreaux, cruising around the city, driving through the steep sreets and just wondering how all those houses were built hanging off the cliff of the Alpes. The whole trip was driving inbetween mountains and through 7-15 kilometers long tunnels. I just realized, what is special about the Alpes, is their unique characteristic of the steep-cliffy structure of them, rising high in weard shaped peaks that are mostly white with snow. I tried to take pictures throughout the whole trip, whether they were the Swiss or the Italian Alpes, but, the pictures could not portray the real live sight.
Genova, Italy, was our next stop, again for business. It is the second time I've been in Genova which is west of Milan and only 2 hours away from Milan. Genova is right on the water, and if you leave the city behind you, the road will take you down to the coast-line, where the Italian Riviera is. Genova is also built in high elevation, and it's Industrial...both times I 've been, it was grey due to the overcast weather, with rain and damp cold. This time we spent 2 days, and we continued our trip to Milan, where we spent 3 nights in the town of Monza, in Milan's outskirts.
In Monza, we spent 3 full days in the office, but we had 2 lunches out at local little restaurants, very low key, with our Italian distributors, the Meanis. Very simple Italian dishes and a wonderful , light Italian wine, "Nero Diavolo",that we tried to get later on to bring back home. (If you ever come across this wine, do not hesitate to buy it). We didn't get to do any serious cruising around the town of Monza, except walking up the road from the office to a new patisserie-bakery, the Meanis took us to, and where we bought the tastiest, most fantastic Italian cookies we'd ever had. Those cookies accompanying our shots of Espresso in the afternoon in the office, where like the best treat ever.
Now, at this point, I have to tell you that we are entering the most interesting part of our trip, driving to Ljubjana, Slovenia. We left Milan and drove East, passing by Parma, Modena, Verona, Padano, Venice and here we are in Trieste. I'd always wanted to see Trieste. It's the City, most part of which belongs to Italy and lies right on the boarder line of Italy and Slovenia. We did not spend any time in Trieste...most of our driving was on the highway, and when we entered Slovenia, it was just a different wave of refreshing views and air.. Nice, clean countryside, pretty homes, of newer construction in idyllic locations. Slovenia is one of the biproducts of the former Jugoslavia's ethnic cleansing war, together with Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macaedonia and Montenegro. Slovenia's economy and political stability bring the country to one of the top ones, not only measuring against the rest of the groups, but even in the whole European Community. Ljubjana is the country's Capital City with no more than 300.000 population, and a very low unemployment rate. The people are very nice, hospitable, hard-working, the majority of them highly educated, and the Industrial field really superbly up there. We had the most delicious meal with our distributor and his wife at a restaurant in one of the surrounding the city hills, half way up there, in the middle of nowhere. The food was superb and the atmosphere very local ,with exceptionally warm hospitality and excellent service. I want to go back there!!!!!!!!!!
We spent 2 nights in Ljubjana, and from there, we made our trip back home in 9 hours, driving through Austria, Germany and down Back to France.
Our second stop was Genova, Italy
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