Italia

The sleepy, aristocratic town of Stresa was rocked two nights ago when the Italian youngsters rolled down from the hills to celebrate their country's dramatic two-nil
victory over the host country Germany. Italy will now play France on Sunday in the finals. Since out hotel over-looked the main drag along beautiful Laggo Maggiorre, we stayed out to wave flags with the locals and shout out E-TAL-YA. Old and young bivouacked in a peaceful but raucous manner for hours. We'll remember it for decades.


We're in The Renaissance City and tomorrow many are heading to The Eternal City. We're shelling out 58 euros for a round trip Eurostar to Roma, but I think you can see Rome in a day. We'll see. When we get back we'll have a group dinner at the magical gothic-looking, family-run Hotel Albion and then go out for a late night Disco two blocks away. This is our one curfew-free night. Well, maybe 3 a.m. It always works out fine. Incidentally, these kids are still functioning at a high level. Some homesickness has set in, which is typical for this stage of the trip. Jenna Morina was lucky enough to meet up with her older brother David yesterday. They went out for pizza and her first Birra Moretti. She feels rejuvenated (not by the beer). Outside of Hall's blisters, most have escaped injury. Laura Chalfin was having a perfect trip until mosquitos attacked all of us on a late-night gelati run. Last night her bites--for some reason only the girls were bitten--swelled up, but a call home and a trip to the pharmacy allowed her to take the walking-trip tour to see the statue of David, The Duomo, and Piazza Signoria. Some of the girls nearly fainted when they saw David, and the newly self-conscious boys, shriveling into their own inadequate frames, tried to unobtrusively exit the back door. We owe something to Emma Parkes, rejuvenated from her Zermattian backrub spa experience, who kept an eagle eye out for gypsy thieves. Kristin Bohannan showed me how niave I was by stealing sunglasses from my satchel under my nose. The tricks kids play.

Truly, but wryly,
LV