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Saturday, August 18, 2012

Day 2 & 3 - Hotel Panoramico

It's not easy to find the hotel which is located on the hill top somewhere near Orta San Giulio. The google map didn't show its location in a precise way, so husband was very unsure of the many turns that he has made. Poor him. 




There isn't any signboard to show the way to the hotel either. So from time to time, I got to wind down the window and seek help from whoever that we bumped into along the road.


Most of the Italian speak very little English, some even near to zero. Despite of that, they are very helpful to show us the way by using their language and body language. For this, we are truly grateful to them with all our heart.




We even drove through those unbelievable narrow alley, which we were not sure if it's a road for vehicles or not.




Finally, we found our hotel, the only hotel on the hill top. After a simple check in procedure, we were leaded to our room which is located on the 3rd floor.




Just like husband said, the view we get to see from our room is spectacular beautiful....




The church that we've planned to go, but have no energy to go after a long search for the hotel. Furthermore,  its outlook doesn't seem very appealing to motivate us to go. 




The time was nearly 6.30 pm, we rather sat on the balcony and enjoyed the good view in front of us instead.




From here, we could see the whole Lake Orta, including Isola San Giulio which rooted in the middle of the lake. 




Too bad my telephoto lens is not powerful enough to capture a more close-up picture of  Isola San Giulio. 




The beautiful coastal of  Italian Lake.









The room's condition is just so-so, particularly the upper deck which doesn't have a safety barrier on the side. We just felt not safe to let Vincent to sleep there. End up, we moved the mattress to the floor, and solved the problem. 




Better than the night before, we woke up at around 4 am on the 2nd night. Again, I couldn't get myself went back to sleep after a long time. So, I took my camera and kill the time by taking some pre-dawn pictures. 


I was amazed to see all those bright twinkling stars above the sky, they are so beautiful.




After 40 min or so, I felt pretty cold sitting on the balcony. So I went inside and waited patiently for the dawn to come....




At around 6.30 am, the sun rise....




I haven't seen any sun rise for such a long long time....




Within a few minutes time, the sun rise completely, and the sky turned bright very fast.




Ok, finally the morning had come.....Since the breakfast won't be ready before 8 am, husband and I went outside for a walk.




Our room is on the top floor, the 3rd one from the left.




There is nothing to see around the hotel, so we went up to the room instead, to make the boys 'get-ready' to move on. Yet, the time was still early for breakfast....so we took them out for a walk.




We walked to the other side this time, and saw this horse, standing next to an apple tree...Glad that he didn't run away when we approached him. 




Well, I didn't know horse likes to eat apple.....I thought they only eat grass?? Besides apple, this horse also like to pear. 




William said it would be very nice he can keep a horse as pet at home. Instantly, I told him this is just a wishful thinking cause horse is a very expensive animal to feed. But looking at this horse who eat apples, pears, grass, I wonder if it's really an expensive pet? 




We walked a bit further away and saw some village houses. They are all very big houses, I wonder how many people are living in there? In HK, this 'building' is probably the house for more than 10 families.




The boys found a small farm in the front yard. Those chicken look quite similar to the chicken we used to see in Asia countries. 




Another big village house...




Finally, it's almost 8am, time for breakfast, hurray.




We walked back to the hotel then....




Hotel Panoramico is a family-run business. They had successfully turn their big house into a hotel. Husband said their business should be very good, cause there was only 1 room left when he booked on line, the rest were all booked. 




The quiet & peaceful neighborhood.




The hotel's owner didn't keep a horse as pet. Instead, he had 2 cats and a big dog walking around his hotel freely like the big boss. 




Cat #1, she's very friendly and not afraid of me when I pat his head. I like her.




Cat #2, a jealous one. He is a more reserved type. Some how, Cat #1 is very afraid of him. When he came to me, she ran away immediately. 




A boy and 2 cats, nothing happened.




We were the first to be there for breakfast. The owner cum waiter came to serve us hot coffee all by himself. 




As expected, the food variety is very limited. But it's a buffet style, so sons are happy with it anyway. 




Like forever, croissants are the main food in European breakfast. Luckily, we love croissants, especially the fresh baked one, and normally, their croissants won't fail us. 




After breakfast, we checked out immediately cause we were quite behind husband's schedule by then.





Without doubt this time, we drove through all those narrow streets...




Yeap, it's just 9am, but we need to hurry then.




Although in hurry, we still stopped by this town after descending the hill, hehe...




well...the color of the town is so attractive that made us stopped.




That's Italian, they are natural artists.












Walked over to that side for a short walk some more....




Saw something was hanging across the river..




I have no idea why they hang up those fish-like things across the river.




After 10 min or so, we dared not walked any further, but went back to the place where we parked our car. Saw this old lady was pushing his old dog back to the shore, after the dog dipped himself in the river for no reason. 




Yo, let's go....








Before entering the car, husband pointed to that white house on the hill top and said we were just came down from there. 




There we continued our journey...




Going to Switzerland by using the Simplon Pass again...




After 2 hours, we reached the boarder of Italy....




The officer didn't check us in detail...so we passed the immigration very smoothly, in just a few seconds time. 




Both sons looked dead boring sitting in the back seat, but we still have quite a distance to go...Husband foresee there will be another 1 hour.....



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