Landed in Italy

Hello all.
Dad and I landed on the Italian pennensula with much entusiasm and exitement. Our friend Dante picked us up at the airport in Milan. Since then I've been soaking up everthing around me every little thing about Italy has interested me. I am learning Italian fairly quickly. For the last week we have stayed with Dante and his family In Domaso (on lake Como). English is mandatory in school so most of the people my age speak a little. I was able make a few friends on the beach (five minute walk from Dante's house). Como is a lot in common with Santa Fe. It is surrounded by beautiful mountains (i hope to post some pics in the next 2 weeks or so...) with a booming tourism industry that is attracting alot of rich people. As with Santa Fe this has kind of messed up the econemy for working class people, who's wages haven't risen with the higer prices. The food is ssssssssssssoooooooooooooooo gooooooooooddd. This means better than home. The cheese is better, the bread is better, the yogurt is better, the prochutto is way better, the water is... Every thing else is small, minature cars, roads, towns etc.
Its been pretty hot, around 28-32 °C.
Having alittle spanish under my belt is really helping me out. Many words like ocean, what, that, tree, bread and others are Spanish-Italian cognates. I have also been able to use my command of english to find cognates with words we usually don't use that are english, and to communicate with italians that speak a more British English.

Cedar

The photos:

View from the beach (5 min walk)