Soaking up our visit

Pietro joined us yesterday afternoon after finishing two tough midterms- game theory (very difficult) and business law (not as hard). We tried to get into a restaurant highly recommended in the guide book but they were stuffed full, so we made a reservation for tonight and went to the same place where we ate dinner. The guys had filet mignon with grilled vegetables and the girls had salad and minnestrone soup. Of course, we all shared a couple bottles of wine which our Italian wine specialist, Pietro found for us. It was a great dinner, with the waitress joking along with us...she wouldn't let Mike pour the wine....it was her job and she put me in charge of guarding the bottle to prevent anyone from touching it except her.

This morning we all met up at 10:00 for Swiss breakfast, although this hotel serves a much greater menu than our previous hotels. One table has beverages; coffee, hot chocolate (made up of chunks of chocolate that are dropped into the heated serving pot to melt), tea and hot white chocolate. Another table is loaded down with breads; sandwich bread with a toaster, croissant (both white and wheat); rolls and sweet breads. A third table has plates of cut up fruit and a giant tiered fruit bowl with whole fruit. Finally, a table with cheeses, meats, eggs (scrambled and boiled) and grilled vegetables. There is also a self service juicer for carrot juice with a pile of carrots and a citrus juicer with a bowl or halved oranges. We all ate well and committed to deny ourselves a lunch (who needs it!) in order to really appreciate this wonderful place we are eating dinner.

After eating we all went in different directions; Mike to do e-mail (we have free internet here!!), Caitie and Pietro to explore the city and me to take a walk. We have plans to gather together this evening.