Ciao Readers!

In keeping with the “relaxing” theme, today I am taking you back to the park.  (In case you didn’t go with me last time, you can visit that fabulous park, in Milan, with me here).  As I mentioned in that earlier post, Sundays are the day to hang out in a park, and there are many of those throughout Italy (and Europe).  While the park near our home here does not have the fancy flower gardens or tiny ponies of the one I blogged about earlier, it has one very special thing – the Arno river!

There is a park that runs along the river here – or rather there are groups of parks, trails, walkways, etc.  This is where I run in the morning, and I am constantly trying to push it further to see where these river-side diversions end.  I thought I had found the “end” – an old castle blocking the way – but then (after watching other runners) discovered you just have to  run around it to get back to the Arno, and then you can just keep going (and going).  I guess it will be my running challenge to see if I can ever find the real “end.”

At the section of the park close to home is a cool little outdoor cafe – complete with chairs and tables overlooking the Arno!  People spend their entire Sunday mornings/afternoons there just having a coffee and reading the paper (okay, and honestly sometimes drinking a beer and/or smoking).  It’s exactly what I pictured in the earlier post – hanging out with Steve at a park cafe on a leisurely Sunday.  So, we have made it a Sunday tradition (as much as we stick to any “traditions”) to meet up at the park after my run and have a coffee…or a cornetto (yes, I understand the incongruence of my eating a pastry after my run, pictured below, but hey – it’s Italy!).

From the park cafe you have a great view of the river, the rowers going by, and the beautiful scenery across the way (one of these days I’m going to have my camera with me when it’s not hazy out, sorry).  Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning….