I love hosting company, especially if the company is family. Today my siblings, minus my youngest brother are coming to join us at our Italian retreat. The house has been cleaned. Groceries are bought and now I wait impatiently for their arrival.

I take a walk around our quiet neighborhood waiting for their plane to land. The rain has stopped and the flowers are fresh and vibrant in the diffuse morning light. The sheep on the corner lot bleat a greeting.

The water is flowing fast after three days of rain, but the ducks don’t seem to mind. Neither does the Boston terrier that sneaks up behind me, snorting and jumping. He wants to play. So we run for awhile, while his owner chats in Italian. I smile when appropriate….but can’t command enough words to converse.

The trees are exploding in color and I decide that if the family isn’t exhausted when they arrive, I will suggest a visit to the nearby Villa Pallavicino. The gardens there are full of old growth trees that should be in peak form.

Now I am impatient, so I text to see if their plane arrived. They reply!….on the runway and taxiing to the gate. By my calculations, they should be to the house by 12:30. I walk to the park and consider what to make for a welcome lunch.

I enjoy the explosion of color and the morning sun on the way back to the house. It is strange to see plants that I associate with Spring in full bloom in late October.

Finally, they are here. Hugs and smiles abound as we welcome them to our temporary home. Everyone explores their rooms and begins to unpack while I happily assemble an antipasto platter and make a tortellini.

We eat and share travel stories. They do want to stay awake to avoid jet lag so we head to the Villa Pallavicino. It has changed a great deal in the three weeks since we were there last.

The waterfalls are much larger. Plants are in bloom that weren’t and plants that were in bloom aren’t. The trees are beginning to show color. The animals are less active and the crowds have disappeared.

Perhaps because there were few other people….or maybe because we love animals… we found a few friends. A smiling goat who guarded the bridge. A nosy llama. A white peacock followed us to a table and would have gladly shared my cappuccino. Stories and smiles abound.

When we tired of gardens, we turned to galleries. The small Stresa gallery told the story of the statues along the avenue of villas. Shops were selling wares, but as we entered a small bodega, the shop keeper lamented that tourists to the islands “look but don’t buy”. He was a little rude and served the locals while loudly lamenting in Italian that tourists never bought anything. He didn’t know my brother very well. He, because he never met an Italian meat that he didn’t like, loaded up on salami. The shop keeper quieted down.

Stresa was strange for a Saturday. The currency exchanges were closed. The restaurants in the square were not all open. Perhaps this is what end of season looks like or perhaps it is the prolonged rain. Either way…it is a much slower pace. As it starts to rain, we wander through flea market stalls and take in the lakeside sites.

Dinner consists of small nibbles of fresh cheese, bread, olives, and lots of salami. The sister in laws play games while the husbands watch football. Laughter and love. It is good to have family in the house.