So after our picnic in our room, we decided to get Jen and Chris some fresh air and explore the town a bit.

Roberto directed us to the centro (center of town), and it didn’t take long to get there, five minutes. A new church sits in the square next to a very old tower. We figure that this town must have been hit hard during World War II because there are lots of new buildings next to much older ones (like the church and the tower). In the same square, we also saw some excavations separated from the pedestrian area by a chain link fence. Roman, newer, we have no idea but pretty cool to see.

So we wound our way through the streets, and alleyways, eying store windows, entering some shops, and basically getting a feel for the town. We stopped at two bars along the way to enjoy some prosecco, and things along the way. It seems a nice, if not too big a town. We’ll explore more on Saturday, but I thought I’d share some pictures.

Sondrio

Blurry shot of a knitting store – for Amy

Poricini Mushrooms

Porcini!

Sondrio

Pedestrian Bridge

Sondrio Cheese

Cheese Store

Now you may be wondering how or why we chose to come to Sondrio. Chris’s great grandfather is from this area and he wanted to see it. Towards the end of our walk we found a memorial to the soldiers (or something like that). On a wall, there was a plaque in remembrance of the partisans in the area who fought during WWII against the Nazis and there on the list of names was Donato Spini (how we believe Chris’s name should be spelled). It was pretty cool.