there is a conference here folks
maybe I say that to remind myself 
we had a really wonderful day of sight seeing and a little working for me. Slept in, breakfast at the hotel, showers and then we were on our way. We went into the Duomo today and since it has been 8 years since I’ve been in Europe I have forgotten the graduer of the churches here. The Duomo here in Milan is the 4th largest church in Europe. It is huge! And absolutely gorgeous. Also you can go up on the roof of the church, which we did and it provided some great vistas of the city and some awesome pictures!
Then we made our way up to the convention center so I could pick up my conference materials so I could triple check what time my meetings are tomorrow. It was a challenge finding the convention center but eventually we did, I picked up my stuff (AWESOME conference bag!) we walked around the neighborhood, found a supermarket and had our first picnic lunch. Lunch consisted of proscuitto and cheese on a baugette, some chips, a peach for each of us, banana yogurt for me and choclate pudding for Paige. It was delicious and cost half of what we would have paid in a restaurant. We ate lunch in the park across the street from the supermarket and there were these ladies sitting on the bench and during our time there the group kept getting bigger and bigger until they took up two whole benches. It was much fun to watch!
Speaking of cost…prices are a little overwhelming. $5 for a soda! Paige is learning to do without the soda and we have been primarily drinking water. After some loose calculations gas runs about $7 a gallon. Which answered Paige’s question as to why the cars are so small here and why people are riding buses, trams and the subway! It is a little over $1 per trip each for a ride on the bus, subway or tram. We mostly have been taking the tram as we can catch it just down the road from our hotel and it takes us everywhere we need to go.
Tomorrow is a day full of meetings, I am looking forward to seeing all of my international colleagues again and hoping it is a good conference!