Italy 2009

We had a three hour break between meetings on Saturday, so we went back to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for lunch. We sat in the park again and since it was Saturday there were more people milling about including 3 1/2 year old Enrico. A little blonde hair boy who was instantly interested in playing with Paige once he saw her chasing pigeons (her new favorite thing to do!). It was fun to watch these children play despite the not being able to communicate. Enrico could count to 10 in English as he proudly displayed his skills for us but there was no English beyond that. Paige tried a few times to ask some questions in Italian with assistance from me and our phrase book but I’m not sure we were doing so well. Still, I think they both had a blast and it was a wonderful experience for Paige.

Sunday we went to Varenna for the day. Varenna is a small town on the shores of Lake Como. We picked a gorgeous, clear day to go and did a whole bunch of nothing all day long. Paige went swimming in the lake most of the time we were there, I joined her every once in awhile. We walked, ate, walked some more. Stopped in some stores, ate, walked some more. It was truly a day of vacation! Varenna is a beautifully quaint town and I could certainly imagine spending a week of walking, eating and swimming there

I haven’t mentioned yet that about 80% of everything is closed. Stores, restaurants, hair salons etc. August is vacation month in Italy and I learned from Enrico’s father that it typically is the middle two weeks of August when people are gone. This has been a blessing in many ways as it allowed us to ease into Milan without the hustle and bustle and stress of big city life. Today (Monday) we should start noticing a difference around the city as folks begin to return from their holiday. What will be nice is having a wider range of restuarants to choose from for dinner!

Drew asked me last night I liked Milan. Milan is really wonderful. The public transportation has been so easy to figure out and has gotten us wherever we need to go. One ticket covers three modes of transportation (subway, bus and tram) and once you stamp your ticket you have 75 minutes to go in one direction on any mode. Not having to worry about getting new tickets for each system is great!  Being the fashion capital that it is, Italians always seem to be dressed as if in a fashion show. Ladies rarely are wearing pants or shorts, they can mostly be found in dresses or skirts and most often as short as possible. Shoes can range from spike heals to flat roman type sandals but not usually sneakers or other sporty type shoes for women. Men are wearing jeans, most often tapered legs, some sort of sneaker or fancy Italian shoe and mostly polo or button down shirts.

Because I knew it would loom over the whole trip until it happened, we ate dinner at McDonalds the other night. Paige slyly kept wondering aloud if McDonalds here tasted the same as at home. So we tested. She knew that she was allowed one trip to McDonalds and this was going to be it. The result - it tastes the same. Done and out of the way we can move on to eating more interesting Italian food

Slow day of meetings today. Stephanie arrives on Thursday and I’m looking forward to it for a number of reasons. First is of course that she’ll be here and sharing this experience with us but also we have tickets to see DaVinci’s Last Supper painting and I cannot wait to see it!

that is all for now. ciao!