the Pretty Woman Scene

Last full day for H and ML. First we walked around the town market here in CM. Got some yarn to knit Irene a shawl for her 80th bday, which is Sat. I hope it gets finished in time. Then, grabbed some focaccia at the Focacceria in the center, they always have a line going out the door - and with good reason!) Then went around Milan to do last minute shopping. (I hate getting on the Metro during the summer. The bad hygiene that is covered up layers of winter clothes and heavy jackets - unleashes itself and flourishes in the stuffy dirty cars of the Metro. And the smell just gets worse as the day goes on.)
ML and I went to Santa Della Grazia to see if she could get in on a cancellation to see the Last Supper, but no dice. Had to book at least a month or 2 in advance. So it was off to meet H and get some panzerotti - finally (ps TammyJo- they are like small calzone but deep fried, and stinkin good. There is always a line out the door to get them and then there is no where to sit, so you have to stand and eat them or go and stake out a seat on the steps of the Duomo). H had already eaten by the time we got there, so she went off to see if she could find some ties for Mike at one of the stores in the Galleria. ML and I finished up and went to go and meet her. Just as we got to the store, H walked out and you could see that she was perturbed, so of course we asked what was wrong. She said that when the store finally opened after the lunch break, she went in. She was in for at least 10 minutes, the 2 sales people did nothing other the gab about ice cream, and tho she neared them they didnt help her and she couldnt get a word in edgewise. So she started browsing and touching the ties. It wasnt until then that the salesman acknowledged her existence by yelling at her, 'Cant you read the sign, it says dont touch.' So thats when she walked out and ran into us. I asked her if she wanted me to say something about it, because visibly angry. And she said 'Would you?' So back in we went, I wasnt mean at all, honestly, even though I was hopping mad for H. I just calmly said 'You know you just lost a customer because instead of helping her all you did was gab with each other. Compliments!'. And there were customers by this time, so they started trying to explain themselves, so we just turned on our heels and walked out. Then we went to Andrew's Ties and got some nice things there instead. Walking out we had to pass the store again and I bet H a gelato to go and knock on the window, flash her Andrew's Tie bag (that is easily recognizable because it has a gigantic tie on the front) and wag her finger in that condescending 'tut tut' sort of way.

Needless to say, I owe Holly a gelato.

Holly and I went to Promod to do a little shopping for ourselves. (ML was awesome being our personal assistant and getting stuff for us, thanks MaryLou!!). Got back and went to get Soph from preschool. H and ML went to do a little souvenir grocery shopping, taking back some of the ingredients of the recipes they learned here.

And then we had our own Last Supper at Baja Sardigna - (which has the best and freshest seafood. and Ignazio the waiter is never less than happy and smiling despite how busy it is all the time! and its really inexpensive!)

Why did we take the V out of GenoVa

It's a question that's always perplexed me. Is it so hard to say Gen-o-VA instead of Gen-o-a? But whatever. As usual we were late for the metro, saw a train pass right before our eyes. So we jumped on the next one. And as usual we were late to get to the train station. We rushed to the little machine, punched all the right buttons, but then for some reason seats + reservation came up. Since reservations were 12 euros more, the last time I made one, I didnt want us to pay extra for the tickets if it wasnt necessary. But no matter how many times we restarted, the stupid thing came up seats + reservation. Being limited on time, we ended up just taking it. And of course made a mad dash for the train, which was of course 10 minutes late. TYPICAL! So I was thinking that maybe because lots of people go back and forth from Genoa to Milan, maybe we were obligated to get reservations to guarantee a seat. So we went to go and look for our reserved seats. The heavy smell of armpit onions already lingered in the air. And of course it being just our luck, we had the seats in the same car as the manufacturer of said odor. ML and I sat opposite, and poor H sat next to him (at least she was near the door). Mr. Pits was reading a newspaper and H had to do the 'put your hand under your nose' move and pray that it would filter out some of the smell , every time he turned the page.





Anyhoo, got there and of course all the signs pointing to the aquarium were pointing in the wrong direction, hidden behind columns or on the side of the building not visible to us, so we got a bit lost. typical. and finally we found the aquarium/pier and marylou took a little ride around the harbor. holly gets seasick so i kept her company on shore. which was fine because we went to the biosphere and saw butterflies coming out of their cocoons. and h got to practice using her new camera.

Nice knockers Holly!

Walked around a bit more and then it was back home again. This time we ran for the train again....as usual the train was late, but this time it was lucky for us. even though we bought our tickets after the departure time, we ran and still made it aboard in time. since we jumped into the nearest car, there werent any of the 6 seat cabins that were truly empty. so we sat down in what seemed to be the best choice, there was one lady sitting doing her own thing. she let us know that we were not welcomed right away, she turned up her walkman from 1983, which apparently had prayer tapes and started praying away - out loud. that apparently was her second line of defense, the first being that she wasnt big on the hygiene either. ML and I went to check for diff seats - we found an empty one - and with good reason, whoever was seated in there left a toxic cloud that haunted the room. in the end we ended up moving to the cabin next to the prayer lady where there was some young guy. Poor guy, we ended up chatting so much i think he left the cabin just to get some peace and quiet. just before leaving, i asked him if we bugged him with our chitchat, but he said no, he just needed some air. and h said maybe he thought we were one of the stinky people because we had a bag focaccia with onions on it!

Last Day in Venice

Last day in Venice. We werent going to leave to early afternoon to get back in time for to get Sophia from pre-school. So once again Alessandro suggested our itinerary for the day: frari church. It's a really lovely church about a 5 minutes from the hotel. There are really amazing sculptures in black and white marble and paintings in there. Of course it starts pouring rain as soon as we get in, and it's pouring buckets by the time we leave and we get lost and soaked on our way back which makes us late to the train station and of course all the self-service machines are broken and so we have to stand in line, hence missing the earlier train. Luckily Ethel was my savior and went to get Sophia.
We got home, the girls played a little and then it was off to get ready for dinner. Went to the little restaurant in town. Usually they are soooo nice, but this time they were kind of cold. It took a loooooong time for our dinners to come out. Luckily they had put cartoons on the tv, so Sophia just watched tv and ate breadsticks.







Then it was off to the metro to catch the train to Mauro and Khatia's to celebrate Khatia's 25th birthday (her bday is actually the 30th).
























Alice and Sophia got rides in the chair. Max came to get us after work and then it was home again and time to get ready to go to Cuneo.

22,206

Grandma Mary Lou came out Sunday. She arrived all nice and lookin' refreshed. You couldnt even tell she just got off a plane. It was incredible. Max broke out the BBQ and we grilled some steak, chicken, sausage and some fish. It was really yummy. My man, the gourmet chef! Today we went to the city center and walked around the duomo. Poor Holly, all she has talked about are the panzerotti (my best kept secret, i hope rick steves doesnt come and ruin it for me!) and gelato. Max went and got us gelato last night, so that got satisfied, but the panzerotti store was closed! I hope we get a chance to go back or H may go postal on us! H and ML went to the roof of the Duomo, Sophia and i had a walk around. We had a little snack and then went to look at the inside of the cathedral. After that went to the Galleria and a quick peek at la Scala, then over Panino Giusto for some sandwiches. We walked over to Castello Sforzesco, which of course all the museums were closed because it was monday. So we had a walk around the park instead. S was such a good girl and she needed to stretch her legs and run a little bit. There is a 'art show' of painted cows/bulls around the city by various artists. In the park there was a kids show, where kids had decorated baby cows (vitellini) and the were displayed in the park. The cows were so darn cute, we had to get S to go in the middle and pose with the cows. Unbeknown to us the little cows were not nailed down to the ground. The pictures tell the rest of the story...

After that it started to rain. We risked going over to St Maria Della Grazie to see if there was any way to get in to see the last supper in case of cancellation. Of course being monday that was closed to... Got back home and Super H and ML helped set the table, clean up, do the laundry so there was plenty of time to write tonight. PS had the pedometer on 22,206 steps!

Lago Maggiore

Drove out to Lago Maggiore and had some lunch in Stresa with Holly and Mike.



Took a little boat to Isola Bella, as usual Sophia is not happy to be in a picture with her mom and dad...




Got to the island and ran into Mom and her Posse. Unfortunately I dont have a pictures of that and someone will send me one! I knew that they were staying in Stresa, but I thought that they had already visited the islands. We didnt get to chat much as they were leaving and we were just arriving. Max is such a good Daddy, he played with Sophia and carried her around the island there isnt much room for a stroller and there are too many steps. Note to self, bring the baby wrap instead of leaving it in the car. Luckily the museum was nice and they held onto the stroller at the entrance until we finished walking around. Unfortunately we arrived late and so poor Max had to cut his garden tour short and run back to the front and get the stroller.

Auntie Holly's Here

M surprised H with a stop-over from Dubai to Italy! Hooray! Been fighting a cold and allergies so ive been drinkin lots of vitamin C and water...was a long trip to Malpensa. Ran in, went potty and saw that H's flight was delayed. (Lucky for us, cuz we were late!). Ran back out, we parked the car and found sophia was kind of stinky. Murphy's law, thought she pooped. Luckily it was early enough to go to the pharmacy and i could get some diapers (used the emergency diaper in the car last time and i forgot to replace it!). I was afraid to let her sit on the counter, because her diaper was pretty full, i didnt want to leave any trails and the pharmacist was not that friendly/compassionate. Back to the bathroom again, and i didnt notice the first time, but there was no changing station, and since she was already leaking and fussy i didnt want to drag her and find one. so i just dried off some counter space, and changed her. luckily she was just full of pee (she did a little vomit from coughing, hence the stinky smell). Cleaned her up and we waited for H. S was so excited to see her! Well i suppose M was too, not sure who was happiest. And as usual H is too smart for her own good, she already had an inkling M was comin! But she was happy anyways! Good thing we got the diapers because after that another one was needed, and this time it was the real deal.