Como/ Varenna

Casey and Patrick werent coming til this evening, so Willie and Matt have been trying to avoid the actual town of Como and places in the very near vicinity. Today we took the boat to Varenna (and its friggin expensive for the fast boat-10 bucks each way. note to self, take the slower boat where you can get off at other stops next time. we were on limited time today, so thats the way it had to go). Walked around the town a bit. Then up the hill to a an old old castle around before Christ. Its quite small and ruined, but it was fun to see and offers great views of the lake and surrounding areas (also note to self - take the road not the stairs if we bring the stroller next time). Basically by the time we were finished it was freezing, drizzling and Casey and Patrick had already arrived at the hotel.



Group pic at the top of the castle tower.

And one more in the stair well going down.

Isola Bella and Pescatore

Did I mention that Willie and I had a bet going. Last summer he was supposed to quit smoking as soon as we left San Diego. Guess what...he didnt last 2 days. He lost - the deal was he has to change Sophia's poopy diapers. For the full effect we gave her lots of veggies and seafood. It was a sight, sound and smell experience for him!

We took the train out to Stresa and then its just a few minute walk to the first area where the boats leave from. There are more as you go down further too. This time we got to explore the island of Pescatore. Its small but cute to walk around. And then it was over to Isola Bella for a walk through the palace around the gardens (ps bathroom is up the stairs and to the right, as soon as you get out of palace, but before going to the gardens!!)
Went back to the mainland and decided to go exploring and walking around. We walked quite far, almost to the top of the hill, we got to Levo. Had a drink/popsicles and then walked back down. We found a haunted looking abandoned old house. There seem to be many of them there. But this one we got to actually jump down to and walk around. It was really crickety! I didnt really get any good pictures. I was getting too tired. We of course got lost on the way back and ended up wayyyyyy far away from our original destination, so we had a long walk back. And of course one of the last trains was coming as soon as we got back to Stresa and we hadnt eaten. We walked quickly to town got some panini and ran to the train station. Where of course the stupid machine didnt work and we had to board the train without anything. They just issued the ticket on.board and charged us a few extra euros. No big deal, I was worried though...i always fear for the worst! The stupid pedometer kept re-setting, but im sure that we walked well over 30,000 today.

It's so hard to resist a park and the timer button on the camera!

DaVinci Museum and Finding Matt

Whew it was another hot one today! Went to the DaVinci Museum of Science and Technology - was not exactly what I thought, but it was cool. I had heard that the museum was dedicated to DaVinci's inventions. There was a long hallway that had many of the recreations in miniature - and that was cool, but there was also a lot of other stuff. It was a mix between the tech museum and childrens discovery museum in SJ. There were trains to walk around from different eras.
There were full sized pirate like sail boats to walk around and a partial cruise ship to walk inside. Parts of museums were dedicated to communication - like the history of radio. Other parts were dedicated to music, clocks, solar systems and solar energy etc. you get the idea.

After we had some time to kill so we went to get a slice of pizza and then take a look at Sant Ambrogio church.

And then it was back to the train station to try and find Matt for a second time. PS just in case you are curious what the mint popsicles taste like - think scope.




Thats Matt in the orange shirt and backpack, we are sneaking up behind him to see how long it takes him to notice us.


Matt got in a little late, so we had to make a mad dash back to Cologno Monzese and I had to run and go get Sophia from school. She and the other kids were playing in the water and having a grand ol' time!

what happened to Matt?

Cleaned the house then went to the street market downtown and got some fresh seafood. Then went to go get Matt from the Central Station where the buses from Malpensa come in. It felt like 10,000 degrees outside, no wind, hot muggy air - made all the more disgusting by the fact that we were sitting aroundoutside the dirty, smelly train station. We were a little early and there was no Matt. We waited. And Waited. And Waited some more. Then I started having doubts that Willie didnt specify when he said MalpensaExpress, since the bus and train both have that name. Went over to Stazione Nord to go and check to see if he landed there. Waited around there some more, no Matt. Called Ethel to tell her Sophia couldnt play today because we were waiting for Matt. She said that probably was because there was a strike of Alitalia (typical-why didnt I look)?? So I went back to Central, found Willie, we waited one more round of bus drop offs and then went home. We couldnt figure out why Matt hadnt called or anything....and then of course Willie had some doubts...He thought perhaps Matt had mentioned he was coming in on the 23rd not the 24th. We looked on the email-it only said the departure date and not the arrival date, doing some calculations we figured out that he isnt coming until tomorrow.

Bergamo

Had a late night last night. Sophia coughed all night and woke up a couple of times. She's sleeping in our room since she let Uncle Willie use hers. It's harder to get some good sleep. So it was a sluggish morning for us. Instead of going to Turin like originally planned we went to Bergamo, Max got off early today so he went to the optometry appt the school. He's such a great guy!!



Willie and I took the train to Bergamo (4.10 euro, not a bad deal!) and then the train part way up the hill. Jumped off and took the funicular to see a great view of the city.



Since it was lunch time by the time we made it to Bergamo Alto all the shops were closing in the center. So we just walked around the middle of the city and then decided to walk the outskirts. We walked around and around...just about the whole city. We discovered a small botanical garden. A castle. and fabulous views around the back side. Its a good hike but there is lots of shade. Dont wear flip.flops! I didnt know we were going to end up hiking and brought the wrong shoes today!!!

Had another farewell khatia party, with khatia this time!! went to restaurant near our house-the crappiest service ever!! and the food wasnt even that great! it used to be really good and the people were friendly, but the last 2 times its been terrible there! not going back again!

steps: 27,418 (not including house cleaning and walk to restaurant)

The day after...

Still recuperating from yesterday.
Party was fun, but tiring!! Cleaned and organized the house from yesterday's chaos left over from party preparation. Uncle Willie occupied Sophia. They watered the plants (ALOT!!) Then they did puzzles. And legos. And etch-a-sketch. etc etc etc

Then it was bubble time.

What kid doesnt love bubbles?? Sophia screamed and screamed and had a good time. And now I can wash my floors without using any detergent, they are pre-soaped! thanks guys :o)

After lunch we went into the city. Had a walk around the Duomo. Unbelievably it is half-uncovered in the front!! the top half isnt being cleaned-the bottom half still has scaffolding. Couldnt walk inside much because its sunday and altho there wasnt mass going on when we went inside, things were blocked off and you couldnt walk all the way around. Then it was down Via Torino (since I was with Willie there was no 'accidental' stop over to Promod like we did with Holly). Passed the Columns of San Lorenzo and then a peek into the church, where apparently there was a mass - in Tagalog! luckily we are asian - and all those asians looked alike, so we kind of blended in. At least we didnt look like tourists barging in during mass!! Of course we couldnt find the exit to get out, so we had to keep walking past the same doors till we figured out which one was the entrance/exit. Then out the Porta di Ticinese doors and over to the Navigli where the pic above was taken. Walked down the small canal and then over to the big one. And then it was over to Sant'Ambrogio area. Stopped at Orso gelateria - good strawberry ice cream. Got Sophia a small cone, but she takes small licks and it just drips down her arm and on to the stroller. She gets peeved when i try to take licks to clean up the melting goo - 'e mio, mio, mio' she cries! it was so hot, and the ice cream sooo sticky that when i tried to clean her face after she finished her cone- the waxy paper napkin clung to her face! We looked for the davinci museum - which we found 21 San Vittore, thanks to a phone call to Max- and which apparently closes at 6.30 -about 10 minutes after we got there. So we just went home.

If was a good thing anyways because we were supposed to meet Khatia, Mauro, Oliver and Greta for an 'addio khatia dinner'. she is going back to georgia - for who knows how long-could be 2 weeks could be 2 months, depending on the visa. But apparently we got our wires crossed and so the guest of honor didnt come. We celebrated and and drank and cheered a farewell to Khatia anyways!



19,200 steps (not including house cleaning before leaving to the city and cooking and party clean up after).

Sophia's Big Party

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

It's Sophia's Bday

Woke up too friggin early (as usual) and made crepes with chocolate inside for my 2 year old little girl!

Today was Gaia's birthday too. Went to school with a cake and crowns for the special girls.

Tanti auguri a te,
Tanti auguri a te,
Tanti auguri Sophiaaaaaaaa,
Tanti auguri a te!!!

Sophia had a great time and even blew out the candles!

Went to meet Sophia's best friend Martina for some gelato (as if she didnt eat enought junk food already)











Martina gave Sophia a cool Noah's arc puzzle and a cute little sun dress.

Sophia gave Martina a great big kiss!

I think Sophia had a pretty nice day!

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mother's Day!! Ugh nursing a hangover today! Thats the bad part about having a birthday so close to mom's day! You'd think id get to sleep in and have breakfast brought to me in bed....yeah right! maybe next year.

Happy Bday to me!

Yeah! Max gave me a big ol lumpy package that looked as if it was wrapped by a 4 year old...guess what it was?? Some horrible gigantic book, just what we needed for our bookshelf. As if we dont have enough free terrible books from his work already. I think its an addiction, he can't stop himself. It's now the biggest book on our bookshelf...but i was graceful and said thank you, and boy was he disappointed that i wasnt disappointed! He was just trying to piss me off - instead I got a brand new LG TouchMe! Wooohooo!! Very cool! Altho, im still not sure who the gift is for-him or me! He's been goofin off on it the most so far!

Franci, Paolo, and Pietro came over in the afternoon to wish me a happy birthday.
Then we took the kids to the park for a bit to run around.

My blog, my version of the story: Let me explain the sign...translation 'Max, not to be thrown away.' Did I tell the story already about how im missing half of my summer clothes. Somethings werent even worn yet, I got them at the end of the season sales last year. So anyways, the closets here are REALLY stinkin' small, so those of us who dont just wear tshirts and jeans all year 'round (Max) have to do the changing of the wardrobe. That means summer clothes go down in the basement when its winter and vice versa. Max's house hold duty (aside from being head bbq'r) is to take out the garbage and put stuff down in the basement (they are both down stairs near the garages). You can see where this is leading, I put the summer clothes in a bag to be taken downstairs, told Max they were ready to go down and and that was the last we saw of them again. Now his claim is that they got thrown out with the clothes that were to go to the 'donations to the poor' containers. But I always double check the bags for fear of some disaster like this. Aside from the fact that the clothes to be thrown away were in a bag that shouldnt have even been near the summer clothes! Tore the basement apart looking for them. Zero. So of course I complained and told the story to everyone! And hence the fancy wrapping paper and sign on the new beginnings of my summer wardrobe. PS did i mention the the dress I got married in was in the bag that got thrown out????

Thanks everyone for coming out! It was a lot of fun!









PS Celebrity Siting! Guardate e DJ Francesco!!

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!