A Lass and Some Lochs: On the Road to Rome

On the way to Roma! Oh Italy. I should be able to understand Italian by now, but I’m still waiting for my brain to magically switch languages. I’m convinced that if I stay immersed in Italian long enough, one day I’ll just suddenly understand what everyone is saying! So far I’ve been to Milan, Monza and Genoa. Today and tomorrow, Rome! And then Florence on Saturday!

I’ve pretty much explored all of Milan now, thanks to numerous walks, a tour of the city and night drives. It has a beautiful castle: Castello Sforzesco, with a lovely fountain out front that looks incredible lit up at night.

Castello Sforzesco and Fountain!

Inside La Galleria at night (super fancy shopping)

Milan's impressive Duomo

Train station at Busto Arsizio, where I was staying- many a train did we take!

Traveling by car in Italy takes longer than you think (or at least longer than I thought..), six hours to get to Rome, but a bit longer because I’m traveling with Italians…and we stop every 1.5 hours for a coffee! But meanwhile I get to enjoy the beautiful landscape! The weather is bright and clear and you can literally see for miles over a landscape of rolling hills and flat farmsteads. Everywhere they are vineyards! I love the houses here along the Mediterranean, they have such a different style than US or northern European homes simply because of the climate: warm and dry down here. They all have these lovely terracotta tiles on the roof, rust red and sun beaten. The walls are usually some shade of white or tan and are smooth and cool, seaming to broadcast that they are MEDITERRANEAN! They also almost always have a courtyard inside and often balconies as well, rooftop terraces abounding with brightly colored plants. Wish my house looked like this!

So besides the awesome houses and plants, I’ve had my first Italian gelato! For some reason I used to always think gelato and ice cream were two different things… but my Italian friends assure me no, it’s the same thing! And it looks AMAZING! Definitely 10 points for presentation. Swirls and stripes with fruit or chocolate on top, each design uniquely portraying the flavor of the gelato. I got tiramisu and chocolate with a Kinder bar in it. Delicious! The second time I got mint and Barci chocolate, and for some reason the cone makes everything more delicious (boy was I missing out as a kid when I only had ice cream in a bowl!)! Definitely getting more in Rome and the rest of Italy!

First Gelato! yumm

Other random adventures include getting coffee for Andrea’s mother in the fanciest coffee shop I have ever seen. It was called Nespresso and was specifically just for Nespresso machines and small espresso packets that you put in them. First of all, every employee was dressed really well- wearing fancy suits and ties. And all their machines and coffee displays were very posh and elegant. At the glass costumer counter you could look down and see their fifteen plus types of espresso, coming everywhere from Italy to Brazil. How the shop works is that you pick which flavors you want and they give you boxes of ten. After making your smart-looking purchases, you get a free cup of coffee- our third one already that day… They also bizarrely have an Abercrombie & Fitch in Milan. And a really intimidating store entrance where the fragrance hits you before you can even see the shop (that’s no so different from the US). And at the entrance? Models. Some styling the clothing, and one guy that just bare-chested and ripped to attract attention I suppose. Apparently loads of teenage girls go there just to get a picture with him! So the attention tactic must be working…

We have also seen Monza, a town about and half an hour from Milan. It is such a beautiful small town, with trees and fountains everywhere and a small city center still holding loads of shops just like Milan. And also a gorgeous, huge park that we walked all around! To me, Monza appeared the quintessential small Italian town- I loved it. Can't wait for Roma!