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this morning i woke up at 4:30am. it's better than yesterday's time of 3:30am. my body still thinks it's 6 hours ahead. now it's lunchtime here in ny and i'm ready for dinner.
this past monday, ej and i took a train to bergamo where hanna and pg picked us up for some quality time amongst the foothills of the dolomites. we were tired, but happy to be exploring outside of milano.
this train was where we learned that our train tickets were supposed to be validated in a machine before we boarded. we hadn't done that. thankfully, the conductor was very nice and took pity on us, but did take the opportunity to show us a piece of paper that said in english that without validation, ticket holders were subject to a 50 euro fine (approximately $75 USD each). he didn't fine us, but he validated our tickets by hand. what a lovely and personal souvenir.
once we were in pg's car, we quickly discovered that he was using a gps gadget for directions. since hanna was sitting in the navigator's seat, it was her job to deal with the gps. here pg shows hanna how it works.
the countryside was rainy, but beautiful.
we stopped at lake iseo for lunch and to stretch our legs. pg chose a lovely restaurant with a friendly chef and tasty, tasty food. here, pg demonstrates how to go duck hunting.
i kid.
the view from our table.
this is how pg stays so svelte. i'm not a big salad person, but this one looked good enough to eat. it included tuna and grilled zucchini and olives and mozzarella. i think he thought i was funny that i was taking photos of the food.
i had a tremendous fruits of the sea extravaganza. fresh, slightly spicy, very good. i do love me some mussels, um, i mean cozze.
ej and his mom each ordered the special that wasn't on the menu. i don't know what it was called, but it had fettucine, cheese, potato, and spinach. wow. it was creamy, cheesy goodness on a plate.
and then something for the sweet tooth. the chef had received four huge cannoli direct from sicily just that morning. we ate three of them. i cannot begin to explain how the filling just melted in my mouth. the inside of the tube was coated in dark chocolate. it was ridiculous how good that crazy cannoli was! i live in ny and i've had my fair share of cannoli, but this may have been the best cannoli i've ever eaten. cue tears of joy.
the man that made it possible: our chef.
the end of ej's espresso. it's always sad to get to the end of good coffee.
fed and watered, we took a stroll through the lovely town of lovere. apparently the impending rain did not deter other people from doing the same.
do tourists really go for this sort of thing?
ej "lakes" it.
i love hanna's jackie kennedy glasses.
the friendly police stop traffic for distracted tourists who need to cross the busy street.
wine press? or olive press? you be the judge.
pg the tourist is ready for any kind of weather.
in lovere, you can mail your letters here.
or walk up these stairs to someplace higher.
or go through this open door. it's been distressed to look old. pretty convincing, yes?
eventually, we drove to val seriana, where pg lives. this is the river near pg's home.
he lives on the top floor of what used to be a hotel. his neighbor gave him the clock on the wall that has a photo of the building back in the day on the face.
pg gives us the grand tour. he redid the kitchen himself.
the building as a hotel.
pg's explanations are always entertaining.
hanna was kind enough to make us sandwiches for our train ride back.
she wrapped them in paper placemats that pg had. they said "mas!" along the edge. why did he have a stack of placemats that said "more!" in spanish on them? i'm still not sure.
the view from pg's window.
the former entrance when it was a hotel.
ny represents. on a wall at the train station.
we had the same nice conductor on the train back to milano. he reminded me of alan rickman. we were so proud that we had validated our tickets before boarding, but he didn't seem to recognize us as the naive tourists from that morning. or maybe he did.
after getting whiplash from dropping off to sleep so many times while trying to type on the keyboard last night, i finally crawled into bed and slept solidly until i woke up at 3:30am. i was able to drop off to sleep again a couple of hours later, but both ej and i are a little wiped out today. we treated ourselves to the new indiana jones movie at the ziegfeld, the first showing of the day so we could be sure to stay awake for it. it was fun. then we stopped at trader joe's (where i picked up some arborio rice so i can start practicing my risotto!). i also picked up the summer edition of their newsletter which i love to read for the descriptions of their food items and it makes me wonder who gets the excellent job of describing their yummy treats.
earlier, i transferred lots of photos from my computer to cds to make room for the last of my italy photos that were still in my camera. at some point, i'm going to have to break down and buy an external hard drive, but for today, i'm good to go:
before leaving the loft in milan, i had to take a photo of my favorite loft that was across the way from ours. the front was lush with flowering plants
and sometimes they'd leave their front door open so i could see the coziness of their home. they had red floors and yellow walls, and although that may sound very ketchup and mustard-y, it really worked. there were lots of photos and artwork. the kitchen was warm and welcoming. it was what i try to create in my home, only they do it more successfully. gaby had been eyeing the same loft all along too so i had her pretend she lived there.
different loft, but i'd never seen what looks like a yellow calla lily.
the morning we moved out, gaby, ej and myself met laura and matteo at cucchi for breakfast beforehand. on the way, we passed the duomo. this is part of the backside. every time i saw this building, it looked as if it were a fake hollywood backdrop.
they have some darn good cappuccino action going on at cucchi's and i wanted ej to try one.
one of the many reasons why i'm so fond of laura.
i don't remember being in a bad mood that morning, but i sure look like i was. maybe my cappuccino hadn't arrived yet. the strange thing is that i'm the one who took this photo, so why didn't i at least make an attempt to look somewhat pleasant if i knew that a photo was being taken?
later, after helping laura and gaby pack up the car with assorted items from the loft, we got a ride from ej's mom, hanna and her handsome italian fella, piergiorgio, to our new abode in milan. hanna had been extraordinarily generous and as a gift, rented an apartment in the san ambrogio neighborhood for ej and myself for our last few days in italy. san ambrogio isn't just a nice neighborhood, it's also much more central than our loft had been, so it was a treat to have easy access to a grocery store and cafes and a metro station. heck, it was a treat just to ride in a car and not have to schlep our luggage on public transport. if you look carefully, there's a bit of one of the old, orange trams that i love.
from the car window.
after depositing our bags, the four of us went in search of food. it was sunday (lots of restaurants were closed), it was midafternoon (the ones that were open were closed between lunch and dinner), and we were all starving and overheated, so it was not the ideal time to be searching for somewhere to eat. we wandered through the navigli neighborhood and after heading to the one restaurant we knew had amazing pizza (which was the furthest point from where we started) only to find it closed, we ended up at the very first restaurant we had passed on our search. this photo is right after we were seated. i was parched, famished, and happy to be somewhere that promised food. i barely had hold of my senses.
that night, ej and i were invited to laura and matteo's for dinner. matteo made pasta alla carlofortina, which, i'm happy to report, is one of the recipes i got from laura's dad. it was deeeelicious.
and for dessert, matteo had purchased two tubs of gelato from rigoletto's. i love that they carefully wrapped the precious cargo.
the reveal. from left to right, starting in the front: chocolate, cream, hazelnut, strawberry, lemon, melon, and some mystery fruit who's name escapes me.
alessandro (the photographer from the day before) is a gelato fiend. he waited for the rest of us to have our fill, and then he cleaned up.
this is the bouquet of flowers that laura's mom sent to the cast.
it was one of those nights when everyone seemed funny to me. as i'm uploading these photos, i'm seeing a resemblance between matteo and ej.
Older Brother
Younger Brother
it had been a long day for everyone.
and this is the Tired Hand Clasp position.
but the boys got a second wind when video games and cartoons became an option.
if ej grew a beard, he'd look even more like his older brother.
when the dinner party was over, i had to say goodbye to gaby since i wouldn't be seeing her again before i left italy. it was sad and i don't have any photos of that. ej and i got to say goodbye to laura and matteo the next morning when we joined them at their house for breakfast. they were so kind and generous to us throughout our stay. i got a little weepy when i hugged laura goodbye. there are no photos of that either.
i can barely keep my eyes open as i type this. i'm back home, the roommates are gone for good, it's 4am milan time and i can't believe we were in venice yesterday. ej and i flew back separately and he had dustin hoffman on his flight. i had russian teenagers who could've been a little more generous with their deodorant.i can't stay awake. tomorrow i'll try to catch up on these lost few days.zzzzzz.
the past few days have been a whirlwind. everyone has moved out of the loft and gone their separate ways: javi and oscar to madrid, gaby and laura to sardinia, and ej and i are in milano. i think the weeks of work before all this have caught up to us because it takes very little activity before ej and i morph into a couple of old people shuffling through the city. in a nutshell: sunday night we had a lovely "last supper" with matteo, laura, gaby, and alessandro the photographer. monday we spent with hanna and pg where he lives in the foothills of the dolomites. yesterday we stayed in town because it was supposed to be our day of rest, but we ended up doing quite a bit of walking in the city. and today, despite the rain, we're getting on a train and heading to venice. in fact, i need to get ready now.
tomorrow we fly back to ny.
i'm sad already.
