Milano - and I'm not talking about the cookie

Upon arrival in Bollate (the town outside of Milan where my cousins live)  I called my cousin (or rather second cousin) Ebe who had graciously agreed to host me this weekend.  She picked me up at the station and then we went back to her flat.  She lives above the company  where she and her brother Fausto work together.  We sat and chatted in the flat while her son Edo (who is about my age) watched the Tour de France – which I had totally forgotten about.  Dinner that evening was at a restaurant owned by a Chinese family that served, Japanese, Chinese, and Italian food.  That kind of combination in America would be unheard of…. I had sushi for dinner, and it was delicious.  After dinner there was desert, I had mandarin sorbet.  Then there was liqueur.  I’m not really sure what kind of alcohol I was drinking, but it was very spicy.  Apparently its very common for this area, so of course I had to try it, actually I didn’t have much choice in the matter.  After dinner we drove up to lake Como, or rather to Scaria which is a small town on the north end of the lake.

Saturday morning Ebe was up about 9 and off to the store.  I rolled out of bed around 9:30 while she was gone.  I continued reading treasure island until she returned with breakfast.  Breakfast was fresh fruit, tea, focaccia, and little pizzas!  The mini pizzas were about an inch and a half in diameter, and had puff pastry crust.  They were simple with just sauce and cheese, but still delicious.  I ate breakfast on the porch overlooking the alps, with a plum tree in the foreground. 

After breakfast Ebe and I went for a walk through Scaria.  We saw the church which was built in the 1600s, and is of course gorgeous.  We also saw a large wash basin which used to be the community washing machine, and is fed by a local spring.  I had never seen one before, but Ebe says when she was growing up here there were no washing machines.

Back from our walk Ebe, Edo and I went to a restaurant to have a drink and look out on the scenery.  The restaurant was further up the mountain and commanded an excellent view of the lake and the valley.  We must have sat for at least and hour or so over our drinks, because it was nearly two pm by the time we returned to the house. 

We had a hurried lunch of bread, meat, cheese, and fruit, and then Ebe, Mauro and I were off to the town of Como.  We caught the ferry across the lake.  It was a little warm, but it was beautiful, and I did see where the landslide had happened.  I may have dozed a bit on the ride to Como though :p

Arriving in the town we made a beeline for the cathedral.   The outside is done in red, white, and gray marble.  The inside is of course very ornate and filled with tapestries.  Interestingly they had put little plastic shields over the holy water, I’m assuming to protect it from evaporation.  After touring the church we stopped in the piazza and sat at  a cafe.  I had coffee with ice cream, though almost half of the glass was whipped cream.    As we sat we watched a young woman in the square who was doing a show with hula-hoops.  She was actually really good.  She did a lot of jumping in and out of them and spinning more than one at time. 

From there we walked through the city.  Ebe bought a bottle of sherry and some bread.  I like that in Europe one can go to one store for bread, one for meat, one for wine, ect.  We hopped back on the boat and were back in Scaria sometime around 7 I think. 

Dinner was a delicious cookout.  Mauro grilled up some ribs and sausages and they were great!  After dinner we drank some of the sherry and also mint tea that Edo made from the garden. 

 Sunday morning I went to church with Ebe . Mass was lovely and I did get a mass guide which was printed in Italian.  Not quite the Italian/Spanish/English/Latin guide from the Vatican, but alas, there is still hope for WYD.  After mass we had our cappuccino, and then were back to the house to pack up and head back into Milano.  The drive back to Milan was fairly uneventful and upon arriving back at the flat in Milano we had pasta – yum!  

The early evening consisted of going into Milano.  We visited two churches (one being the Milano DOM), as well as the castle, the theater, and the promenade.  In the promenade, among other things, there is a Louis Vitton, a Prada, and a McDonalds.  Also there is a mosaic on the floor of a bull, it is supposedly good luck to place one’s heel on the balls of the bull and turn around in a circle three times.  Of course I took my turn.  There is now a rather large three or four inch crater where I’m assuming the bull’s balls used to be, but the rest of the mosaic is intact. The Dom is really quite beautiful, but also rather pointy.  There were also tapestries hung in the church, which was a change from the other churches in Rome.  I rather like all of the tapestries hung from the ceilings – but the dark light did make them a little hard to see.  We also had granite at Sicilian style café which had the most wonderful marzipan creations.  There was every type of fruit and vegetable as well as pigs and other small animals.  I have never actually had marzipan, but all of the different little creations got my brain spinning about cake decorations.  There was also, of course, in Milan, fashion everywhere.  There were live half-nude male models in front of Abercrombie and Fitch (which is of course not high fashion).  But there were women dressed to the nines everywhere.  I felt highly unfashionable in my bold printed skirt with lace and tank top. 

After Milan we returned back to the flat and for dinner we ordered pizza, or rather mauizio went out and picked up pizza for us.  We had cheese pizza, onion pizza, and anchovy pizza.  All very typical Italian style pizzas, and it was pretty funny to talk to them about the types of pizza that can be bought in America.