Monday, July 13, 2015

Italy - Day 31 (Venice to Milan)

We are on to the final leg of our journey where we will settle into Milan. We packed up, said goodbye to our house in Venice, and rolled and carried our bags up and down the stairs over bridges to take a watertaxi to the garage.  We stopped at McDonald’s first so the kids could enjoy a rare treat of pancakes.


The car ride was about 3-hours, not including the stop at the highlight of all my car journeys in Italy - a stop at the AutoGrille.  We have had a lot of lunches at the AutoGrilles - usually grilled chicken, caprese, grilled veggies, and bowls of fruit.  Today Caden ventured out and got a burger.  You had to pay extra for ketchup, which is quite funny considering that there are kiosks with bottles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar for diners to use at their leisure :)  After lunch I always visit the cafe to pick up a a machiato Latte.  We will miss you dear AutoGilles!

We arranged to meet the owner of our next house around 4.  We piled our things outside of the building to await his arrival.  Below are our little vagabonds.

(Sidenote from Corey... You might notice the graffiti on lots of walls in Milan..and pretty much all the buildings in big Italian cities.  It is just something you need to get used to seeing because it is everywhere.  The good news is that most of the stores have 'garage doors' on their storefronts so the graffiti gets 'rolled up' during the day. I must say, however, that it is sad to me to see this in such gloriously beautiful cities.  Lily says we need to think of it as 'art').

Navigli District

Our location in Milan is amazing.  We are in the midst of it all with a canal, market, shops, and restaurants of all ethnicities mere feet from our doorstep.  


For dinner we decided to stray from the typical Italian fare and go with sushi!  It turned out to be a fantastic choice as the food was fresh and delicious and a nice change of pace from pasta and pizza.  Lily has always been a sashimi eater, typically ordering raw chunks of salmon or tuna, or if only rolls she works with Gia - Lily eats the fish, Gia the rice, then Lily has the seaweed.  Sisterly collaboration.  Caden started eating sushi for his first time! 

Corey took a picture of the restaurant just as the tram was passing, creating this neat effect.

Then we walked across the street and found this gem!  It is like the frozen yogurt stores in the US where you add your own toppings, but in this case, it is gelato!  So delicious!!  We will definitely come back to this place ...frequently!  

After the gelato, we found a Carrefour market, stocked up on the essentials, and headed back to our apartment along the canal.


After dinner, the kids enjoyed the excitement from the balcony, which thankfully is not heard when the doors shut.  The photos do not capture the balcony-dancing Gia was doing.  If she was spotlighted, we surely would have a pocket full of Euros from passersby!






Another sidenote from Corey... At midnight, Lily came into our room and asked if she could go out on the balcony to watch the action.  I suppose this won't be the last time that Lily wants to go out after midnight in Milan!  Wendy hasn't been feeling well the last couple days, so when she awoke after 2am because of an ear ache, she said there were still thousands of people in the piazza partying.  It appears to be legal to walk the streets with open beers/wine as well because we see people doing it all the time.  So far we haven't noticed anyone who was very intoxicated though.

No comments: