Today begins with an easy wake-up call at 8:30 and breakfast at 9:00--what decadence! Time to enjoy a lovely pain au chocolate and a coffee before the touring begins. Ahhhhh... Plus also time to people-watch and smile as they all figure out the orange juice automatic dispenser and the coffee/espresso/hot chocolate dispenser. Sometimes being illiterate in a foreign country is confusing! So many mystery buttons. I saw a sign--a bumper sticker--on the back of a truck today that had a tree, a broken milk (or water?) bottle, and a fish. I spent some time pondering this but I got nothin'. Don't put broken bottles in trees because the fish will suffer?? Don't give drinks to fish because the trees will be offended?? Dunno.
Then back to Milano to check out the Duomo a little closer; we missed our chance to climb (and by climb I mean ride in the elevator) to the top f the church to look around yesterday because it was evening. But today we hopped right on and got to the top with very little crowding! Pics to follow; the view was pretty amazing. I just want to meet the people who figured out the plan--which saint goes where? How much carving? How many spires? How do we get marble up this high? I did find out that during WWII, many of the famous spires (and there are hundreds) were removed to avoid the destruction of the bombing, and then replaced after Italy was liberated. Amazing.
Then we went to Cuggiono to introduce our kids to their Italian counterparts. It was truly a great day; we arrived in time for lunch--pizza! Some of the kids laughed--they've eaten pizza every day at lunch (on their own time) since we got here, but I have not, so my belly was thinking "Squeeeee! Pizzapizzapizzapizza!!!" And it was marvelous. The waiter brought out drinks and then the pizzas started arriving--pepperoni and sausage and cheese, but also, like, asperagus and egg... and red pepper... and tuna... and hot dog... and pepperoni with fries on top.... I tried as many kinds as my belly could hold, but we ended up with eight or nine extra whole pizzas!! Apparently, in Italy, a person orders one entire pie just for himself. Oof. We don't eat that much in one sitting, but it really was cool to see all the varieties of native pizzas. Yum!
Then to the Villa Annoni--the summer home a wealthy family left to Cuggiono for museum purposes--to poke around and see all the Cuggionese artifacts and history. Really interesting--it's pretty clear that Herrin is very much a daughter city; the immigrants just picked up their home town and brought it to us. We then were led to the city cemetery, where the kids were actually quite interested. Every other stone had names we know: Pisoni, Calcaterra, Oldani, Garavaglia, Quaglia, Guadoni... on and on. The kids ran around taking pics of their own names and names of their friends--jackpot. This was the goal of today--we want our kids to pick up the baton and carry the relationships forward into future. Our guides today were Oreste and Ernesto, old and close friends, but also Guido and Matisse and Fabio... very young and olive-y skinned and handsome Italian boys who make it alluring for our girls to make connections and keep in touch. :-) We'll see what comes of this; we had a little meet--and-greet with lots of Herrinite and Cuggionese kids; I would love to see some homestays or exchanges begin happening. Time will tell, but they're already adding each other on Facebook and Instagram. :-) Successful day! Plus they took us to the local gelato shop (panne cotta this time--yum!!), so good news all around!
Back at the hotel, we had a lovely pasta, some chicken and fries, and ice cream (meh. It wasn't gelato) and o
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