Yes, yes, I know. Long time no blog. But here I am now with some exciting new stories! And the exciting and stunning Tuscany blog will be quick to follow.
~ Last week I was blessed with a little taste of Paonia: Tracy M. made her way through Europe and stopped to visit with me along the way! Tracy was only going to come for an overnight, whirlwind tour of Milan but she ended up liking it and stayed for two nights. In that time we visited the Duomo (inside and out!), had dinner at Santa Lucia, had aperitivo at Club Noon, and did some major shopping on Via Torino. It was wonderful!
Tracy pulled up to my apartment via taxi on Wednesday evening, we promptly primped ourselves and headed out to dinner at Santa Lucia. Now let me explain why I chose this place for Tracy's first meal in Italy: it is amazing. And so, so very Italian!! AND the walls are covered in photos of famous singers who have dined there after performing at La Scala! (Do you get it now? ;D) We got a table and somehow managed to choose a good bottle of Chianti, an appetizer plate of meats, and for our entrees we ordered the oh-so-scrumptious spaghetti con vongole (clams)! Did you know that clams taste different in Italy than the US? They come from different water and are way less fishy. Sooo tasty! I would like to point out that this was in fact the first time Tracy and I had properly met! That's Paonia for ya, no matter where you are you know that a fellow Paonian will take you in. :) So over our delicious meal and vino rosso we learned quite a bit about each other and enjoyed multiple laughs!
After dinner we decided to peruse the area surrounding the Duomo, La Galleria, and La Scala. It was a wonderfully clear night and I know I enjoyed reliving and sharing all of the cool things I learned about Milano!
The next morning we continued our adventuring by touring the inside of Il Duomo. Now this was my first time inside (I know, I know), and I was absolutely awestruck. This church is ancient, and yet every pane of those stained glass windows was vivid and each sculpture excellently preserved. Here are a few photos, there are more on Facebook. I lit a candle and said a prayer at the alter for Mary, this is a tradition that I picked up last time we were in Europe, and I do it every time we enter a church here.
Later Thursday evening we made our way to aperitivo at Club Noon where we enjoyed some cocktails, delicious Italian finger food, and flirts from a neighboring table! After aperitivo, it still being relatively early in the evening, we made our way to the Acro della Pace and took a few photos. I had a lovely visit with Tracy (she left for Venice the next morning), it was nice to have a bit of Paonia love some to Milan to see me!
~ I realized the other day that I haven't shown you the lobby of my apartment building! We have a reflecting pool!! It's fab. That's all.
~ OK folks, here's a story that certainly had us laughing, here's hoping it will at least bring a grin to your face! The set up: There had been billboards for a certain ForWedding expo for the past month or so and my housemate Callie had been jonesing to go. So finally, one fateful Sunday afternoon, Callie decides she's going to go, would we like to join her? Myself and Theresa jump on the bandwagon, I mean what else is there to do in Milan on Sunday? (Don't answer that.)
After a very short metro ride and quickly sprinting for a bus, we arrive at the Milano Convention Center. This building is huge. I mean it takes up three city blocks! So the three of us hop off the bus and skip merrily into the first entrance we see! Did I mention that this building is HUGE?? So we walk in and start seeing lots of people dressed very professionally in business attire and there were signs everywhere for some big environmental conference put on by Shell, BP, etc.... So here are three little girls wandering around in our colorful autumn attire and looking a touch confused. We decided to go up another level, maybe the ForWedding expo is there! No. Instead we end up walking down a very deserted and poorly lit hallway, and out of a very dark open doorway we hear a deep bass singing, "Nooobody knows the trouble I've seen..." EEP! We scurried our little selves out of there ASAP!
So anyhoo, we get back downstairs thinking, "Hey, let's get back outside and try again!" Except now we're in the midst of all the booths for this conference! We make our way out of a back door that was propped open, only to realize that it is a parking lot that is completely fenced in. Crap. So back inside we go, this time really noticing that EVERYONE has a name tag... We walked along an aisle, towards the elevator (try, try again eh?), when we were stopped by three very large security guards! They ask us where our ID tags are in English (oh ya, the conference attendees were all American...?), we obviously didn't have any so the security guards start asking suspicious! I quickly swoop in and say in Italian "Cerchiamo ForWedding! Siamo persi!" (We're looking for ForWedding! We're lost!) The head guard looks thoroughly confuzzled then asks if I mean the thing with wedding dresses? I quickly nodded and he said he knew where to take us. We three little chickypoos were then escorted out of a very intense looking conference by three big burly Italian guards! It was so funny! The kind gents pointed us in the right direction after quickly interrogating me about where exactly we had gotten in. "Over there!" "Over where?" "The elevator right over there." "And no one stopped you?" "Nope. Grazie! Ciao!" And away we went! Hahaha, it was so crazy! Turns out we were about two blocks away from the proper entrance for ForWedding! We made our way over and enjoyed some beautiful wedding gowns, candies, and photos. It was a crazy, and wonderfully entertaining afternoon. :)
~ Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I recently latched onto the idea that I would like to find myself an Irish boyfriend. Yup. Just 'cause. So anyhoo, I thought, "Hey, let's go to an Irish pub! Apparently there are lots of them in Milan!" So a group of us made it a night and headed to Murphy's Law: Irish Pub. It was very authentic looking outside and inside, the only problem was that there weren't any actual Irish there! Unless you count me, and my heritage is a bit watered down. So we had some drinks, played some silly games with euro coins, and then made our way home. A wonderful evening that has spiked my excitement for a real pub in Dublin to near impossible levels!
Va bene, amici. Now it's time to start my Tuscany blog! Hope all is well.
Bacci!
Cassidy
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