Bounjourno!
So today I woke up and had breakfast at Alessia’s house. I had yogurt and muesli, tea, and also the gluten free biscuits her mother bought with some homemade strawberry jam. The biscuits looked like small slices of bread but the texture of croutons. It was a nice change. Then Alessia and I took the train to go to meet Lilly at the Milan Central Train Station! Yay!
As we were walking to the train where Lilly was supposed to be, a bird let out like a weeks worth of poop…like one millimeter from my head!! Seriously, I just barely missed the worst situation possible! It was crazy! Anyways, we found Lilly pretty easily and then we stored her luggage so we could go to the city for touristing. We also grabbed a quick espresso for Lilly and a moccachino ( I think ) for Alessia and I . Yum !
We walked around some shopping streets in Milan first, and they are not all the most expensive stores- those ones are on a special street mostly (we didn’t make it to that street but we didn’t care either…no point in looking at what you can’t have) and so then we went to the Duomo Milan, a very large, gothic style cathedral. It was very pretty of course, like they all are. Then we decided we needed some lunch so Alessia took us to Brek, a self serve type of restaurant where they have all sorts of food and stations and you get what you want and then pay for it.Lilly and I both made salads and got grilled zucchini and eggplant. Oh how I missed vegetables in Germany !! So that was good and Alessia’s friend met us and we continued to walk the streets of Milan.
We went to the Gallery next – I thought it was a museum type thing but it was just more shopping! The expensive kind. Boo. But it was like inside and arch and ceiling and very gothic style and pretty! Even the floors! In fact, in one place on the floor there is a bull mosaic and it is apparently very good luck to stick your heel on the bull and spin to the right once or twice. So many people have done it that there is a hole in the ground there! Lilly and I both spun on the bull so I hope that means we will have good luck on our trip. ( also bird poop is good luck and I almost got hit by it and Lilly stepped in it so I think that must be like crazy good luck, I should play the lotto! )
Next important stop was gelato. Very important. I had melon and yogurt flavors ( half and half in a small cup) and Lilly had melon and pistachio in a cone. Yum! We decided we will live on espresso, gelato, and wine so that we will either have a caffeine, sugar, or alcohol buzz and will never need to sleep! Just kidding…kinda.
We went to the Castle of Milan, it was kind of like a fortress. We just walked around it though, we didn’t have time for the 4 museums inside of it! And through the gardens of the castle we saw the Arch of Peace. All of the buildings are so beautiful here, it is funny to think that they are only banks and normal building that looks so ugly in America!
After that we hopped back on the train to go back to Alessia’s village to check into our hotel and freshen up and then go to dinner at her house. Dinner was crazy good. First we had prosciutto and melon. So fresh and delicious I could have only eaten that and been happy. Then came risotto with mushrooms which was also incredible and I could have eaten that and been happy. Lilly and I thought that it was our main dish until Alessia’s mom brought out steak and salad. The salad was fresh arugala from her grandma’s garden and the steak was just seared on both sides and still very rare inside and seasoned with olive oil and lemon juice and some other herbs perhaps. I don’t think I have ever had steak quite that rare but it was not like gross bloody steak from Texas roadhouse. It was really delicious, and, I could have had that as the only part of the meal as well! We had water and chianti with dinner and then after they brought us spumonte and gelato. The same one that I had last night, vanilla with cherry. Yum. Two days down and gelato twice both days. Iyiyi! Then her mom brought the one thing I could not eat – home made tirimisu . Possibly the saddest thing ever. It was the most incredible looking and smelling homemade tirimisu ever. She uses ricotta instead of marscapone to make it lighter and I think if I could have eaten it I would have eaten the whole dish. When I get home I am going to try to find gluten free lady fingers and make tirimisu. Maybe I will have to make my own gluten free lady fingers first but I will do it! Then after all of that we had espresso. Or cafe as they simply call it here. I added some sugar but that was it, no milk. And it was yummy of course …maybe an espresso machine is in my future (after the blender, juicer, and dehydrator of course lol )
After dinner, Alessia ‘s friend came over and we went to meet up with her friends at a bar for drinks. I use the term bar loosely because it’s not like a bar in the American sense. It was more like a cafe setting, quiet, oa street with a chic looking building and inside area and a very extensive drink menu. I had a “vintage noir” which was a red wine with peach schnapps and some other peach liquor I think and some lime all over crushed ice. It was pretty and tasty and just a cute place to be, even thought I was completely exhausted and Lilly was even more tired than I ! We got back to our room around 1am and went to bed so we could wake up early.
I am trying not to speak the German I learned but I keep wanted to great people and say please and thank you and the basic words in German. I am slowly learning pieces of italian but I have Lilly and her Spanish if I really need anything because she is able to communicate pretty well with the people here. I think that there is less English here than there was in Germany. We didn’t learn how to say the F word in Italian though in case we need to tell any boys off. 🙂 we are good to go! Haha. Everyone seems very nice here though so , so far so good.
Xoxo