Brera Museum was free to visitors during Milan's Culture week.

Carol and Mom at our B&B breakfast table.

Carol with our room safe. When she brough out this tiny green tin box with a tiny silver key and told us the was the room safe, we collapsed laughing.

When we arrived in London, Heathrow, we stopped to check our schedule and to see how long we had before our connecting flight to Milan. I looked at my wrist to check my watch and BINGO, my watch was gone. I had been in London for 10 minutes and I had already lost my watch. I recall stopping to change the time. I think I must not have tightened the strap well enough and it fell off while I was struggling with my luggage. I had an over the shoulder bag and my rolling carry-on suitcase as well as another rolling carry-on with all of our toiletries inside of it. You cannot believe all the stuff we took on this trip. It was ridiculous. No wonder I lost track of my little Winnie the Pooh watch. LOL
Anyway, I didn't spend anytime worrying about the watch or even looking for it. I went into Harrod's at the airport and purchased a watch with a black wrist band and a black face with silver hands. Behind the hands, a cute picture of a West Highland White Terrier to remind me of my Kasey girl at home.

When we got to Milan, we took a bus from the airport to the central train station in downtown Milan. It's about a 30 minute bus ride on a road simular to a US highway/freeway. When we arrived at the train station, we tried to find a telephone to call the bed and breakfast to tell them we had arrived and would be taking a cab to their location. We couldn't figure out how to use the telephones to save our lives. We read the instructions several times and still had no luck connecting to the B&B. Giving up that idea, we walkted to the Taxi stand. As we walked over there, I rolled my suitcase through dog poop. Oh, god! ICK..... I couldn't believe I'd done something so disgusting. I found some grass and pulled my suitcase thru it and got most of it off - thankfully.

As we walked up to the taxi stand, the driver of the first Taxi started loading our luggage in the back of his cab. We asked him if he had a cell phone so we could call the B&B. "No, phone." he replied gruffly. We explained that we had to call the B&B before going. He told us he didn't understand so Cari told him, in her basic Italian about our problem. He turned and started pulling our luggage out of his car. He was NOT happy at all. He was saying things in Italian that we knew were angry words toward us. Cari told him, in Italian, "We are so sorry." He turned to her and in great English said, "You're sorry! I'm trying to work here."

He pulled the last suitcase out of the car and pushed it toward us saying more angry words in Italian. All of us stood there, smiling and saying, "You, too!" like he was wishing us a good day. Later, we would laugh hysterically about this and it is in our "Top 10 Most Embarrassing Moments".

When we realized that we were not going to be able to call ahead, we found another Taxi and went to the B&B unannounced. Luckily, our hostess was there waiting for us. She met us at the door off the street and lead us through an entry with beautiful marble floors to a small, and I do mean SMALL elevator. She loaded the luggage and then sent it and Mom up to the 2nd floor while the rest of us climbed the stairs.

We got everything inside and she showed us to our room which was actually 2 rooms and a private bathroom. In the main room, there were two twin beds (for Cari and me) and a dining table with 4 chairs. In the next room, there was a queen size bed (for Carol and Mom) and the doorway into the bathroom. It was a great set up for us.

Our hostess, Manuella, made us comfortable and then left us for the night. After she left, we laughed for about an hour about the day. We laughed about me losing my watch and dragging my suitcase thru dog pooh. We howled about the angry taxi driver and how stupid we must have looked as we grinned at him, nodded and said, "You, too" while he was cussing us out. It felt so good to laugh until our sides hurt. It was a great stress reliever. Little did we know those funny things were just the first of many hilarious adventures.

My favorite piece of art work was di Vinci's Last supper. We got to go see it on our 2nd day in Milan. We were very lucky to have this experience. As you enter the sacred place, you must wait with your group in a small room with wooden benches to sit on. When it's your turn, a guide takes you into a corridor leading to the room to see the painting. You walk thru several glass chambers. In each one, you stay for about 30 seconds while your body cools to the temperature of that chamber. You move to the next chamber which is cooler. You wait, again, until your body cools. You go into another chamber where the temperature is the same as the room that holds the painting. As soon as everyone's body has cooled, they allow you in to see the painting. Only 15 people at a time are allowed to view The Last Supper for 15 minutes. At the end of the 15 minutes, they let the room stand empty for 15 minutes so any body heat and/or humidity that has been created by the last group will dissipate.

The experience had all four of us in tears. It was so emotional and special to be in the presence of this painting. On the wall across from the Last Supper is another painting by several well known artists of the day of the Crucifixion. That was such a beautiful depiction of that day. It also brought tears to our eyes.

I loved Milan but it's not one of the cities I would revisit. It's just too difficult to move around. So many people that the buses, streets, stores, restaurants are all crowded and uncomfortable.

Milan Elevator Trauma

Elevator Trauma


Let me explain about how the Italians number the floors of a building. There is the ground floor, then the first floor and then the second floor, etc. In some buildings there is the lower ground floor, the ground floor, the upper ground floor, and then the first floor, the second floor and so on and so on. I am telling you this so you can picture it and realize that when your room is on the second floor, you have to climb a lot of stairs to get there. Also, in our B&B, the second floor is on, what we consider to be the third floor. When you're tired, it's a difficult journey. LOL

The second afternoon we were in Milan, the four of us had gone out to see The Last Supper. Upon our return, we were exhausted from all the walking and a very long bus ride (we got on going the long way) so we decided to take the elevator up to our room. The elevator was approximately 3 feet wide and 3 1/2 feet deep. Tiny! The four of us got in and closed the door. We were shoulder to shoulder and face to face. I pressed the 2nd floor button. We felt the elevator move and then stop suddenly. I pressed the button again and NOTHING. The elevator would not budge. Of course, this elevator was probably installed in long ago because there is no phone to call for help. There are no buttons to push to open the doors. After trying the buttons again, we realized we were stuck. This baby wasn't going anywhere.

Cari and I started laughing. I'm sure it was to release some tension. My sister started to panic because she has claustrophobia and my Mom was trying to keep order by telling us not to worry. "Press the emergency button!" my sister suggested. We pressed the button and could hear a loud buzzer go off. Ah, hah! Someone in the building would surely hear it and come to our rescue. Well, five minutes passed and no one showed up to help so we pressed it again.................and again..................and again. No response.

"I can see the headlines now." I laughed. "Four American women found dead in tiny elevator."

My sister didn't think that was funny at all. My assertive daughter said, "I've had enough of this."
She moved to the front of the elevator and with my help, we pried open the doors. We didn't know if we were stuck between floors or what but we couldn't wait for rescue any longer. We pried open the doors and luckily, we could open the outside door which lead to freedom. We had to step down about 2" from the elevator to the floor. When we got outside, we realized that we were still on the ground floor. The elevator had only risen 2" before it shut down.

We started laughing so hard that we could hardly get up the stairs. We had been panic stricken by a 2" rise in elevation. How embarrassing would it have been if the fire department rescue unit had shown up and we were only 2" off the ground?

We found out later that we had exceeded the weight limit and the elevator went into overload. It automatically shuts down if there is too much weight so that it doesn't get stuck between floors or plummet to the ground when it tries to lift that much weight up several floors.

Phew! We were lucky. This is also on our list of Top 10 Embarrassing Moments.

Verona - Our Second Stop

We stayed at a lovely Bed and Breakfast in Verona.

This is a picture of the wonderful food they served each morning and the table we sat at by the window. All of the cakes and pastries are baked right there. You cannot imagine how wonderful the room smelled when we would go in to eat. Not only could we choose anything from the table, they made us the best scrambled eggs we have ever eaten.

This is a picture of Juliette's balcony in Verona, Italy. Romeo stood below this enchanting little balcony as they professed their love for each other.

Of course, the story of Romeo and Juliette was fiction but it's so sweet to think this is what Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote the love story.

We went to see the Verona Arena after seeing the balcony. This is the 3rd largest arena in Italy. It is still used today for Opera performances and special events. The acoustics are perfect inside. The day before we got there, there was a special concert featuring choirs from around the world. We met members of the choirs from Puerto Rico and the Ukraine.


I'm sorry the picture is dark but I think you can make out the details.

This is inside the arena. That little dot near the center at the top is Cari. She climbed all the way to the top to get a view of the surrounding area and to see what it felt like to be a spectator at one of the ancient events.

We Are Home! We are home!

Wow, what a shock to be back in the U.S. Gas prices have soared since we left. Lots of little changes in my surroundings. New flowers in the back yard, my grocery store finished a big remodeling project, a neighbor is redoing his yard. Big palm trees have been taken out, the ground tilled and now we are waiting to see what he does. Maybe a big Italian fountain? I could only hope.

Our trip home was a logistic nightmare. I guess things ended on the down side to make us REAL happy to finally be home. When we checked in for our flight from Milan to London, British Airways had us listed on the passenger list but would not let us board the flight because there was a paperwork glitch through American Airlines. They have a partnership with British Airways and booked that leg of our return trip through them.

I won't go into all the details but what ended up happening is...........we had to fly to Paris, France, spend the night and fly home the next day. We had to fly from Paris to Dallas/Forth Worth, Texas and then to LAX. Great, right? Ugh!!! We checked in at American Airlines in Paris and told our sad story to a wonderful British woman who was working the service desk. She helped us through the process of getting our boarding passes, checking 5 heavy bags, and making our way to the gate. She noticed that Mom was using a cane, so she called for a wheelchair and VIP treatment. She noticed that we were not sitting together, so she called the service desk at the gate and had them change our seats so we were sitting in the first row behind first class which gave us so much more leg room! It was awesome. Mom could stand up and stretch anytime she needed to and we didn't disturb anyone else. AND, no one disturbed us.
Since that flight lasted 10 LONG hours, it was a great place to sit.

When we got to Dallas/Fort Worth, we had to go through customs, so we had to collect our luggage, go through customs, recheck our luggage and make it to the other flight in 1 1/2 hours. As we waited for the luggage to come down the baggage carousel, Mom sat in a wheelchair with a porter at her side the whole time. Well, we waited and waited. Three of our bags arrived but two were missing. Of course, they were the two with all the good stuff in them. All of the art work, gifts, things we had bought for ourselves, wine, some clothes, medications, and the CHOCOLATE!!!! (I know, I know, always keep your medications and chocolate with you.......we learned that lesson.)

In order to go through customs, we had to fill out paperwork on the lost bags. I guess D/FW airport was having a bad luggage day because we were in line with 25 other people who didn't get their luggage either. We finally had the paper work in our hands so we could proceed to customs. We got through that just great. As we walked out of the customs department, we were met by a customer service representative who took our luggage to the re-check place while we proceeded to security.

Security went pretty well. We were frustrated because we were running so late for our flight and we had to go through the entire take-your-shoes off, take your coat off, have your passport and boarding pass handy routine. In Europe, you go through security fully dressed. You do not have to take off your shoes. With Mom in a wheelchair, we got pushed to the front of the line and went through a special section for wheelchairs and other disabilities. That was slick.

When we got to our gate, they had already pre-boarded first class and people traveling with kids, etc. They had called for sections one and two to begin boarding, but they all had to wait until Mom was taken aboard.
Carol had stopped for diet Coke, bottled water, and a snack on our way to the flight, so I waited until she got to the gate to board. We were in section 2 so we were able to get in line and get seated. Whew! We had been so nervous about missing the connection to LAX because of the paperwork glitch over the lost bag.

Tah-dah! We were on the way to LAX, a day late and not a US dollar to our names.

At LAX, Dennis was there waiting for us. It was so great to see him and know that at least this part of the journey was going right. That feeling lasted about 5 minutes.... Mom's suitcase wasn't on the flight... Sooooo, we had to go through the process of reporting her bag and our two lost duffel bags all over again. At the service desk, we were told that they had found Mom's suitcase and my duffel bag and that they were on a flight to Chicago and then on to LA. Oh, boy! Our bags are such good travelers. LOL Carol's duffel bag was still missing. Of course, when these things happen and it just happens to be the bag with all the goodies in it, you can't help but think someone stole the bag. We all did our best to keep up good thoughts and said prayers to get that bag home.

Mom and I had our bags delivered around 2:30 on Saturday. Whew! We were so happy to get them but we felt guilty and sad for Carol. Her bag was still in Luggage Hell somewhere in the US or France. Well, around 4:00 in the afternoon, American Airlines called and gave us the happy news that her bag had been found. It was delivered, intact, around midnight last night. I was in bed when it arrived and since it is 2:52 in the morning and she is sleeping, I have not been able to ask her if everything was OK. I noticed the bottle of wine she had been carrying is on the kitchen counter and there are no wine stains on the packaging so I am fairly sure the bottle didn't break during it's wild ride from Paris to Riverside.

Bryan, Shannon, the grandchildren, and Sam were here with us for a delightful afternoon and dinner. We shared tales, laughed about all of the funny things that happened. I broke the news about buying the designer coat for me and the designer bag for Cari's graduation gift. When we told of the huge discounts we got, Dennis breathed a lot easier. We saved 1800 Euros ( That is about $2970 US dollars) through the grace and kindness of Felipe Asti, the owner of the shop where were go the goodies. He had sold us our things at his cost. We will always be so grateful to him because we would not have been able to afford to buy these things without his kindness.

Now, we are trying to get our bodies back on California time. We were up early yesterday; Carol and Mom around 4:30 and me at 5:00. Everyone is sleeping right now except me. I woke up about an hour ago - wide awake, so I decided to use the time (and the quiet) to write this entry. It is so much easier when I'm alone and things are quiet to collect my thoughts and write.

As I go through the pictures, journal entries, and talking about things with Cari, Carol, and Mom, I will be adding a lot more things to this blog. I hope you will check back and read some of the highlights and our memories.

Love, Kathy

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Only four days left. I just ache when I realize it is time to go home in just four days. I truly have not had enough of this place. It is so wonderful on so many levels.

Today, we went to the Pitti Palace and saw the Palentine Gallery and 6 rooms of the palace that are preserved to show what the place looked like when royalty lived there in the 1800's. What fun we had looking at rooms and rooms of exceptional art work, statues and the palace gardens from several of the windows in the rooms. When we got to the living quarters, it was a treat to see how they lived and the wonderful pieces of art, pottery and statues they collected from all over the world.

Tonight, we are fixing our own dinner. We are having a roasted chicken that Carol picked up at a little food shop near our apartment. We are fixing some fresh pasta that we got at the Central Market a few days ago. Fresh basil, tomatoes, green and red peppers and some fresh mushrooms are going to be sauted and then added to a prepared red sauce and served with the chicken. Yummy.

We have plans to visit a nearby town, Orvieto on Tuesday. We don't think the cooking class is going to happen. Mom can't stand for four hours through the classes we have found. If we don't do that, we will find something special to see in Florence.

We are leaving here on Wednesday, April 23rd in the early evening. We have booked a hotel nearl the Milan Airport for the night. Our flight home leaves there at noon so we won't have to get up at the crack of dawn in Florence, take a 3 hour train to Milan and then stress about making our connections. The hotel has a free shuttle to the airport so I know we will be fine.

We arrive at LAX at 6:30 p.m. Thursday night. A very long day. It will be 3:30 Friday Morning in Milan when we get home. We are going to be exhausted.

I will be writing more about this trip as I go through all of my journal entries, pictures and mementos. I hope you will continue to check back to read about "The Time of Our Lives."

Love, Kathy

Saturday in Florence - April 19,2008

You can tell the weekend has arrived in Florence. The traffic increases tremendously. The sidewalks are incredibly busy, more tour buses run, and the taxi cabs are are racing between pick up and drop off sites.

We went to the Bargello Museum early this morning. It pays to get up early and get to those places by 8:30 in the morning. No crowd and no one pushing you around. There were only about 12 - 15 people there, including us, this morning. Many Michaelangelo and Dante sculptures. Fantastic! We totally loved it.

From there, we walked to Rivorari for the best coffee in Florence. Delicious Cafe Latte at the stand up bar is only 1.70 Euros. If you sit down, the same cup of coffee is 6 Euros. Pays to stand sometimes. LOL

Mom is resting this afternoon so Carol and I are walking the city. We love to do that here. Very safe and we are finally getting the hang of finding our way around.

More soon,

Love, Kathy

Correction

I made a mistake in the last post. The ceiling is 18 feet above us, not 18 inches. LOL Didn't want you guys to think we were getting smushed.