Do All Cities in Italy End in "O"?

For a few reasons (I was up late blogging, Keith wanted some "alone time", Ben wanted to see the Ferrari Factory, Belle wanted to nap, and I'm sure there was a reason for Jill too), we decided to split up on Thursday. Ben & Jill took the car (and the "Neverlost" aka "Donna the Direction Machine") and decided to head to Maranello to the Ferrari Factory. They seemed to have enjoyed their day in the car and the factory itself, but you'll have to read more about that in their blogs (Where's Jill and nebhale) since I wasn't there. :) The Donalds had a really low key day just hangin' around our hometown for the week, Argegno. We slept in and relaxed around the villa for most of the day because it drizzly and foggy outside. Eventually we grabbed a couple of umbrellas and ventured down to the town in search of a late lunch or early dinner. Apparently we were too early (or late, depending on who you ask) because most of the restaurants were closed. In small towns like Argegno, the restaurants are only open for a couple hours for each meal. We did find a small bar/sandwich place to order paninis and I even enjoyed a cup of cappuccino (I don't normally drink coffee at home, but really enjoy a true Italian cappuccino... even though I was drinking it at the wrong time of the day, according to the Italians). After this, our Donald clan hiked back up to our villa where we spent the evening relaxing and watching movies while we waited for Ben and Jill to return with their adventure stories for the day.

On Friday, we took a ferry across the lake to Bellagio, the city at the "crotch" of the lake (I don't think the Italian's refer to it like that though). In Bellagio, we had a nice meal, took a nice walk, and did some nice shopping (including purchasing some of my Fontanini nativity figures which are actually made in Lucca, Italy). I got to practice some more of my Italian speaking skills too (and we learned that "months" is "mesi"... we could've just looked on the babyfood jar and figured that out though). :) While in Bellagio, we saw a wall of pictures of famous people visiting the town and saw what appeared to be candid pictures of George Clooney (of course) and Brad Pitt visiting. Also, a bit of gossip... while we were in Italy, we saw an Italian newspaper that had a story about George Clooney selling his place on Lake Como to Tom Cruise for something like 7 million (USD or EUR?). This happened just one week after Katie was seem visiting the area. Hmmmmm! ;)

We got up early (well, early for us) Saturday morning to head to Milano for the day. Once we arrived in Milan, we headed to see "The Last Supper" not expecting to be able to get in to see it, and having our expectations met. So then we walked in the wrong direction to find the Duomo in Milan. Once we finally found it, we walked through the inside of this HUGE, beautiful church, then headed to THE shopping streets in Milan. Of course, it was only window shopping for us since these were THE stores, the ones that you only shop in if you're loaded (or breaking the bank). While we were walking these streets, Annabelle got hungry and was sleepy and wanted to breastfeed... so I did my best multitasking involving breastfeeding yet! I had Annabelle in my Ultimate Baby Carrier (still the BEST baby carrier for a cool climate EVER!) facing me, so I put Jill's jacket over the front of me, hiked up my shirt, and fed Annabelle sitting up in the carrier as I window shopped the most expensive stores in the world! Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of this feat of motherhood. :(

Pictures posted at http://www.kodakgallery.com/keriland/travel.