Ciao e Ciao Ciao!

For the past 10 days I've been busy vacationing, relaxing, hanging out, and drinking cheap wine in Northern Italy with four of my friends from Florida - Keith, Keri, Annabelle, and Ben (alright- we weren't ALL drinking wine...Annabelle!). The week+ long vacation was full of fun and adventure - which started the minute I got to Italy!

I flew into Milan Bergamo on Saturday, October 14th. Keith, Keri, Annabelle, and Ben had flown in earlier that day to Milan's main airport, picked up the rental car and then came and found me (of course AFTER stopping off for gelato first!). I found Keri with ease - after all she had a "Fancy" sign! :) Our first problem was when we attempted to add my luggage to an already PACKED car. Between the four of us and the baby with all her necessities- our little A-class Mercedes-Benz was stuffed full! This was soon overlooked by our next adventure- finding our Villa. Luckily, the boys were smart and opted to pay extra for a NeverLost (our beloved Direction Machine) - which was GREAT- although the directions were in English- the voice was in Italian! Needless to say, we got lost right from the get-go, and somehow we ended up on the wrong side of the Lake (Como)! Unfortunately we didn't realize this- we had directions from the lady who rented us the Villa providing us clear and distinctive landmarks to follow...which we found. I mean how may Hotel Belvedere’s, Via Panoramicas and Ferry Landings can there be on ONE lake? I now know that the answer is AT LEAST 2! Oh well- after a few "jump-out-and-ask-directions" attempts, we found someone who spoke a few words of English and we found a ferry and finally Argegno!

Our efforts paid off and we were very pleasantly surprised with a wonderful Villa overlooking the town and lake- perfect small town feel (even though I'm sure we were ALL willing to give up some of that small-town charm for a big grocery store Saturday night!) Thankfully, Keri had packed a family-sized box of Velveeta Shells & Cheese for me - so we had SOMETHING for dinner. (So yeah, let the teasing begin- we're in ITALY and we're eating Velveeta Shells & Cheese? That seemed SO wrong!) After catching up for a bit (and catching up on watching Nip/Tuck together- SOOO miss watching Nip/Tuck with Keri!!!) it was time to call it a night.

Then on Sunday, since we were all still tired and not all that motivated to stray far from the Villa (and we were in search of a grocery store), we headed south down the lake to Lenno. This was the nicest day of our trip, and luckily we took full advantage, we stopped at a cafe on the lake for some lunch, and then walked around for a bit. Unfortunately, when we found the grocery store, it was closed - we were disappointed but we headed back to Argegno for gelato and pizzas for dinner (which we ate while sitting on our balcony overlooking the lake- VERY nice!)

Monday morning Keith walked down (and hiked back!) into town to get the basic necessities (milk, coco puffs, bread) which held us over for a bit. Ben and I got adventurous and headed back down to Lenno to do some real grocery shopping. Wow- it was a little overwhelming! Just when I thought I had the hang of shopping in Norway- I had to learn it all again! Funny how two places so close together are SO different in common daily activities! At least most of the food in the Italian grocery wasn't seafood, but there was NO English anywhere! But €3.90 for a bottle for red wine? ALL my cares were lifted!

After we got back, the five of us headed down into Argegno and tried some "authentic Italitan" hot chocolate- which really, was warm chocolate pudding in a cup! Yum! Afterwards, we wandered over towards the lake to feel just how un-cold the water was, take some pictures, and even skip some rocks! It was a fun and nice vacation-y kind of day!

By Tuesday, we were feeling pretty confident in our Italian navigation and decided to go ALL the way into Como (which was only about 10 minutes from Argegno) to see Il Duomo di Como (which is just flat out fun to say!). We found it right off the bat and got great parking at the train station. We saw the Duomo- (yep- it’s in Como!) and then we found McDonalds (how shameful it is to write that!) And then right after McDonalds? We found Gelato! (By the way- Bellee LOVES gelato! Loves eating it as much as she loves to get it all over herself- and strawberry gelato, an 8-month old, and a VERY white outfit??? LOL!). We walked and ate gelato and found Como's Funicalar up to Brunato...a small, small, small village-type town overlooking Como. We spent about an hour or so walking around and taking pictures. Then it was back to Como to do some grocery shopping before heading back to the Villa for the evening.

Wednesday we got really ambitious and headed towards Verona (the home of the Shakespeare’s fictional stars of Romeo and Juliet). Once we finally found a parking spot, we window-shopped and walked down the marble streets of the town. There was a huge coliseum (just like Rome's), which was in great shape despite its years. We beat the Pope to Verona by one day (THANK GOD!- traffic was bad enough - can't even imagine what Thursday would have been like!) After lunch in a vendor-filled square (t-shirts for Keith and me!), we found the Dante statute, and then Juliet Capulet's "home" - alright, it could have been her home if she was actually real...regardless, we still engaged in touristy activities, such as rubbing her right breast for “good luck in love” (I rubbed it a lot!) and posing on the balcony. On our way back to the car, we stopped and got our daily dosage of gelato, then it was back to Argegno.

Thursday morning, Ben and I set off on our own, leaving Keith and Keri to have some "alone time". Ben's main draw for staying in Northern Italy for a week was visiting Maranello - the "home" of Ferrari. Another 2 hour drive later, we reached Maranello not having too much of an idea on where to go, luckily we could hear the "sweet siren sounds" of an F1 car test-driving on Pista di Fiorano . Ben and I followed our ears and were treated to a rare sight- an F1 practicing on THE Ferrari test track. After watching for about 15 minutes from a gated-alleyway (with about a group of 20 other fanatics), we wandered over to the Galleria. About 400 pictures by Ben later, we continued on our tour of Maranello over towards the official Ferrari shop directly across the street from the Ferrari factory- of course we could only see it from across the street- Ferrari has a VERY strict regulation on who gets to visit their factory…but we did catch a “mule” driving around, but neither of us were quick enough with our cameras. Regardless, it was a really fun day and I think Ben had a BLAST! Although I'd never been a Ferrari enthusiast before, I'm glad I took the opportunity to visit such an impressive Italian landmark.

After spending all day in the car Thursday, the last thing I wanted to go far from Argegno. Lucky for me, the Donalds and Ben had the same mind-set. :) We drove down to Cadenabbia, and took the ferry back to Bellagio (where we got lost on our way to the Villa our first night). We found a small little restaurant for lunch, then walked up and down the steep stairs and hills of Bellagio. I was a little disappointed in Bellagio, but I think it was a great way to pass the day with friends. :)

Saturday we woke up to a cloudy sky and rain, regardless, we ventured down into Milan for the day. We attempted to see Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” but weren’t really expecting to, I do think we should get some credit for finding the church though (alright- Donna the Direction Machine found it). After that we headed (in the wrong direction first – where’s Donna now?) to Milan’s Duomo. We turned a corner and then there it was, seriously took you a moment to comprehend the enormity of it. It is currently being restored- and in typical Milan Duomo fashion, the cleaning is behind schedule, so we saw a mostly clean Duomo with decorative scaffolding on the outside. We walked around the interior for a bit, decided against climbing it, and settled for a walk though “A Vittorio Emanuele II. I Milanesi…in other words- the inspiration of current-day shopping malls. I went into the (teaser) Prada store (when in Milan!). After the mall, we accidentally found Milan’s Opera House – I’m voting it the world’s most famous non-descript building. Seriously- our guidebook said this building was world-famous but it was rather unimpressive to say the least. Then we walked a few blocks north to Via Montenapoleone - THE FASHION STREET of the world! I’m talking Louis Vuitton, Prada, Dior, Armani, Gucci, Versace - the works! (Ralph Lauren somehow managed to get a store on this block…) Needless to say, we were a little out of fashion to be walking down this street- Keri was even breastfeeding! But I didn’t let my inaptitude of dressing myself stop me from going to Prada!! I mean, this is THE PRADA! I swore if there was a pair of shoes that I liked- I’d buy them (I was in Milan!) but sadly, nothing interested me. After walking down the most “fashionista” street of all, we turned a corner and hit H&M – a little more our “style”. Then we stopped and had some dinner – complete with red wine. After which, we headed to the nearest gelateria, then back to the car and Argegno.

Sunday was a pretty low-key day- we ventured into Como Sud and stopped by a Bennett (hypermarket). WOW- it was like an Italian Wal-Mart! It was so much fun and in addition to the large Wal-Mart type supermarket, there were also many little shops. After that we just headed home, then a quick jaunt to Cadenabbia for some last minute souvenir shopping! Then we spent the last of our vacation hanging out, drinking wine, eating all our leftovers, watching TV, and packing.

EARLY (before it was even bright) Monday morning, we all got up, loaded the car and headed to the airports. We all had flights out at the same time, but again I was flying through Bergamo and everyone else though Malpensa, they dropped me off early (too early to even check in!) while they rushed off to make (or not) their flights back to America.

One of the things I was most happy about after our Italian vacation, is that I got to stay in Europe. :) So while they were all stuck on 8+ hour trans-Atlantic flights, I was back in Norway in 2 hours, but had to wait a few hours to catch my train back to Oslo. Thankfully, free WiFi made the time fly by!

Since it was Christoffer’s birthday on Tuesday, we planed a surprise party for him. Since he had a friend visiting from Finland (Christian) we decided to plan it for Monday night so his friend could come too. As my excuse to make sure they didn’t make any plans for Monday night, I told Christoffer to keep Monday night open to answer any and all questions regarding Finland (which I’ll be visiting next week). The plan went seamlessly and we got to Uli’s apartment right on-time and Christoffer was VERY surprised! Yay! A lot of people came, think we were up to around 15? It was a lot of fun, plus I got to see all my Oslo friends- which made my happy. :)

So yeah, I’m off to Finland in 4 SHORT days! Didn’t realize it was this weekend already! But it should be fun, and hopefully a little relaxing- I’m a little nervous since I’ll be visiting Christoffer’s home, meeting his friends and family, and really experiencing “Finnish living” first hand. As apprehensive as I am (his family doesn’t speak English!) I’m VERY much looking forward to it!