Back in the USA

On Friday, Andy and I headed back to the USA where everything is normal.  We felt that everything is weird in Europe.  When we were driving, everything was in kilometers instead of miles.  My speedometer said 100 but it wasn't the same 100 that I was used to.  When we wanted to change the temperature in the hotel, it was in celsius and it took us a while to figure out the right temperature to set.  The coffee didn't taste right.   And everything was so small:  showers, elevators, cars, and roads.  Andy couldn't figure out why they couldn't just make the roads bigger.  His Yukon would take up more than half the road!  The Europeans must come to the US and think everything is huge.  While at the airport, Andy was standing there ready to board and the gate agent came over to us and told us to relax, go get a coffee, because it was going to be another 20 minutes.  We still stood there ready to board and joked that we are Americans and we are always in a hurry... sometimes in a hurry to wait.
It was a long trip but we were eager to get home to see the kids.  We arrived back in Michigan around midnight and we both slept well since we had been up for more than 20 hours.  Andy woke up and greeted the kids with a big hug as they ran over to him.  We went to the park with the kids and then later to Devil's Lake.  On Sunday, we ate a nice American breakfast with crispy bacon (what's up with the Italian's not fully cooking the bacon?) and normal coffee.  We had a great trip to Italy and we will definitely go again but it was time to get back into our normal routine.

 Playing at the park

 swinging at the park

 Mimi and Andy at Devil's Lake

 Breakfast - photo taken by Matthew

 Playground at Devil's Lake

 Relaxing at Devil's Lake

 picking blue berries at Pa Bru's

Eating a popsicle at Devil's Lake

Italy Day 5-Milan

After several days in the countryside, we headed to the big city of Milan. We turned in our rental car and took the train into the city. It was a long car ride and I joked that it seemed like a car driving video game where there were curves around mountains, big trucks, fast-speeding scooters and cars, and tolls ever so often just to make it a challenge. In the city, we went to the Duomo and saw the most ornate basilica yet! We did not get a chance to go inside. We walked around the shops on the main street and ate dinner outside at a nice restaurant. We saw men in business suits riding bicycles and tall model-looking women. Everyone seemed dressed well and good looking here. Most of the Italians had light skin and we joked that I looked like a local. It reminded us a cross between Paris and Chicago for some reason- maybe Michigan Ave. There was a bike parade with funny music and attention. Somehow we were in the front and it seemed like the running of the bulls where we were walking fast to keep from getting run over! We stopped for Gelato and let all the bikes pass and then took the train back to our hotel. We would like to come back and check out the famous painting of The Last Supper. The city was manageable to get around but the shops were too mainstream for us. Andy wanted to buy a suit but the shop closed after we finished dinner.

















Bike parade with people blowing whistles, ringing bells, and playing music

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Italy Day 4- Aviognessi and Castille del Lago

We woke up early to enjoy a delicious breakfast at our hotel. The cantaloupe was delicious. We hiked up the hill in Cortona and saw stations of the cross along the way to a beautiful cathedral. As I was huffing and puffing it was very humbling to see those pictures of what Jesus went through. We went inside the church and found the body of Saint Margherita.
Next, we took a winery tour of the Avigonessi winery to learn about the local's favorite, vin santo. It was interesting to hear that there are water restrictions in the area so everything is dependent upon the natural rain. They also put cow manure into cow horns and bury them in the spring and then dig them back up to spread the compost mixture around. All organic here!
We then headed to the lake and enjoyed a salami sandwich with mozzarella cheese while enjoying the beautiful view. We went to Castiglione del Lago to check out the castle and eat dinner. One of the shops had a pork leg where the lady was cutting very thin slices of meat. It was delicious and we wished we would have taken a picture and bought some to take home. During our tour of the castle, we saw an old shell of a building where later I read that Phillip and Peter held church service. We ate at a restaurant with views of the lake and enjoyed a fish pasta that is famous to the area. Since it was still light outside at 9pm, we went back to our village in Cortona and enjoyed wine and cheese while watching the locals. Many gathered around a TV in a bar to watch the World Cup soccer tournament, smoking cigarettes, and drinking vin santo.



Breakfast buffet


The hike up hill




Stations of the cross







Wine tour


Aviognessi winery


Del Lago





Castiligone del Lago



Andy hit his head multiple times during the trip because he was too tall for the ceilings

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Italy Day 3- Cortona

We woke up early to enjoy a nice breakfast buffet. We drank our coffee with relaxing music- what a treat! We headed to the museums in Florence but found the lines long and it started to rain so we decided to leave the bustling city and head towards our ultimate destination, Tuscany. I (JoAnna) drove this time since I used to own a standard car during my college years and Andy guided me out of the city. It is tricky to drive there because of the pedestrians, bicycles, fast scooters, and small street signs in Italian names. We were excited to get on the highway and head to a quieter town, Cortona, where the movie "Under The Tuscan Sun" was filmed. We walked around the small town, drank wine, and enjoyed the fabulous views of the country side. You could hear roosters crowing in the distance. We stopped inside an old church where we found relics of the cross that Jesus died on! We couldn't believe it! We ate dinner and enjoyed the best gnocchi- wow! It had tomatoes and basil. This was the first place we encountered an Italian that didn't speak English. We used hand motions and Andy spoke Spanish thinking it was close enough. He ordered Veal chop and it was delicious but we had to send it back to get cooked a little more because it was more rare than we are used to. Andy says that "medium" means something different over here versus the US.









It was a little cool in the evening

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Italy Day 2

We slept in until nearly 11am. We were disappointed to miss the hotel breakfast buffet. But we ventured out for lunch and enjoyed pizza and a salad with a cafe Americana (coffee). The city was busy with people and we decided to do our shopping today since most of the museums were closed on Monday. Andy bought a leather jacket, wallet, passport holder, and money clip. He was planning to buy me a leather jacket but since I couldn't make up my mind, the salesman started talking Andy into buying one. We enjoyed Gelato at Gilli and people watched for a little while. I booked a massage at the hotel while Andy worked out. We went to dinner at Trattoria Omero and enjoyed olives with almonds inside, tortellini with Ragu sauce and a steak "Florentine" style. We found out that Ragu sauce in Italy is actually a meat sauce with a tiny bit of cream but no tomato sauce. I joked as the waiter walked away with our clean plate "we are from Arkansas and them ain't Ragu sauce" Andy piped in "is that there chef boy rD". We laughed over a bottle of wine with a beautiful view of the Tuscan valley. And Floretine style steak means bone-in and thick cut. Andy ate half the steak but it was a little rare for him. After that, he decided to wait until after we got back to Texas to eat a steak.













You can tell that I am not liking this jacket

Italy Day 1

We arrived in Milan early in the morning Sunday. No troubles with the flights! We rented a car and drove to Florence. Unfortunately they only had a manual transmission and we had to go thru the mountains on the way here. That was certainly a harrowing experience since I have not driven a stick in a long while. Of course it helped after we figured out how to release the parking brake about 20 mins in. The smell of burnt metal clued us in! The mountains were easy however compared to the tightly packed streets of Florence with their roundabouts and huge crowds. JoAnna said "We better be careful when we walk on the streets here because there may be drivers like Andy on the road". We finally made it to our hotel but we had to call them and have them guide us in as it is on a very small street near the Basilica. Then of course I almost lost the keys with my sleep deprived weariness. Anyway, we got a nap and then we were able to take a long walk around the beautiful city and finished a wonderful authentic italian dinner.




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July 4th 2014

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