More Time in Milano

After our trip to Lago Maggiore, we spent Sunday in Milano. I wish I had brought my pedometer as we walked and saw so much! We started by touring the Duomo and then headed over to the Poldi Pezzoli, a wonderful house museum recommended by Prof. Alden Gordon (our neighbor). There was a beautiful Botticelli that you could walk right up to and admire. The colors and details are amazing in his Madonna of the Book. (This internet picture does not show the whole painting.)

We stopped for lunch on our walk to Castello Sforzesco, visited the municipal aquarium, and walked through the farmers' market at Parco Sempione. We spent a couple of hours touring Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Technologia Leonardo da Vinci before closing time, and then went to the ancient church of Sant'Ambrogio.

We finished our day with dinner at Biffi's in the Galleria near the Duomo where Mark and I shared the Chateaubriand.  Monday morning we toured the Duomo area with Malima and Ross before catching our train to Florence. Wow, we were so busy that we didn't even take many pictures!

 

Hurricane Sandy Approaches

With 65 mph winds and widespread power outages predicted by the National Weather Service for our area, the generator picked a fine time to act up. Mark continues to work on it so we're hopeful that it will be running smoothly before we need it! 

It's a little windy already and a couple of small branches that were most likely damaged in last October's storm have come down. Some light mist falls and then stops, but it's expected that we will have more wind than rain from the hurricane. Monday night is supposed to have the worst weather--I keep hoping the storm will just head out to sea.

Keep safe wherever you are!

Lago Maggiore

On our second day in Milan, we visited Lago Maggiore. One of the things I enjoy about traveling in Europe is the very convenient mass transit--we took the subway to the train, and approximately two hours later we arrived at the Stresa station, a short 5-minute walk from the lakeshore.

The lakes region is very beautiful and I can understand why this is a popular summer vacation destination. We took the ferry to visit the Borromean Islands. Our first stop was Isola Bella where we toured Palazza Borromeo and the lovely gardens.

We took shelter under the trees during a brief shower, having left my 2 folding umbrellas back at the hotel. After buying a new one in the gift shop, the rain stopped, and although the skies stayed cloudy for the rest of the day, we didn't have any more rain!

Our next stop was tiny Isola Pescatore and it was an easy walk around this picturesque island.

 

Isola Madre is known for its beautiful gardens.  There's an interesting sculpture installation of dog statues along one of the walkways.

 

The views across the lake to other towns were spectacular. After a long day and lots of walking, it was time to take the train back to Milan! I'm so glad we had an opportunity to visit this area of Italy. Malima was a fantastic guide!



Italian Interlude

Aaahh, we have recently returned from a wonderful vacation in Italy. Malima met us at the train station after our red-eye from JFK and helped us to our hotel.  After a nap, we met again to start our sightseeing in Milan.

 

The Duomo is huge! There is so much to see right in the center of Milan. We walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and past La Scala on our way to Pinocoteca di Brera. So much art--I was in heaven!  Then we had a relaxing dinner in a restaurant overlooking the Duomo, followed by a delicious gelato. It was the perfect start to our Italian vacation.

Greenhouse Progress

Since the workers started replacing the greenhouse windows last Thursday, we have had rain on 3 days for a total of 4 1/4", which is probably more than we've had in the past 3 months.  Despite the poor weather, they made good progress and should finish on Monday.

One very unexpected surprise was that the skylight interiors are trimmed in white and that is the only color available! (The glass still has its protective film in this photo.)  They will try to remedy the situation by capping the white with bronze-tone aluminum to match the greenhouse frame.  We sure hope it works!  Unfortunately the narrow frames on the operable rooftop windows will have to remain white, but I don't think they will be too noticeable once the screens are in place.

Yesterday they started to remove some of the protective film.  I had forgotten how beautiful the greenhouse looked when new and we could see out of all the windows!  Standing at the kitchen sink one has a great view to the south again.  It's a wonderful feeling of spaciousness.

I should have taken a photo, but yesteday I finished a project that's been on my mind for some time--fixing the sleeve tabs on my taupe trench.  I bought it last spring from JC Penney because it was half-price and I liked the color and jacket length.  After wearing it for a couple of times, I realized what was bothering me about it:  the tabs on the sleeves had been sewn into the back seams by mistake so the parts near the buttons pointed toward my waist.  I opened a seam in the lining so I could get to the sleeves to remove the tabs and resew them in the proper seams.  Now the jacket is at the dry cleaners.  I am sooo much happier with it! (photo to come)