Milan, Italy

The beginning of November, I found myself in Milan, Italy! Just me and my friend Jenn (ok and HER 6 month old baby) but that is all. We flew there on Friday morning and didn't come back til Sunday night.....uh make that Monday night (there were a few delays in our return).

Here is the main train station in the middle of the city, "Centrale." Lovely! We were actually trying to find our way from the train to the metro when our elevator doors opened on the wrong floor and we saw the scene in the above picture. The doors closed and we headed down to the floor we needed but changed our mind and just wanted to see the city. So we walked out and saw the "giant apple thing" and the front of the train station and our adventure in Milan began. We calculated that our hotel was 3 1/2 miles from this point, so not having any complaining children in tow, we decided to walk it and see the city on foot. We stopped at every bakery along the way. It was quite a long walk especially since we didn't know exactly where we were going. We just tried to walk in the general direction of our hotel. I am sure it would have been much quicker if the SAT NAV on our phone worked a bit better. But it was no big deal, we ate focaccia bread with whole green olives on it, crescents filled with custard, crescent sandwiches, and all kinds of other pastries. It made the trip so much more enjoyable.



Here is Jenn and the most well-behaved, portable baby ever, Ezra. (Hey, I didn't care there was a baby along, as long as it wasn't MY baby....) 

As we were walking, we ran into a film crew. Yes, they were filming Ghostbusters! We couldn't believe it. However, we watched and realized it was some kind of Italian ghost busting team and not the original or even new movie that has come out in the states. It was still cool to watch. I dig their outfits. Quite good, I must say!

Another picture of the men keeping the city safe from ghosts!

Another stop on our long walk to the hotel, gelato! Amazing! Didn't get nearly enough on this trip. Could have eaten loads more.

This is the Duomo. It is a spectacular looking building. Love the gothic look. Gorgeous inside too. Very high arched ceiling.

Sat in a café for a few hours one evening across from the Duomo just having pastries and chatting for a few hours. So relaxing and lovely!

I discovered caffe d'orzo or cappuccino d'orzo (whichever way you like it). Its a hot barley drink that I love! We sipped that in the café for hours looking at the Duomo and chatting. I had one every day.

The shopping was out of this world. In fact, it was in a world I am absolutely not a part of and know nothing about. The most expensive, high-end shops that you have ever seen in the most luxurious indoor/outdoor shopping mall ever. This is the Galleria where Prada and Louis Vuitton and other stores I would never imagine myself going into let alone actually buying something in, including a Ferrari shop. Apparently, many people who come here often run into or have sightings of celebrities shopping here.

Another picture of the Galleria

Police in the Galleria

Yes, that is Louis Vuitton in the Galleria.

And yes, I had the best pizza and lasagna ever! I can't explain why but it was so good. Maybe because I was eating it in Italy....

The Serenity of Wales

Over half term, we ventured over to Wales. It was such a lovely break. I (that is ME, Joyce) picked us the most perfect, little cottage ever! Everyone loved it and was so happy there. No one wanted to leave when our time was up. In our travels in the last few years, I have learned that the place we stay, is just as or even more important than where we go and what we see. Most of the time, I spend more time finding us a place to stay than planning what we will do. We just figure that part out when we get there. Anyway, this cottage was a converted barn and  was very secluded in a small village in mid-Wales. After exiting the long drive covered in a canopy of green you immediately see the most lush green hill dotted with sheep with a quaint little farm house in the distance. The hill was topped by trees of all different autumn colours. The scene was breath-taking! I love going up to Wales every October to get my fix of autumn colours.



Our cottage had two features our family adored. First, was this coal burning stove in the kitchen. It was so lovely to sit and read by the warmth of the stove while we waited for Daddy to make our meals...(he is so good to us!)

The kitchen was so cool. Not one I would want to have permanently but so fun and unique for a holiday. Because the cottage was a converted barn it had all these little extra cubby holes or different features that made it so interesting. The ceilings were very low and covered with the cross beams from the original building! I love that look.   

The other feature of the cottage that our family absolutely loved was this open fire place in the lounge with a large screen T.V. We spent our evenings cuddled up with a roaring fire, sipping hot chocolate and watching old Grace Kelly movies. Could it be more perfect?

This was the lovely garden out back.

Here are all the girls one morning all sitting around the coal burning stove waiting for Charles to serve them their breakfast.   .

This is our cottage.

Charles took more photos of the leaves while we were out hiking but I do not have them. We took some really lovely drives looking through the Brecon Beacons National Park. We also took a little hike by a river as well and tried to find a Roman camp though, we never found it. But it was a good excuse to keep the girls walking...