Kernovich Abroad: Dinner Dates and Duomos: Our First Trip to Italy Part 1

I tried to post this on Friday but was having wireless issues so there are 2 fairly long posts today... We arrived in Milan Wednesday morning and Tyler has become quite the international traveler. An Italian woman sat next to us on the plane and Tyler spent some time bouncing around on her lap at her request. We have found that Italian women just ask to take your kids for a while. A woman that worked breakfast at the hotel did the same thing while we ate. It was kind of awesome to get a little break! When we arrived in Milan, JJ headed off to work and Tyler was in need of a nap. He's become a bit of a sensitive sleeper which makes sharing a hotel room with him difficult. Usually in the US we try to put him in a closet so that he is shielded from noise and light but over here the closets aren't big enough so now Tyler snoozes in the dark hotel room while I hang out in the bathroom for 2 hours emailing and today, blogging! The first afternoon he decided to take a 3 hour nap so that gave me plenty of time to research our activities over the next few days in the bathroom. He woke up so late that I figured we should probably stay close to the hotel to make it back in time for bed. JJ had a late meeting, one of many over the past couple weeks, so Tyler and I were left to dine by ourselves. I've done this a few times with him now, sit down for a proper dinner just him and I, and its quite hilarious. As much as I love him, he is a horrible dinner date. He's messy, demanding, drops things, and doesn't talk back. Wednesday night I decided that I wanted pizza and wine so we found a pizzeria nearby. Unfortunately we found out that restaurants don't open until 7pm for dinner. This is pushing it for the little guy but I really wanted pizza and wine so after going first at 6:15pm, and getting turned away we went back right at 7pm. We were the first ones to arrive and I wanted to sit outside. It was probably in the mid sixties and felt great to me. The waitress looked at me like I had two heads and said, "Are you sure? Isn't the baby going to be cold?" I said we liked it and watched everyone else sit on the heated patio side or inside. Everyone was also wearing winter coats which I found humorous. I guess coming from Chicago and now London this felt almost tropical to me! So we sat outside by ourselves and Tyler made a complete mess of the table and floor as he attempted to eat some of my pizza. He loves food. He wants to have whatever you are eating and sometimes refuses the spoon and wants to eat everything himself. This makes mealtimes a bit stressful for me when traveling but we are getting by ok. The deliciousness of the pizza and wine made up for it!

On Thursday we set off in the morning to tour Milan's city center. We took the Metro subway from our hotel to downtown and got off at the Castello Sforzecio stop. It's a big castle with museums inside and the exit of the castle is one of the biggest parks in Milan. This looked like a good place for us to start. I got a focaccia with prosciutto and mozzarella for the little guy and I to share. On this trip Tyler has become quite a bread eater. JJ thinks he's getting a little chubby with all these extra carbs but if it relieves his teething I say whatever works. He loved the focaccia and we walked to find a playground. Tyler played on the swings for a while and then I took him over to a rope ladder to stand by where some bigger kids were playing. While we were on the rope ladder we attracted a little crowd of local kids. One Italian girl about 4 years old was very curious about us and came over to talk. She was speaking in Italian and I had no clue what she was saying so I just smiled and nodded. She kept repeating it and looking at me for an answer like, "Duh I'm asking you this simple question." I couldn't remember how to say I don't speak Italian so I just mumbled "no Italiano, English?" Her mom was watching and started laughing and broke in and said to her daughter, "she speaks the happy birthday language." I smiled at her for saving me and we set off to do some more strolling. It was time for Tyler to take his nap so I started strolling around the park. The park wasn't very big so I made it around the whole thing 3 times, kept passing the same guys trying to sell me a rose, and I decided we needed to venture out. I knew this was risky since there was a lot of road noise that could wake the little guy up, but we headed on to the city center.

The center has a cute little cobblestone road leading from the castle to the duomo that is shut down to traffic so it is lined with shops and cafes and people are everywhere. We went to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which has all the high-end shops to check it out. I also wanted to see what the deal was with the tradition of spinning on the bull painted on the tile floor there. I had read something unusual about this tradition that if you spin on the bull's balls that you will have good luck. I saw a crowd of Asian tourists crowded around something and figured this had to be it. Sure enough they were all spinning on the bull's balls. The floor is even dented in this area of the bull from so many people spinning throughout the years. I must read more about the origins of this tradition but I waited my turn and spun on the bull's balls. This wasn't an easy feat with a sleeping baby in a stroller but I did it and sleeping Tyler spun with me!

Tyler woke up shortly after spinning so we walked to the duomo. It's a magnificent building with ornate details. You can walk through the inside of the cathedral so we entered. Tyler is having a really hard time with his top two teeth coming in and he hasn't been a very happy baby lately. He started screaming when we entered the cathedral and we made a bit of a scene. We walked around a bit more and I had read that you could go to the top so we looked for elevators but I couldn't find them. At this point Tyler was screaming off and on so I decided it was best that we left. I saw a sign that said that the elevator entrance is actually outside so we walked around the whole outside of the building until we found them. Tyler was refusing to sit in the stroller so I carried him while pushing the stroller and started sweating. After waiting in the elevator line I realized two things- 1: it was 12 euro to get to the top. This seemed a bit outrageous to me and 2: I needed to get tickets somewhere else. That was it for us, I exited the line and we were both done with the duomo and never made it to the top. At this point we were both tired and frustrated so we stopped on a corner to listen to some Italian music that was being paid by two street performers. We sat and danced and it was a nice, much needed break.

Now we were both hungry and JJ had to work late again so we found a nice ristorante in the city centre that was open before 7. They were so nice to us there and we sat on the street and people watched and ate delicious spaghetti. Tyler is pretty lucky to have tasted his first pizza and spaghetti in Italy!

Now today is rainy and we are going to stay near the hotel to get ready for our next adventure to Cinque Terra tonight (Friday). The only thing we didn't get to do was go shopping, but that's just another reason to go back!