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The Last Supper and shopping in Milan, also breakfast at Marchesa

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Milan Day 1 including dinner at LuBar, a dog wearing a helmet and riding a scooter, and Alex at a ”skate spot” in front of the train station

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Milan 2022 (5 of 5)

After five drives of 4+ hours, we were all happy for our short 90 minutes from Varenna to Milan. We returned our rental car and started exploring. I didn’t have high hopes for Milan. In 2017 we were there for just a few hours, a quick stop on our drive from Lake Como to Verona, not long enough to really get a feel for the city. This time, we were all hungry so our first stop was NAME, for fried pizza. The dough was incredible, light and chewy despite being fried. With full tummies, we rounded a corner and there was the Duomo! It is magnificent, like something out of a movie. We had seen it in 2017 and did the terraces walk, so we just enjoyed it from the outside this time. We got checked into our super fun hotel just blocks from city center, and were delighted to see that our room went out to a balcony on an interior courtyard where I could walk next door to knock on the window of the kids’ room. I used that to deliver coffee to Alex the next morning without having to get out of my robe. 

Our time in Milan was dominated by food and shopping, with just the right amount of culture interspersed. Dinners were at LuBar, the family run Oseria del Treno with their pistachio-pepper gelato, and the Japanese restaurant Gastornomica Yamamoto. All good and each memorible in its own way—LuBar for its cocktails and interior, Osteria for its family feel and fun service, and Yamamoto for serving unexpected Japanese food in Italy. We also had breakfast at the spectacular Marchesa 1824, a pistachio colored jewel box of pastries and confections, owned and run by Prada. We also went window shopping among the street after street of couture brands, and actual shopping in the Brera Design Disrict (Benheart, Santa Maria Novella, and Rick Owens); we even found a street wear resale shop for Alex, called Slam Jam. 

Thanks to Fritz for getting up in the middle of the night for tickets to see The Last Supper, we did that on the morning of our last day in Milan. Out guide was excellent, and I have such a greater appreciation of the mastery of Leonardo daVinci after seeing the paining and hearing her speak about it with such adoration. 

Though I didn’t have high hopes for Milan, it is now one of my favorite places I’ve visited. The size is great, a bustling city, but not over crowded, good food, great shopping, nice people, and surprisingly calm and orderly (other than Malpensa airport, that place makes Hartsfield look orderly). I look forward to getting back there, as do we all. 

Now we are on a plane headed home. Ella and Alex are sitting together watching movies, and José’s head is in my lap while he catches a nap (thanks to the gate agent for moving us to a row with an open middle seat!). It has been three years since we all traveled internationally. The world has been through a lot. We saw more Americans on this trip than any other we have taken, I think this is due to everyone being essentially forbidden from traveling internationally for the last two summers. This is also why we covered so much ground on this trip, seeing so many places. The kids are now three years older, which makes for different dynamics, and we are keenly aware of how few of these trips we have left with them. Despite the ups and downs, and covering so much in so little time, I hope they remember this one fondly; I certainly will. 

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Throughout Varenna and on Lake Como

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Varenna 2022 (4 of 5)

The drive from Salzburg to Varenna on the eastern coast of Lake Como in northern Italy took us through Switzerland again and another valley in the Alps. It makes for a long and windy drive, full of hairpin turns, but also full of gorgeous green mountains, some still snow-capped, and barrel tiled rooves in the towns, each with their church tower, really, really lovely. Along the way we had three eventful encounters—

First, we stopped in Innsbook for lunch at Machete, yummy burritos with the locals. While we were in Innsbrook, José pulled an American move and turned left but then did a wide u-turn across several lanes of traffic and tram rails. There were no cars or trams coming, but Austria, like Germany and Switzerland, is a country where people follow rules and don’t cross the street until the light turns green, no matter whether there are cars approaching or not, and no matter how long they have to wait for the green. They must have thought we were insane. There were groups of people on all four corners of the intersection that looked at the maneuver with equal parts curiosity and disdain. But, the illegal maneuver did get us the parking space José was after!

The second escapade was when we passed a man and small boy hitchhiking. They were smiling big and jumping up and down waving at passing cars. At first I thought they needed help, like they had car trouble on this two-lane windy road through the mountains. I suppose José thought the same thing because he started to pull over. But then it registered that they were hitchhiking, and so I said, “but we don’t have any room”, just as José started to pull back into the lane. But then Ella and I both thought that was sad, and that we needed to tell them we didn’t have room. So we stopped, rolled down the window, and told them as much. They said, but “you have space for one, we only need one to get our car 5km away. I asked about the boy and was there another adult to stay with him, to which they both replied enthusiastically that he would be “ok” waiting their with their kayak! So, with that, in the total span of less than 10 seconds from first spotting them, the man was in the back seat of our car driving to get their car. As it turns out, the man, Christof, and his son were camping on the river for a few days (the road winded along a COLD river) and kayaked to where we picked him up. He said this was a normal thing, but that it was getting harder and harder to hitch-hike these days. I’m sure! Christof was just teaching his 10 year old son to kayak, and his son had been adopted from Ethiopia at 5 years old. Christof was German, so enthusiastic, and happy for the ride. He also warned us about speeding in Switzerland, saying that a ticket in Germany is about €30-50 but in Switzerland they are over 500 Swiss Francs I can’t believe we picked up a hitchhiker, but we did get an amazing story from it and we dropped him at a campground along the river, which we never would have known existed. We grabbed a coffee while we were there, played on the campground playground, and Alex did flips on a trampoline with the Alps in the background—a pretty memorable experience to be sure. 

The last escapade of that drive was when a construction truck pulled in front of us and José passed him, which we both thought was totally fine. The flashing lights from the polizia behind us less than 1km down the road told us otherwise. We thought we were being pulled over for speeding and Christof’s warning rang in our ears, but we were being pulled over for passing the truck in a no-passing zone. The polizia let us go with a warning and a much needed explanation of Swiss road signs, but also said the ticket would have been 1000 Swiss Franks! Good grief! Thank you, polizia!!!

Just before we passed out of the Alps, the clouds broke, the air warmed, the sun shone, and we found ourselves driving through breathtaking landscapes filled with windy roads alongside mountains meadows, a gorgeous river and then at last, Italy! We made it to our AirBnB, modest but super-cool with a pool and an amazing view of Varenna below and Lake Como just beyond. We hiked down the hill from our house to meet the Millers for dinner. This part of the trip had been planned since 2019, so it was nice to finally be in Como together.

Our time in Varenna was lovely. We started every day letting the kids sleep in while José and I had coffee outside surrounded with flowers, the smell of jasmine, and a view of the lake. Every day we enjoyed time with our friends, espresso macchiatos, pasta, gelatos, and wandering around the town of Varenna up and down the steepest, most narrow staircases. One day we rented boats and enjoyed time on the lake itself, including the kids and dads jumping from the bridge in Nesso with a flowing waterfall behind them, coming upon a swan family with eight light-grey swan babies (goslings?), and swimming in front of Villa del Balbianello. The lake was so cold, but it was worth every moment! Later that evening after dinner we walked along the promenade and skipped stones on the lake. Our last night there the Millers came up to our AirBnb and we swam in the pool, enjoyed Aperol Spritz’s while watching the sunset across the lake, made pasta dinner in, and then strolled around Perledo (the town up the hill from Varenna where we were staying). From the Perledo square, in front of their church with the bells that tolled every 30 minutes, we watched an outdoor community play. We don’t really know what it was about, because even thought Tami speaks Italian, we couldn’t hear the dialogue well—still, it was memorable to peek into their world with adults watching the play while kids played on the nearby green (a combination tennis court, basketball court, and soccer field). These few days were by far the most relaxing part of the trip. I am already ready to return; hopefully it won’t be five years before we can get there again.

Last stop, Milan…

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Throughout Salzburg

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Salzburg 2022 (3 of 5)

So far we enjoyed perfect weather in each of our locations, and rainy days for each of our drives, this one was no different. But oh, Salzburg—I think it may be the perfect city. Well, maybe too small for me, but like an ooooooold European Savannah. There are fewer than 200,000 residents, and over 10,000,000 visitors each year! Another city on a river, with lovely paths on both sides and cyclists everywhere. So beautiful, like Prague, but unlike Prague it had an air of calm everywhere we went. 

We checked into our family-run hotel, run by a mom and dad and their adult son and daughter—cue the dreams about doing something similar ourselves. We walked along the river to get burgers for lun-ner and then a leisurely stroll around the new city and gardens on the way back.  They have a marionette theater, but it wasn’t performing anything the two nights we were there; I guess that is good since I would never have been able to get the family to see a puppet show for anything. 

The next day we walked along the river and through the old city, past Mozart’s birthplace to have breakfast at the 100+ year old Café Tomaselli. We then walked all around old town, popping into shops here and there, and venturing up a steep 140 stairs for a beautiful view of the city from the monastery where Maria vonTrapp was once a nun. There are actually houses accessed from the stairway itself, which is super cool, but I would imagine difficult (but healthy!) to manage every day. It was a full day of meandering, capped off with dinner at an outdoor Austrian restaurant in the “new” part of the city—old and new mean something completely different here, everything being older than our country. On our way back to the hotel, we crossed a small bridge in the gardens and found ourselves in the most unusual sculpture garden any of us had ever seen or even contemplated—a dwarf garden! Apparently, the prince archbishop had 28 dwarf sculptures, each about three feet tall and each engaged in some domestic activity—fishing, farming, one with a peg leg (!), even two girl dwarfs. They were all auctioned off in the 19th century (”a result of the enlightenment”) but in the 1919 they began an attempt began to recollect them all (”due to their place in art history”). There are currently 17 back in their positions in the dwarf garden. I don’t know what else to say about this; it was truly a strange, but also a whimsical sight, and certainly nothing that would ever be created now. EVER!

After a whirlwind eight days in four locations, passing through six countries, we looked forward to getting to Italy for some true R&R, which meant another 4+ hour, drizzly drive (though again, we had beautiful weather while we were in Salzburg!)…

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Throughout Prague including the astronomical clock, the lovely park with the tiny frogs, cutting up outside the castle, and Ella pretending she drank a beer (really she took one tiny sip and made a horrible face before passing it back)

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At Pilsner Urquell in Czechia

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A few more photos from the area surrounding the castles in Germany

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Prague 2022 (2 of 5)

Another overcast, drizzly drive for 4+ hours from Munich to Prague. There was a noticeable difference in the motorway as we passed into Czechia, first there was a speed limit—we would miss the autobahn and the ability to go as fast as possible. I wonder how much time it took off our drives in Germany? One more note on that, no matter how fast you think you are going in the left lane, someone will fly up behind you in a BMW, Mercedes, or Audi going far faster than however fast you are going flashing their lights. Stay out of their way, the left is for passing only!

On the way to Prague we stopped in Plzen. We would not have known the city existed except for the globally-available beer, Pilsner Urquell, brewed at the brewery by the same name. They recently contacted Three Taverns to collborate on a Pilsner in honor of their “Liberation Day” which they celebrate every May 5—the day US soldiers led by Patton advanced into Pilzen and liberated the city during WWII. Three Taverns brewed the beer, Metaleap designed the label, and it was released last month. (Read more about that here.) I can’t believe we would happen to be driving by that very city only a few weeks later and have the chance to stop and have a beer there. We also tried, unsuccessfully, to have lunch—it is a very small, very compact city, with lots of one way streets and a high degree of difficulty to get in and out of the city. We gave up and kept driving. Our reward was entering Prague well before sunset—what a city!

I didn’t know what to expect, perhaps something that looked like a Hollywood version of Eastern Europe, maybe brutalist architecture, and maybe even a little gloomy. Boy was I wrong! We crossed a river into the main part of the city passing by Dancing House otherwise known as “Fred and Ginger” (designed by the Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunić in cooperation with Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry; that bridge and all the others to our right and left were each impressive on their own. The streets are narrow and windy, the churches are plentiful, and the spires are nearly countless! Wow! We easily found our AirBnB, dropped off our bags and the kids, and went to park the car. The parking experience was something like parking at our AirBnB in Florence five years ago. We turned sharply and passed through two large wooden doors; to our left was a large glass window, easily two stories tall and 40’ long, looking at an adjacent apartment building. Overhead were arched, vaulted ceilings, over a long driveway that opened into the space between several adjacent buildings. Over the open space was an old glass (?) ceiling that covered 8-10 parking spaces. It was like something out of a spy movie, where a spy leaves his spare car loaded with weapons and foreign currency. We walked back to the apartment through a large park with a statue of “Good Wenceslas”, the same “Good King” from the Christmas carol! People were everywhere, hanging out in the park, drinking coffee (finally, coffee!), and the air was buzzing with energy. There were so many languages being spoken, I really have no idea where everyone was from. The best I can figure is that the city is so beautiful and central in Europe, perhaps people from all over the EU vacation there. One last general note, there were Ukrainian flags everywhere. Reading about only a portion of the history of the Czech Republic, we could understand why. They have been an occupied people for over a thousand years—by the Hapsburg’s, the German’s in WWII then the Soviets. Ukraine is much closer to home for them, and the older people there would easily remember what life was like under communism after WWII. 

We walked throughout the city, constantly looking up in amazement at the ornate architecture and all the spires, and enjoyed the best dinner of our trip so far at La Bottega—lovely space, great food including hand made pasta, filet with red wine sauce, and sea bass filleted at the table with an amazing sauce of butter and mussels. Yum! Walking back to the apartment we stumbled into the old city. If all of Prague is beautiful, and congested, with windy streets, the old part of the city takes that far further. But gosh, people were everywhere, the old square was bustling and everyone seemed to be having so much fun.

The next day we walked back to old town to see the astronomical clock, the oldest in the world. It was really cool, tracking the sun and moon, and chiming every hour with the apostles passing by a window and a skeleton chiming the bell. We got overpriced candy from a shop on the way to Charles Bridge (I got a long colored marshmallow we all nibbled on for two days!) and walked over the bridge. Gorgeous!!! We then walked up the steep path and stairs to the castle (the largest castle in the world, now home to the President of Czechia) stopping for coffee in the castle gardens. Finally, we made it to the top for an incredible view of the city, watched the changing of the guard in front of the castle, and had a wonderful late lunch (lun-ner) at Kuchyn. We all had the braised hanger steak and mashed potatoes—so good and flavorful, the weather was amazing and the view was so pretty. We walked back down from the castle, back over the Charles Bridge, back through old town, and to the apartment for a much needed rest before going to the ballet.

You may recall that when Spiderman was in Prague with his friends during Spiderman Homecoming—the scene in the square with the carnival was actually filmed in a nearby town, they couldn’t close the main square in Prague to film there, and as many people as there are in the city, I can see why— anyway, when they were in Prague they went to the opera. I had checked in advance and gotten tickets to the ballet in the state opera house. Wow—the architecture of the building was amazing; none of us had ever been in such an old theater. We saw a modern program, Four Elements, which José and I really enjoyed, and the kids were confused by, but I am so glad we went. I really enjoy ballet, classical and modern, and would love to incorporate that more into our travels when the opportunity presents itself. The walk back to the apartment was late, but the city retained its bustling energy.

The next day José and I had breakfast downstairs from the apartment at a cafe called Mysak. It has existed for a century, even through communism—the interior and the pastries are amazing, as is the “deconstructed Eggs Benedict”—the best José has ever had along with the almond croissant. Sorry France. We grabbed the kids, finally awake, and walked through the Jewish quarter and over another bridge, passing the apartment we would want to live in if we lived in Prague (reminiscent of one overlooking the Met in NYC), and ending up at the top of many stairs at the metronome and a skate park—well, not really a skate part, but a place people obviously skate. No one was skating, but Alex was happy to see the first evidence that anyone in Europe does skate! We walked through the park and all around the neighboring streets passing many embassies, and into another more beautiful park with small lakes kids were swimming in and paths being traversed by tiny frogs (yes, tiny frogs). A long-ish walk back took us to U Parlimentu for our final schnitzel and Pilsner Urquell for another lun-ner, which allowed us to spend the evening back at the apartment watching Italian Job.

The next morning, before leaving Prague, we had to enjoy one more breakfast at Mysak. Alex heard us raving about it, so he got up to join us this time. In addition to the amazing food, we also got egg nog! We had seen it on many menus; apparently it is something available year-around in Prague, and this one was as good as any I have ever had—so good they sell it in bottles to go. If we could have brought it on the plane, we surely would have!

An uneventful exit from our spy parking place, and we were off for another gloomy 4+ hour drive to Salzburg…

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Searching for the longest German word we could find, this 24 character one wins—VersprechenaufSauberkeit which seems to mean something like a “promise of cleanliness”

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I STILL want to get a tri-cornered hat.

A, in reflecting on all the things he has wanted to get on previous travels

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In Munich — at dinner, BMW Wert, Dacau memorial

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At Hohenschwangau Castle with Neuschwanstein Castle in the background

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Mrs. Herrington, look at us!

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The Alps