Arrivedirce, Italia! Hasta la vista.

Milano! We stayed with the wonderful family of Mariangela Brunello and Sergio Garazini. Their grown son Magid met us just outside the train station when we arrived and escorted us by metro and above-ground tram to his parents apartment. Strangely, the air was filled with cotton fluff from cottonwood trees , so much so it looked like a warm-weather snowstorm. Once there, we were greeted by their lively daughter Shirin. Then Mariagela and Sergio arrived home, having attended a Servas meeting in a nearby town. A few minutes later, Sergio had cooked up 5 plates of spaghetti and we dug in con mucho gusto - Bravo! By this point in our trip, we had become adept at speaking "SpaTalianIngleze" - a mishmash of Spanish, Italian, and English when all else failed.

I have to confess, at this point we were burned out tourists, having seen enough magnificent monuments and gilded religious art to satiate our artist souls... so our one free, overcast day in Milan was spent: 1) eating pizza in the Autogrill (a very attractive food court beside the grand Cathedral - it is owned by Brelle, the company Magid told us that now owns Starbucks! But believe me when I say Starbucks coffee cannot compare with the artful and heavenly espresso served up everywhere in Italy)... 2) wandering around the dark castillo, one of the only sites open on this Monday, and 3) watching the movie "Kingdom of Heaven" in V.O. (version original) in the most elegant movie theater we had ever seen - the theater was much better than the movie.

On our way back to make dinner for the family, we popped into a grocery store spotted along the Tram line. Here we held up the line of patient Italians while trying to convey to the checkout woman what we meant by "Chicken broth"; the word in Italian doesn't sound like "caldo" or "chicken broth", so after much effort on everyone's part, I finally found dried bouillon cubes on a back shelf. Once "home" again, Mark cooked up some great Chicken Provincal, followed by marvelous conversation about the state of the world, alternative energy, and the nature of human beings. A few years ago, Maryangela and Sergio spent a month living with Servas families in India. She is the only person we know who made the effort to learn Esperanto, the international language from which comes the word "Servas" (it means Service). We enjoyed a very memorable meal, especially for all the laughter. Communication is so much more than words.

As we kissed Maryangela and Sergio goodbye the next morning, I felt we were leaving family. Grazie mille! Ciao, Italy, I hope we'll see you again soon!
Un beso, Margot