The blogging has fallen a little behind our actual progress. Writing this from my own lounge room, surrounded by the detritus of our suitcase while Bitti sleeps like it’s not nearly 11 am. Milan was our last stop. We spent two nights there in a pretty dodgy hotel near the central station. We rode the subway around, but I also got a hop-on hop-off bus ticket. That turned out to be a bit of waste of money as Milanese traffic is mad and the bus spent more time parked than moving around the city.
We spent a lot of time in front of the Duomo so Bitti could chase pigeons around. Ugh, there were so many of those disgusting little buggers. There were hawkers handing out corn so tourists could lure these birds to land on their arms for photographs. Foul.
We wandered down some pretty fancy shopping malls where all the fashion names hang out. People really do just spend thousands on a handbag. On the last day Bitti took me into a clearance shop and picked out a jacket for me, this ended up being my trip souvenir. She has very strident opinions about what I should be wearing, and never fails to mention that I should keep my garments so she can wear them when I’m dead. So I now have a this leopard print reversible puffer jacket. It is actually super soft and I am always cold so I couldn’t object based on practicality.
We spent a lot of time in the Parco Sempione looking for a good walking stick. There was a fairly decent playground there, Bitti made me film her doing a few ‘ninja warrior’ runs through it, getting annoyed when some toddlers slowed her down. That park smelt amazing, not sure what flowers they’ve planted in there but they were very fragrant. The botanic aromas combined with a very competent busker playing piano made it a very relaxing morning.
From there we hopped on a bus and hit up some shopping areas, but didn’t really find anything we were looking for. Regretted not buying some glass in Venice. We caught the subway from there back to Duomo to try and go inside it. One good thing in Italy is children are free until a later age than in Australia. Many times I’ve not had to pay for her, or even if I had to according to the rules the ticket seller has just said, ‘she’s four, isn’t she?’, with a wink. Milan subway was the first place I’d travelled where you actually needed to buy a ticket in order to gain entry, they had the usual subway gates; insert your ticket, collect it as you walk through the gates. I’d been putting Bitti in front of me and walking through as if we were one person, since she didn’t have her own ticket. Until this stop, where Bitti ran ahead through the gate and then the gate closed on top of me while I was trying to follow her. It really bloody hurt! I now have a large triangle shaped bruise under a cut on my upper arm. Then a station worker came out of nowhere and told me off in Italian, lol.
In our last couple of days I noticed that Bitti had become excellent at touristing. Unlike in Rome, where she had complained bitterly about walking, in Milan she was quite content with the amount of walking, even choosing to go by foot instead taking the bus in some cases. She has done a great job really, considering that she had no little friends to play with (adults are SO boring) and we moved around a lot for someone who likes consistency and routine. As I guessed, by the time I started talking about going home she was saying she wanted to stay on holiday forever.
One down side to her increased comfort was her desire to ‘explore’ more. This meant walking off without me. She is so confident in her ability to find her way back to me, she’d be like, ‘ok mum you finish your lunch/dinner, I’m just going to be over there’, and point to a spot 500 metres away with a road and 200 people between us. Yeah, nah. But she did like when I let her ask for the cheque in restaurants or pay for things. She was even more interested in taking the change though!
A few things that we did that kept her occupied:
- Played ‘would you rather?’
- Checked door knockers to see if they were real or not (i.e. did they knock or were they just decorative)
- Eye spy
- Spotted cats
- Let her take photos
- Count things
- Play Tin Tin
It’s a whopper!
I’m too tired to remember what else happened recently! Our general impression of Italy is as varied as the pasta offerings, I tried to briefly capture the vibe in each location by imagining them as work colleagues:
Rome—has a lot of smokos, desk in perpetual chaos but somehow knows where everything is, can’t keep their own life in order but provides excellent external customer service.
Florence—swans in late with a coffee, dresses in timeless styles, low key knows everything about pop culture but can also quote Shakespeare.
Tuscany—makes a big deal out of their packed lunch made from homegrown produce, does everything they’re expected to without question because tradition, unflappable, tolerates work drinks but would rather go home to watch a reality cooking show with the cat.
Cinque Terre—knows everyone and hears all the gossip first, replies all to all emails, has one thousand FaceBook friends and invited 300 people to their ‘small’ wedding, never takes leave and ignores problems until they go away.
Bellagio on Como—beautiful and knows it, their work is always immaculate and delivered on time, person they’re most inspired by in an Instagram influencer.
Bergamo—Over enthusiastic about tech for a non-IT professional, doesn’t have kids but ‘furbabies’ and will talk about them for too long every time, first one to endorse a suggestion by others, cries when there’s confrontation.
Venice—Used to be a hard worker but now cruises on their reputation, dresses in mostly op-shopped clothing, smells slightly odd, never reads an email but is so charming no one takes offence.
Milan—Aloof and cool with everyone except when the boss is around, commonly wears fluoro and patterns that pose a seizure risk to colleagues, does excellent work and is very reliable, never cries.
Two Little Travellers 