Molto Beeeenay: Milan and a Swiss lake in the Alps

Florist on the street in Milan
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I officially just returned from what was probably a once-in-a-lifetime-type fabulous weekend, although I hope to have many more.  Steve and I booked flights to Milan and more than a few hotel reservations--with qualifying factors like whether or not they had free breakfast--successfully canceled most of them before we were charged, and ended up with a fantastico bella-noche in downtown Milan and 2 nights in a TINY town on a lake in the Swiss alps.  I hardly need to say more, but I must explain how we were travelers extraordinaire :-).

Being a Fashonista
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We were tourists from the moment we tried to catch a bus into Milan from the airport, tried eagerly to get on several that told us we had the wrong tickets and couldn't find the metro station right in front of us.  LUCKILY, Steve had a folder full of google-map print outs, and an inflatable pillow in case things really went wrong, and finally we made it to the hotel and I heard the first real Italian pronounce my last name as we were checking in.  We were in the perfect place and couldn't avoid billions of fashionable shops as we wandered around looking for free 'apertivos', which we thought we found and ended up paying a bunch of money for, followed by pizza and pasta at a place we realized was 'fast food'.  Not deterred in the least, we got ushered to a club where I got a free pass (probably because of my shoes) and Steve had to pay (probably because of his shoes).  The locals had (one of) us beat in dancing stamina and we left at a mere 2am to wander around, mock clothing adds, and ran into the best David Bowie (costume) I've ever seen.

Hiking around Lake Lugano, Switzerland
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After our free breakfast the next day, we saw Leonardo Da Vinci in a Piazza, went to a square filled with confetti and weird contractions in his honor, and then felt really tall walking on the roof of Il Duomo--a gothic church.  We were then determined to have lunch by the one canal in Milan and refused to be dissuaded by the fact that we had a train to catch.  It was a totally worth it lunch, but then we ordered desert, and consequently ran all the way to the train station (in heels), got held back by the ticket machine because we were both trying to push the buttons, ran around the platform trying to find someone with good enough English to tell us what was going on, and missed the one-car train that we thought might be the last one of the day to Lake Lugano, Switzerland.  Luckily there was another one, which we also managed to almost miss while Steve was buying a 1euro bottle of wine and I was trying to get a job with Deutsch Bank.  (It seems traveling in Italy is more conducive to getting cheap wine than a job on Wall Street.)

Being the bell in the bell tower
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The hotel we had by Lake Lugano was in a tiny, 500 year old artist village of 700 people probably 1000 feet above the lake.  The taxi ride up was extremely windy, and went through a tunnel carved out of a church.  When we got there, we were greeted by the hostess with a fabulous German accent, roses on the tables and were handed key #22 out of 40.  For those of you that know, it was a lot like a tiny Chateau Montebello.  The food there was truly incredible, and the waiter told us he'd been to America and he loved the prices of Levi's there.  Since we were quite stranded from anything else and by far the last ones up in the hotel we decided to wander around the town after dinner.  It was really dark, really antique-feeling, and Mr. L.A. was afraid we might get shot at.  I wouldn't let him use the light from his camera while we were walking around bc I said our eyes needed to adjust.  Eventually we heard a rustling in the leaves and both decided it was time to go back.

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On Saturday, we went hiking over some mountains and then down approximately 200,000 stairs--seriously, to the lake.  The best part was running into fabulous views of the mountains, some Sound-of-music hills with horses and Italian people, and the lunch we made out of rolls, cheese and nutella we stole in a napkin from our breakfast at the hotel.  It was all very very beautiful.  The rest of the day we spent walking up and down more stairs--you've never seen elevation change like in a lakeside community by the alps--eating gelato and a BUNCH of spaghetti, and me trying to talk to people in French.

Lunching in our hike
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It was all very fabulous, and I like Italy and the Italy-ish part of Switzerland very much.  I doubt other weekend trips can compare, but I have high hopes.

Hope you all are well,

Much Love, Libby