Sunday, October 10, 2004

Morning came way too early today. 6:00 am in fact, when Charlotte decided it was playtime. Ugh, no rest for the weary. No wonder we always insist on separate rooms when we travel! We went down to the very nice breakfast, and then I entertained the children in the room and downstairs in the play area while Mark returned the car. After he got back we took the streetcar to the main Piazza and the Duomo.  Man, Milan is crowded after all of those small towns! We went to mass in the Duomo, Genevieve lit a candle for Grandpa and then we fed the pigeons in the Piazza.

After that, we had lunch in the Galleria. It was a bit of a disaster. Genevieve was tired and cranky and sulked when I ordered her the wrong thing at lunch instead of just reminding me she wanted pasta with mussels. We were able to get her to spit out what was wrong in time to change her order, but after lunch Charlotte and I walked off while Mark waited for the bill and Genevieve was supposed to follow but she didn’t, so she wound up throwing a fit while Mark was trapped waiting and couldn’t leave with her. He was a bit upset at the scene when they hooked up with Charlotte and me (I had not heard the commotion and therefore had not returned to the table).

Now it was time to climb the Duomo. I packed Charlotte onto my back, and up we went. Climbing up there improved everybody’s mood. Charlotte was cute again, saying “baby” at all of the carved cherubs.  After this, we really were hoping to find a playground, but we checked at the tourist office and the closest one was a subway ride away. There was a Chicco store close by, and I guess at the bigger ones they have play areas in the basement (called Chiccolandia) which would have been great but it was Sunday so it was closed. We walked around a bit, had our gelato, and looked at the photography display, but the kids were really getting restless so we decided to cut our losses and just have an early dinner at (you guessed it) McDonalds.  I swear, I have not eaten at a McDonald’s in years, and then four times in two weeks–out of control. Just being at McDonald’s cheers the kids up, I see why parents love that place so much. After dinner, we head back to the hotel on the streetcar and get there just as it’s starting to rain. We managed to get everything packed and ready to go and lights out by 8:30 so we probably went to sleep about 9:30 or so.

<<Previous | Next>>