Duomo; Torino Bull (you spin your right heel on his testicles for good luck)
Castella Sforzesco, the carnival next to the Castella
Santa Maria delle Grazie, home of The Last Supper
We did finally get to see Milan, outside of runways and showrooms. I was feeling extra guilty for dragging my entire family to Milan only to be working the entire time. Once Fashion Week was over, it was all tot time (well, then I had to go to Madrid to speak at a conference). It is never easy trying to balance work with family especially when traveling, it is so tough! But in the end, it still was better to travel with them because I would not be able to be away from them that long. But between working and doing family activities, I was extremely exhausted the whole time because I had absolutely no downtime. I also felt bad treating my husband like a hired nanny so I also had to give him some free time to explore the city on his own. I can recover from exhaustion, it is certainly a small price to pay for having it all =)
For the most part, Milan is not very tot friendly, in the sense that there is not a whole lot for them to do. But the people there are extremely nice and friendly when we showed up to restaurants and places with them. We did avoid super fancy restaurants so as to not ruin some rare date where they are spending good money on a nice meal. We decided to just do the regular things like museums and cathedral visits, which were boring for them. But I figured they will need to start learning to travel like grown ups if they want to go on grown up trips. We do enough Legoland and water park trips specifically for tots, sometimes they have to go on grown up adventures too.
We went to the Castello Sforzesco, a real life castle! It was build in 1368 as a fortress and turned into a palace in the 15th century. There were all the fixings of a fairy tale castle – turrets, draw bridges over actual motes, gates with spikey pointy ends and of course a dungeon! This place was magnificent and enormous, an inspiring and impressive sight to behold. So the modern Italians decided to honor this landmark by putting a super cheesy carnival right next to it. The historical importance of the castle was lost on the tots, but the exciting carnival was not. So maybe the modern Italians had a point. This was the strangest and most ostentatiously decorated carnival with multiple themes piled on top of one another – jungle, Hawaiian, Princess, Disney, robots, pretty much everything you’ll find in the Birthday theme section of Party World. But the tots LOVED it!
I tried to limit the shopping since, oddly, this particular DNA of mine didn’t transfer to them, my daughters hate it (unless of course we were shopping for their own clothes). We did score at a tot shop called Iana, there was a huge sale and things were seriously cheap. But I HAD to buy because you see, the washing machine was broken in the apartment we were staying at, I missed the Home Ec class where we learned to wash clothes on a rock, so my only option was to buy new ones. We did find a laundromat, but it was 6.50 euros per article of clothing, which is $8.75 US. Uh, that includes underwear. OK, I did manage to wash the underwear in the bath tub and only bought outer clothes. Dresses, hoodies, pants and super cute long sleeve tees were 4.90 – 9.90 euros ($6.50 – $13 US), cheaper than laundering old clothes! You have to admit, that was a good economical decision. I spent over 200 euros, 4 giant bags worth!!
We did of course do personal shopping, we had to, but it was properly rewarded with a stop for some hot chocolate. A bit of FYI if you ever order hot chocolate in Italy, by hot chocolate they mean that they just heat up chocolate and serve it to you in liquid form. It was good but only the first couple of sips. We decided to use it as a sauce on our chocolate cake, which was fantastic!!
In between, they did visit a toy shop (I missed this as I had to work) and played for 2 hours. This was an incredible store with all wooden toys, nothing was battery operated (so I heard). They came back with a few souvenirs and recharged to hit a museum. Museums are not set up for tots, nor should they be. Everything is hung at a level above their eyes and people are not looking down below for tiny feet that they may step on. Extra vigilance is required which distracts from the enjoyment of the museum, so in the end, I skipped the specific exhibits and just let my husband enjoy them in peace with his iPod plugged in. We were all happier that way.
The highlight of the trip was seeing The Last Supper. It is in a small cathedral, Santa Maria delle Grazie, a bit off the beaten path. If you are visiting during the busy tourist season, you will need to buy tickets in advance and pay the huge premium which can be as much at $20 US, while the tickets at the door are 1.50 euros ($2 US). We bought tickets at the door and had to go back later since all the tickets are for a particular time. They only allow 20 people at a time. There is a small courtyard garden connected to the cathedral (entrance is on the other side) which is charming and beautiful and definitely worth stopping in if you’re already there. You get a good view of the cathedral in the background.
Two weeks went by fast but I was ready to go home. So were the tots. But we had one final hurdle, the flight home. I have to say, I am still upset by the Milan airport – they make you check in your stroller at check in! I have a system for the airport and it was all broken down when I lost my stroller!! I rely on the stroller to not only carry my tot, but all of my carry on items! To make matters worse, we had a layover in Paris and our connecting gate was 3 terminals away!! By now everyone was cranky (me, most of all) and hot, so all the coats and sweaters were piled in my arms in addition to the enormous amount of carry ons I already had. And then there was the 12 hour flight back to LA. Jetlagged and exhausted but I would do it all over again. I love to travel and I want to show my tots the world. And in a few years, life will change for all of us when they can carry their own carry ons and not cry on the flight!!
