The One Where We Go To Italy...for a Day

The Italians have a saying, "dolce far niente," meaning, "the sweetness of doing nothing." Well, I'm married to a man who hasn't a clue how to do nothing. We are always doing something. So last week when he called me with a question, "Hey, I have a meeting next week in Milan. Want to bring the kids on the train? It's just for one night," I jumped at the idea. The kids have two weeks off for spring break. Why wouldn't I want to take them on a train to Italy, if only for one night?

Many of you know my pure adoration for everything British. Well, I'm quickly becoming an Italophile as well. Tobi and I visited Rome, Positano, and Capri on our tenth anniversary about 3 years ago, and since then I cannot get enough of Italy. Italians are just about the most friendly people I've ever encountered. They're always helpful and cheerful, with smiles on their faces. I am taking German lessons and yet I'm terrified to say one word in German, here in Zurich. I only know a tiny bit of Italian (tourist Italian, if you will, from my 10 week class, 3 years ago) but the Italians are generous with their language. They love for you to try even if you screw it up. Their eyes light up when you use a word they never thought you'd know (on this trip, I said sinistra to a woman. It means left, and she actually clapped when I said it because she didn't know the English word for left). I had so much fun using the small amount of Italian I know, and I was happy to practice it again.

We took a three and a half hour train from Zurich to Milano. Tobi immediately got in a car with his Milanese coworker to dash off to a meeting. So here I am, in front of the Stazione Centrale with 3 kids and a stroller and about 100 Euro. I was scared to move. I didn't have a map or trusty guidebook, and only a vague idea where the city center was and nary a clue where the hotel was. BUT the kids, who were cranky and tired, honed in immediately on the McDonald's across from the train station. Normally, I would never think of eating at a McDonald's in a foreign country, but I just didn't know what else to do. So three Happy Meals later, the kids were fed. I started to walk in the general direction of the hotel, but then stopped to ask someone for directions (Parla Inglese? are the 2 most important Italian words you could ever learn - because not everyone speaks English, even in the big cities). Turned out, our hotel was way too far for the kids or the stroller on bumpy, broken Milano sidewalks. Luckily, I found a taxi and we made our way to the hotel.

The hotel, while a little bit far from the city center, was very lovely. You usually don't think of boutique hotels being exactly kid-friendly, but the Enterprise Hotel was extremely accommodating and welcoming. We actually stayed in one of their apartments, which had a loft bedroom for us, and the hotel staff put 2 twin beds and a crib in the living room. It was perfect.

We spent the afternoon eating gelato, playing at a nearby park, and Charlie & Caroline both got a nap in before Tobi got back for dinner. In the evening, the five of us took a tram into the city where we viewed the Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace) and the Castello Sforzesco in the Sempione Park. We had dinner in the garden at Ristorante Quattro Mori. Luckily, I also know how to say pasta al burro (buttered noodles)! The kids thought it was the best dinner out, and we did many rounds of "Cheers!"

On Wednesday, Tobi had to work in the Milan office for the morning, so I took the kids on the tram again into the city and we toured the Cathedral of Santa Maria Nascante, the famousDuomo di Milano. Charlie, in particular, has been very interested in churches lately and so we decided we had to go in. Even though it is tough to ask two and four (and even eight) year olds to remain quiet in a place of worship, they were all extremely well behaved and we all enjoyed the beautiful stained glass windows and the "really pretty pictures" as Charlie called the centuries-old paintings.

We met Tobi back at the hotel in time to visit the gelateria again for more wonderful gelato, and then we headed to the train station to come back to Zurich. It was a short, sweet trip and a nice introduction for the kids to the wonders of Italy. I asked both boys what 3 things will now remind them of Italy. Charlie answered, "Gelato, playgrounds, and the Duomo." Grant said, "Straccitella (the chocolate chip flavor of gelato he got), motor scooters, and the Duomo." For me, I'd have to say the language, the churches, and the people.

La dolce vita, indeed.

Cheers!

Tiffany

Note on photography: all taken by me, except the picture of the tram at the top. That was taken by Grant, and as he said, it's a "perfect shot." LOL. Check my FB page for all the pics from the trip.

The One Where We Actually Move!

Hi all! This will be a bit of a brain dump because I'm so off my rocker that I'm barely able to form sentences.

We arrived yesterday morning around 11am, Zurich time. The flight was pretty uneventful. The first few minutes were abso-freaking-lutely terrifying because we had pretty horrible turbulence in the first 15 minutes of the flight. Like I was white-knuckling it as the boys were giggling and Caroline was going, "Whoa! Whooooaaaaa!" At one point, Tobi told Caroline to put her hands up like on a rollercoaster, so she did. And everyone was laughing but me. I was trying to put on a brave face, but I didn't take any Xanax for the flight because I thought I would need to be "on" for the kids. Grant immediately settled in for the movies (Jack Black in Gulliver's Travels? According to Grant, it was "awesome") and Charlie was enthralled with the snack mix and orange juice he ordered "for free!" Caroline & Tobi did about an hour of Elmo sticker book before she got a little cranky. She finally fell asleep and the boys sat together and watched movies and then both fell asleep. Tobi fell asleep and I sat there trying to just breathe. I may have slept a tiny bit but I got up a lot and walked and stretched. About an hour before the flight was over, they turned on the cabin lights & opened the shades to daylight, trying to trick our weary bodies into thinking we'd had enough nighttime. Charlie loudly proclaimed, "Hey! It's daytime now!!"

Our relocation person met us at the airport and took most of our 9 bags of luggage with her in her car. The 5 of us took two taxis to our apartment, where the movers were waiting on us to arrive to look over all the goods they'd just unloaded. They didn't just unload things, but set up nearly my entire kitchen, our living room, and the kids' rooms. They assembled the boys' new Ikea bunk beds and Caroline's new toddler bed. Tobi was very grateful to be spared these tasks.

We did a bit of exploring and the kids imediately took off for the playground. Tobi lamented our lack of view (we cannot see the lake from our apartment, even though we are very close to the shore) but our view is directly in front of the playground so I can watch the kids from the kitchen/dining room window. This is really ideal. While the kids played outside, Tobi went to the bank to get us a real live Swiss bank account. He was very happy to finally open it, as in January we were told they do not give Americans Swiss bank accounts without proof of residency.

We took a walk last evening and found a pizza place about 8 minutes from our apartment. Tobi had gnocchi (his favorite) and I had a really great pizza with proscuitto and mushrooms. Grant got buttered noodles and proclaimed them "the best ever" and Charlie got chicken fingers, which the Swiss call, "schnipple" so thank God for small favors. Caroline ate some of the noodles and a lot of french fries (with Heinz ketchup. Again, thank God - it's the little things, ya know??). Then we found a small grocery store a few minutes further away. We bought some essentials and called it a night.

Because the Swiss tradition is to buy one's lighting for one's apartment (yeah, this is WEIRD), we didn't have any lights in the apartment, save the bathrooms and stove overhead light. Thank goodness Tobi thought to pack a couple of flashlights so we made do. Today we got up and went to a store called Jumbo, which is similar to a Home Depot and bought lighting fixtures out the ying-yang. I will do a separate post on the Dragon light the boys picked for their room. Suffice it to say it's not the prettiest thing I've ever seen. Our relocation person has hired an electrician to come on Monday to install all the lighting.

Well, this is all the update I can give because it is after 11pm here and I'm beat. Tomorrow? Tiffany's first Swiss driving. So if you're in Zurich and happen to be reading this, you've been warned. We're going to try to find the school in preparation for Monday.

To be continued...

Cheers!

Tiffany