Returning to Lugano with the World's Tallest 8 year old...

On the 29th, I left San Diego to return to Switzerland.  A couple of us decided to come back early to get some valuable ski time in.  My good friend from college, Deanna (also the world's tallest 8 year old), flew with me from Chicago to Milan to join us in the adventure.  She lived in Vail for a year, so I knew she would be up to the challenge of skiing in the Alps.  Our adventure started when we boarded our "Air One" flight which is an affiliate of the Star Alliance, but the Italian affiliate...very different.  Deanna loved that they only really spoke Italian, culture shock was settling in quickly.  After a restless night flying we finally arrived in Milan, cleared the very relaxed customs, and headed to baggage claim to find our luggage.  In the meantime, we met some of the members of the Lugano Basketball team, most from the states.  Always good to make new friends in Lugano.  We were happy to find MOST of our bags and headed over to the oversized area to claim our skis and snowboard.  After waiting there for about 2.5 hours, and asking anyone who looked like they might work at the airport if they had seen a ski bag and a snowboard bag and only getting "IT'S ITALY" as an excuse, we decided to head to Lugano and worry about the bags later.  Knowing how tough it is to adjust to the time change, I encouraged Deanna to stay up, so she could sleep that night.  We decided to walk downtown, check out the lake and grab some lunch...it had been awhile since I had any Italian food.  After sharing a bottle of wine, we grabbed some good at the grocery store and then started the trek back up the hill.  Besides being really nice just having Deanna visit, it was also great that she brought new DVDs and our personal favorite the first season of the show Madmen!  We crawled into bed exhausted from our long day, but glad we had held out on the nap.  We slept pretty well and were able to get up early to prepare for the drive to the mountains.  I had warned Deanna to pack very lightly, because four of us and ski/snowboard gear needed to fit in what would be considering a compact car in the US.  My friends Blair and Allie picked us up at 730am, since our first stop was the Milan airport to find out about our bags.  Our fingers were crossed...