My second set of visitors this year, well in the family at least, was my Aunt Jo and her friend Heidi. They thought this was the perfect opportunity to take a trip to Europe, since I am here and Heidi's daughter is studying abroad in Florence. They flew into Milan, so Sally and I went down to meet them Friday. We had a great dinner at one of my favorite spots on Corso Como. It has amazing Napoletana pizza and believe me I've tried a lot of pizza living here! We had great salads too, and then my Aunt was on a mission to try many different tiramisu varieties. We had to have a taste of course. After dinner the Americani went home to rest up and Sally and I started on some prosecco at a bar on Corso Como. After a few drinks, we met up with my friend Bernie and Alexis. Bernie is actually from Bern, no relation to the name, but he lives in Milan. His friend, a guy named Alexis is also from Bern, but was visiting for the weekend. We went to a club with them called Hollywood. It was a typical club, with an expensive entry fee (25 euros). We stayed until about 3am, which is on the early side for Milan. We knew we wanted to be in okay shape to spend the day walking and shopping in the city Saturday. After lots of coffee at breakfast at NH Grand Hotel Verdi, we walked all around the fancy shopping area, Magenta and Brera and then down to the Duomo area. We lunched at La Rinascente overlooking the Duomo and enjoyed all the sights. One of the best part of this department store is the speciality food floor. If only I had an amazing kitchen to cook in!
Saturday afternoon we headed back to Lugano on the train. We were lucky we had missed some of the rain in Switzerland. However, it stuck around for a few days...typical. Saturday night after a short tour in the rain around Lugano, we ate at the Spaghetti Store, a favorite along the lake. Then I took them to Retro for some after dinner drinks and dessert. Sunday we slept in listening to more rain and then headed to the big Chocolate Fair in Lugano. There was actually only one type of Swiss chocolate, Alprose (from nearby) and then the rest were Italian (most of them I've never heard of. They had every kind of chocolate you've ever dreamed of, even some wtih pepper, chilis, orange, apple, you name it. We sampled some ciocolatta denza, very strong chocolate liquer and I bought a chocolate covered apple. We also picked up a few gifts for special people at home! After lunch at Tango, we came home to rest before heading to Ascona, a special town on Lago Maggiore. We dined at Nostrana...amazing, and I even had salmon, my favorite. Then we went next store to Seven Easy, a really nouveau restaurant for Switzerland. You could definitely move it to LA or New York and you would never know you were in some lakeside town in Switzerland. I met a new friend there from Sicily that will be fun to have wine and dine us in the future! Mom you are next! Heidi and my Aunt liked the special attention we were getting! :) Monday, they explored Lugano on their own while I taught and then that night we went to a great Risotto place in Morcote. It was great to have visitors here to show around and we even had a car to venture out of Lugano. They are off to Florence to visit Heidi's daughter Jeanette next. Thanks for visiting!
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