Correction

I received a free gift from Tripadvisor...a free Shutterfly photobook!!  I spent way too much time selecting pictures and rearranging them and then 2 days ago I deemed it ready and sent the order.  One option is to also post it on your blog.  I did all that and then today saw my proofreading oversight.  I have labeled a castle (neushwenstein?? might be the spelling) as Cologne Cathedral.  This is worse than the fact that I forgot to label the last two pages but I can fix this on my printed copy with a pen.  For anyone who might look at it online suffice it to say that the last two pages are in Assissi and Cortona.

Travels

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Late additions

We were unable to get pictures posted as we were traveling by plane, train and automobiles yesterday so here are some sights in Milan.  Susan may have more to add as my camera battery dies before I did!

Glamour at McDonald's

Everything beyond the main center of Milan was not much to look at but the people were.  Everyone looks great and Fashion Week was to beging the day after we left.



Cathedral in Milan



This was taken on the roof of the Cathedral in the previous picture.

The end of the adventure...

Tuesday 9/21: We took a train from Florence to Milano, Tuesday morning. The trip was uneventful and we arrived in Milano at about 10:30. We have now seen the ugliest train station in the world. It is huge and ornate and totally tasteless. It was built by Mussolini in the thirties. It is pretty efficient. They say the one thing he accomplished was getting the trains to run on-time!

We took a taxi to the hotel, a Sheraton. After checking in, we went to the central city and had lunch in the most amazing McDonalds. It had electronic kiosks for ordering and paying and a very sophisticated modern decor. The cheeseburger had an oregano bun and mozzarella cheese. Not bad...

After lunch we visited the Duomo which is huge and very ornate. We took the elevator to the roof and enjoyed the view.

Later we had espresso and tiramasu on the roof of the Rinascente department store. We spend some time shopping, and saw the preparations for Fashion Week, which starts tomorrow.

We had room service and went to bed!

Wednesday, 9/22: we awoke at 5:30 and took taxi and train to the airport. With some confusion we managed to check-in, get our Value Added tax refunded, spend the rest of Euros in the duty free shop, eat breakfast and make our plane. We are somewhere over the North Atlantic at the moment. We are scheduled to arrive in Newark at 1:30 Eastern and Cleveland around 5:00.

The trip was pretty problem free. No strikes or weather anomalies! I hope it wasn't too boring for those,of you who followed the blog.

Thanks for watching.

Cheryl & Susan

P.S. I will post some Milano pictures, later.

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Monday update

Monday, 9/20: Monday we took the train for Cortona. The train only went as far as Camucia. We had to take a bus to to Cortona. This turned out to be an event since the train station was closed and we had to find a Tobacco shop that sold bus tickets. Then we had to find the correct bus stop. Eventually we made It to Cortona, and it was worth the trip. We can understand why Frances Mayes fell in love with it and bought Bramasole.

After a day in Cortona we spent our last night in Florence. We had a nice dinner, packed and went to bed.

We are now on our way to Milan. We leave for home tomorrow morning!

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Painter in Cortona

Street in Cortona

Piazza de Republica, Cortona

View from Cortona

Sunday update

Susnday, 9/19: After many days of major activity we decided to take it easy today. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we went shopping at Rinascente, we had espresso at the rooftop cafe. Nice view. See pictures.

We also saw Michelangelo's chapel at San Lorenzo. We had lunch at Kate's favorite restaurant in the San Lorenzo Market. Later we went to the Leonardo Da Vinci museum where we played with models of many of his inventions.

We stopped for espresso and dessert at a cafe before walking Accross the Ponte Vecchio and along the river. When we returned to the hotel we found a bottle of wine and a card wishing me a happy birthday. We enjoyed that and some other goodies on our patio, before going out for pizza which we ate in our room.

Today, Tuesday, we are off to Cortona.

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