A Farewell from Family and a Salutation from Spring

This week has truly been one of my favorites here in Milan. Brock and I were fortunate enough to spend 10 wonderful, very adventurous, never short of exciting, and sometimes… well quite frequently, actually; strenuous and exhausting days, with my parents. We travelled to Florence, Siena, and Pisa in the beginning of their trip as you read in a previous blog. We took a day trip to Lake Como for Mom’s search of “Dreamy Clooney” and on one of the only sunny days in Milan we took a walk in the Park and toured the Natural History Museum and Castel. We ended their trip to Italy with a 3 hour hike through Cinque Terre (or as Mom kept referring to it: Tinka Terra) and we saw the most beautiful sights there are to see as we climbed higher than the clouds and hiked mostly uphill. Travelling with Poppa Nolton himself, we knew we were bound to get our share of bad luck; which we did (Pisa Police, last train to Milan at 11:30pm…delayed, no ATMs taking our credit cards, Metro stop to Zara (our stop) randomly closed, RAIN every day… just to name a few.) But with the little tweaks in our plans, we crammed more adventure in 10 days than was humanly possible and we enjoyed every exhausting moment of it!

We returned from Cinque Terre (or as Mom kept referring to it: Sinka Terra) at 1:30am and realized as we entered the apartment that we had no food, and tomorrow was Easter. Just as expected everything was closed. We enjoyed and cherished a very untraditional Easter together. We shared McDonalds for lunch; yup, trusty American McDonald’s was the only thing open! For dinner, Brock called a Pizzeria (using his best Italian!) and thankful they were open, so we sat around the dinner table and enjoyed good ole Italian Pizza for our Easter dinner. It rained and poured all day long so we camped in, shared stories, looked at the pictures from Cinque Terre (or as Mom kept referring to it: Chiquita Terrace), talked about politics, and watched a great movie. Out of all our days, travelling around Italy, our last day together meant the most. Saying goodbye was hard and sad, but spending that time with them here in Milan, is a memory we will cherish for a lifetime. We bounded and grew together, and it was so special being able to share a part of our adventure with them.

Their farewell was followed by the first true Spring day here in Milan. The sun was shining and it was finally warm outside. We spent the day at the park, under a tree, having a picnic, and watching the dogs run and play fetch with their owners. Birds were chirping, flowers finally bloomed, little hatchlings swam in the park’s pound next to their momma ducks; spring was finally here. We shared intimate little kisses on the park bench and we reminisced about the trips travelled with Mom and Dad.