Day 1: May 17-18, 2024


Buon fortuna! Or something like that.

After a repack at 11:30 am (when I left the house not 2 hours later), I'm glad I checked my bag. It meant more leg room than I thought there would be and I have room to bring things home if I do anything.

The flight in was easy. We left a bit early, landed a bit early; and, while I'm no expert on flying, I do know the landing was VERY smooth. We braked fast too. 

I was next to/around a family with three boyos, the two parents, and grandma. The boys were so adorable. Even the crying babies on the flight weren't too bad. But I was helping the adults with the boy next to me since I was in the aisle, and mom gave me some chocolate for being patient and helpful. 

I only got maybe an hour total of fitful sleep on the flight, but when we were served breakfast at 11:30 pm Eastern/5:30 am Italian time it felt like 5:30. As we started to fly over Italy, we were told the Alps were right outside. Sure enough, not only did we fly over them, we flew next to them!

 


I will admit to being very confused with life when I looked out the window as I left the plane. There was a lot of farm/empty land around, but I didn't think it'd mean MXP would be small and empty. Maybe it's because I'm used to EWR, but This. Is. WEIRD.


Also weird is that Customs took maybe 5 minutes total, and most of that time was weaving through the line dividers.

I met my Cohort bestie which was great, and we were able to leave the airport an hour earlier than expected! It was great to see a few things:

 Dirtbikes

Giant food at a rest stop

 A Barilla factory

Bridges at the Reggio Emilia exit


The host family is awesome. The house makes me feel like I'm at my grandmother's. The stairs are less dangerous and the house is much larger, but it's got the feel and smells of grandma that makes me feel at home.



Tori and I have the basement with a working? (They never used it in the past 4-5 years they lived here so we won’t touch anything) kitchen and there is a BR down here, so the basement apartment feel is even more like grandma’s.

Oh, and they have a garden thanks to nonno (who we met), are trying to grow kiwis, and have an amazingly large yard (these pics are barely a half of it)






Liza (Lizza?) the outdoor cat climbed up the tree for the first time ever to show off her kitty skills (and climbed down fireman style.


The youngest, A, gave me and Tori poppies just because. He and L also found some ripening mulberries for us. They are adorable and active kids. There are no TVs we could see and with probably 1.5-2 acres of yard with the outdoor cats and kittens and a basketball net and a soccer/football net and tees to climb and the garden, they are always outside.




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