We went to bed early on Sunday night and set the alarms for 4:30 a.m. We woke up at about 3am and our bodies just seemed to say get up and go … no point sleeping any more. So after about 30 minutes of trying to get back to sleep we got up and got on with it. The luggage was packed and ready to load straight into the car and we set off for Gatwick. We had booked into short stay parking (only £8 more than long stay) . So a nice easy walk into departures. All quite dull really … got a coffee, got on the plane, got off, got on a train, got to Milan Centrale, had a nice chat with welsh bloke, got off the train.
Then it got interesting!
So many people, what was going on!
Also the exits were blocked by security staff, and no one could get out, despite an Italian woman kicking off! A bit of googling and we found out that there was a big national protest about Gaza, and in Milan it was right outside the station and there were riot police and tear gas was being used. After about 40 minutes, we were let outside and everything was reasonably calm.
We then walked down to our hotel which was about 10 minutes away. We checked in and then relaxed in our room for a couple of hours after our very early start.
We then researched where to go to dinner and Sue rang up and in her best Italian booked a table for eight. We set off a while before that and went and had an aperativo in a nice little bar before our meal. Sue had a Milanese style Negroni – Sbagliato San Pietro (Cinzano Rosso, Bitter Campari, Brut San Pietro). While we were there we received news from Sam and Harriet that they had passed their CBT therapist training!
The aperitivo was rather large , in fact afterwards we did not feel like we needed a meal. However we had booked Non Solo Lesso so we dragged ourselves there. We started with a shared Primo of ravioli with spinach and ricotta and both followed it up with Ossobuco with risotto a La Milanese (saffron risotto).
Absolutely lush, and such great service too. I noticed as a got through my meat that the bone had some lovely marrow in it, it went great with the fabulous risotto , Sue missed hers and was told off by the waiter 🤣.
We sauntered back to the Hotel, very full , and chilled out. The aircon was very noisy so we had a bit of a debate whether to leave it on or open the window. Eventually we opened the window and listened to the beeping cars and sirens for the rest of the night.
