Good morning from Italy, or maybe it isn’t morning… I don’t know, my time is all screwed up! After spending several days in Milan, and a day trip to Switzerland, we traveled to the charming little town of Rapallo, Italy, and we’re currently exploring the coast before we continue on to Lake Como.
Italy is absolutely incredible but it was an adventure getting here. Our travel day was one of those days that just never seemed to end. Our flight from Dallas to Heathrow was overall pretty good. Over 9 hours on a plane sitting in coach is pretty brutal, luckily we did spring for the bulkhead row and with the inflatable foot rests it was pretty awesome to stretch our legs out and relax.
The only thing about those inflatable foot rests is when you start blowing them up you feel like an ass for 30 seconds or so. Not to worry, they blow up really quick then the passengers around you start telling you what an awesome idea that is, then they start looking sad wishing they had one. I mean would you rather hold your legs up on the wall for nearly 10 hours or just chill on a foot rest? Sorry for the icky quality photo, we’ll blame it on the altitude.
For some reason we couldn’t get a good flight from Heathrow to Milan, I can’t remember the details now, so we once we landed we had to transfer over to Gatwick. That was so chaotic! It was shortly after that when I was tired, hungry, and achy that Brian told me he just realized he didn’t pack any type of pants. Y’all, that was not a good moment for me! Haha… he packed belts though, and lots of shirts, but he currently only had a single pair of baggy shorts, and he was wearing them. So he went off to all the mens stores in Gatwick while I sat at the bar. I had about a billion glasses of proseco and he bought jeans, so it worked out after all!
Things stayed a little difficult for a while as we traveled on into Milan, I was starting to think “Is Mercury in retrograde”? “What is going on here?” I thought. Everything we’re doing is wrong, it’s hot, and so stressful. Then we stepped off our bus to our hotel and a group of nuns walked by us. I think they broke our travel curse and everything suddenly became perfect.
Our hotel, the NYX Milan Hotel, is absolutely beautiful, modern, and artsy! Once I saw those golden naked statues with sunglasses I knew we were in good hands haha! I recommend this hotel to everyone, it reminds me of the Saint Hotel in New Orleans that I’m equally obsessed with.
Above was our hotel room in Milan and below is the view outside our hotel room window, it’s the Estazione Centrale, or Milan’s central railway station where we ended up taking the train to Rapallo a few days later. I’ll show you the hotel in Rapallo once I get organized. It’s older and smaller, but very charming and right on the waterfront.
One thing I absolutely love about Milan is all the rooftop bars and restaurants. They’re everywhere and have the most incredible views! Again here’s the a view of the train station from the Terrazza Gallia restaurant and bar on the roof of the Excelsior Hotel Gallia. Seriously amazing food!
I’ll update you with more about our Milan experience and our day trip to Switzerland when I can, I have so much I want to share. But it might be a little while longer, we have about 500 photos to go through so far! Plus over here in Rapollo I have the worlds worst internet, it’s enough to rip your hair out. It’s taken me days to upload these photos.
Below the Duomo Cathedral in Milan is the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen. I absolutely can’t wait to show you more photos of it, it was my favorite thing in Milan. But like I said I need to find good wifi, time, and good grief… it would be amazing if I could find some proper air conditioning. I forgot how hot Europe can be, they advertise air conditioning but they must keep their thermostats set at 80! I am writing and sweating right now.
Oh, before I go I want to show you the worlds most amazing caprese salad. Seriously all other caprese salads are dead to me. These tomatoes were bursting with Italian goodness, and the mozzarella was the freshest I’ve ever tasted… yep beats the mozzarella ball at the grocery store by far, and the addition of arugula was pure genius. We love that nutty flavor that arugula brings to a dish.
Ok, friends I’m off to do some more exploring. Can’t wait to talk with you soon. If you have any travel suggestions or tips for any of the places we’re traveling to please let me know! Oh, by the way in the meantime you can check out some cool videos on my Instagram.
