New York to Italy!We left the Bahamas and it's beautiful sharks and landed in New York.
We spent Mothers day with Riggs family and used the time to reflect on the trip outcome and next steps.
Of course being with family helps to gain some routines that we long missed (like a homemade dinner) going to a supermarket, taking Lily for ice-cream (serendipity III), watching project runway in the family room (watching Rafi try to guess which curse word is under the Beep sound). The pleasures in life are in those mundane details.
Once more we used the city as a hub to finish vaccinations and plan our next stop, Europe. As it turns out, the cheapest flight out of NY was towards Milan, so after a week or so we were on the road again.
MILAN
Milan is an urban and vibrant city. It is blooming with commerce and fashion, combining the old and the new. We were hosted by Mayra, Claire and Ishan. They made our stay memorable and gave us so many tips on what to see, eat and look for, that was a real pleasure.
I really missed Mayra and was a shot of happiness to see her there. :)
Milan is an urban and vibrant city. It is blooming with commerce and fashion, combining the old and the new. We were hosted by Mayra, Claire and Ishan. They made our stay memorable and gave us so many tips on what to see, eat and look for, that was a real pleasure.
I really missed Mayra and was a shot of happiness to see her there. :)
We spent some day trips in the beautiful city Bergamo and the posh Lake Como.
Bergamo has a cool self guided walking tour that's worth checking out. The views are magnificent and specially the sunset.
Bergamo has a cool self guided walking tour that's worth checking out. The views are magnificent and specially the sunset.
How to describe Lake Como... Well it's quite a remarkable landscape, the lake is surrounded by green Hills where old fashioned villas and houses peak between the trees. The lake itself is full of motorboats that look like precious jewels, ridden by beautiful young man in sunglasses and their lady companions. Looks like an instagram account! Hahaha "rich kids of Lake Como". Anyway it's worth the trip.
Cinque Terre - Bolano
After such a wonderful time with friends we decided to rent a car and travel towards the unknown. Our main objective was to cover as much ground as possible in order to check our most important landmarks.
We started the road trip in La Spezia in the magical towns of Cinque Terre. As Wikipedia describes:
The Cinque Terre is a string of centuries-old seaside villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline. In each of the 5 towns (Cinque Terre), colorful houses and ancient vineyards cling to steep terraces, fishing boats bob in harbors and trattorias turn out seafood specialties along with the Liguria region’s famous sauce, pesto.
After such a wonderful time with friends we decided to rent a car and travel towards the unknown. Our main objective was to cover as much ground as possible in order to check our most important landmarks.
We started the road trip in La Spezia in the magical towns of Cinque Terre. As Wikipedia describes:
The Cinque Terre is a string of centuries-old seaside villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline. In each of the 5 towns (Cinque Terre), colorful houses and ancient vineyards cling to steep terraces, fishing boats bob in harbors and trattorias turn out seafood specialties along with the Liguria region’s famous sauce, pesto.
Their main income is agriculture (wine and olives) and tourism. 5T was made popular around Americans thanks to a NY times article that described the place as a piece of heaven. And it is! Although now heaven is full of Americans eating gelato.
The cool thing about 5T are the hiking trails that take you from one town to the other. During high season there are also trails that take you through breath taking cliffs right next to the sea. To hike the trails you buy a day pass for 7 euros and walk your way around towns, it takes about 5 hrs to do all of them or, use the train if you want to do it faster.
The cool thing about 5T are the hiking trails that take you from one town to the other. During high season there are also trails that take you through breath taking cliffs right next to the sea. To hike the trails you buy a day pass for 7 euros and walk your way around towns, it takes about 5 hrs to do all of them or, use the train if you want to do it faster.
After 5T we decided to make a quick stop in the city where my grandfather was born, Bolano. Not knowing what to expect or even knowing what it looked like, we went there hoping to have lunch and take a picture. Google maps drove us exactly to the top of the hill, we found parking, and we walked around looking for a restaurant. It felt like a ghost town. Nobody around, nothing open, and no signs of a restaurant or even a place to buy a banana.
We happened to find the city hall / municipal. It was open and had a lot of commemorative plaques with the names of city people among whom the Ricciardi were quite a few. Inside the city hall we met a woman who asked what we needed. As neither spoke the language she went and found a translator. We didn't had a plan. This was completely out of the blue, completely random, so I said who I was and my Bolano grandfather's story. She led us to the head of Demographics who happened to be named Piero Ricciardi. At this point, I understood that the last name is as common as Pérez in Chile or Smith in the US.
Piero asked a couple of questions via the translator: What's your nonno's name? When was he born? Who were his parents? I answered all confused and he said "if you give me a couple of days I can find your family. "Most likely you have relatives still living here and if you come back you might actually meet them". I was perplexed and astonished. "Of course!" -I said- "we can come back here before returning the car in Milano 25 days from now! Here is my email if you have any news or questions"....
We left that place with a smile on my face and a weird feeling about it all... Bolano didn't even had a restaurant, so we went back empty with stomachs to the car but with a fuzzy feeling in the heart.
We happened to find the city hall / municipal. It was open and had a lot of commemorative plaques with the names of city people among whom the Ricciardi were quite a few. Inside the city hall we met a woman who asked what we needed. As neither spoke the language she went and found a translator. We didn't had a plan. This was completely out of the blue, completely random, so I said who I was and my Bolano grandfather's story. She led us to the head of Demographics who happened to be named Piero Ricciardi. At this point, I understood that the last name is as common as Pérez in Chile or Smith in the US.
Piero asked a couple of questions via the translator: What's your nonno's name? When was he born? Who were his parents? I answered all confused and he said "if you give me a couple of days I can find your family. "Most likely you have relatives still living here and if you come back you might actually meet them". I was perplexed and astonished. "Of course!" -I said- "we can come back here before returning the car in Milano 25 days from now! Here is my email if you have any news or questions"....
We left that place with a smile on my face and a weird feeling about it all... Bolano didn't even had a restaurant, so we went back empty with stomachs to the car but with a fuzzy feeling in the heart.
To be continued...
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