TRINITY ACRES: 2018 Italy Day 1-2 - Travel to Milan - Seriate

February 11, 2018

Aragorn and I were blessed with a wonderful (business) trip to Italy... again (and no, I still have not posted pictures from the other 2 trips... maybe some day... now that I know how to re-size faster...) We lucked out this time and for $4 extra we could fly out of Madison rather than Chicago... really... what's there to argue about? We are poster children (adults) for Rick Steve's type of travel. We go with one carry on and a personal item. That's it. And yes, it is plenty. No checking bags for us.

Our trip actually began on February 9th with a travel blessing from our priest... Then on February 11th we attended a High Mass (and confession) at St. Mary's PB. Msgr. Bartylla gave a great homily on true charity. We left straight from Mass for the airport. There was an hour and a half delay due to snow. There was rather comical man who called the various "levels" of boarding. When he got to us (group 3) He said over the loud speaker, "Now that the socially elite have boarded we can move on to group 3."

Flying above the clouds. Our first leg of the trip brought us to Newark New Jersey where we still have another couple hours to wait. Since we only had some pretzels and a drink on the flight we were rather hungry.

There were these nice tables set up with tables to order food from (you can see Aragorn was highly impressed...) and where we could plug in our devices for charging.

We had some rather interesting and greasy foods which cost a small fortune. They delivered it right to the table. This was a french onion (greasy) burger and the other was the thinnest flat piece of chicken with a thick breading fried to a dark crisp...

Our next meal was aboard our flight from Newark to Milan, Italy. It was as tasty as it looks... IT was BBQ flavored chicken (flavored?!), grits, corn, kale or some kind of tough cooked greenery and a bun. The salted caramel gelato was delicious!

Somewhere mid-flight. I did not sleep at all. I spent my time (in addition to praying for our dying friend Jacek) making puzzles on the screen, watched a couple movies. I forget the first one but the second one was Rattatoule or something like that. A bit odd...

February 12, 2018

Flying over... ummm... I think London or Ireland, I cannot remember which.

The sun beginning to come up - up over the clouds. Our flight into Milan arrived an hour early... seriously... an hour but I guess that can happen when one is going at a clip of over 600 mph ground speed.

We went straight to Massimo (Tom's business partner) and Eda's top floor flat in Seriate. I don't think you can actually see it in this picture as they are sort of the "hat" on the top with a glorious wrap-around patio, but this was the building.

Since it was 8:30 or so in the morning when we arrived at their home it was time for breakfast. This little contraption was for making "Mokah" (not to be confused with mocha). This produces the strongest espresso known to man, of which I did not partake thereof for fear of growing a beard... which was rather silly since no women in town had any facial hair...

We at a lovely breakfast of salami, proscuitto, rolls and sweet things. Then took a nap. I don't think I moved for those 2-1/2 hours!

Later that afternoon, Massimo dropped us off at Citta Alta in Bergamo where we enjoyed walking around and getting lost. If there is one thing you should know about walking around these cities is that the roads are anything but a nice, neat, even grid. They are absolutely all over the place in any direction.

So we were up on Citta Alta (High City - that is up on a hill) and we would look down and see Citta Bassa (Lower town). I have included some scenic videos at the bottom of this post. I think they give a very nice perspective and a little more reality that photos miss.

It was a very lovely area.

If you know me, you know my love for visiting churches, especially in Italy.

Hmm... I think a few of these pictures are out of order, probably because some of these are Aragorn's and some are mine, timing must be a bit off, for whatever reason...

First we went to the Basilica of St. Maria Maggiore.

The first time I go in a church in Italy I always gasp. The explosion of color is absolutely unbelievable.

These were some very old statues from the original church (or something like that)

I really thought we could use this confessional in our parish church but I didn't have room for it in my carry on bag...

I really enjoy seeing these pulpits. I really wish we had one in our parish church.

I really wanted to go in this "door in the wall" (love that book!) but alas, it was locked.

This is the baptistery. They have really awesome baptisteries in Italy.

And in the same piazza (square) was the Duomo (Cathedral). I kid you not, it was about 50 feet away from the previous church. You can see the piazza in a video below.

I'm a little confused on the history but Bergamo has it's very own martyr, St. Alessandro of Bergamo. Not sure if he is buried here or elsewhere. Some day I might be able to add more details to these photos.

Pope John XXIII is from Bergamo, Italy, hence his papal crown was in the Duomo here.

I happen to like crypts. Not sure who is buried here as I forgot to take a picture of the list on the wall.

We walked the streets for a couple of hours.

A shop where they make vestments!

The composer Donazetti is from Bergamo.

I thought this tiny little truck-restaurant was so cute, I really thought I needed one. It's about 1/2 the size of a pick up truck.

Where on earth are we?

An astrolabe

This church has the most undecorated ceiling in all of Italy I believe (minus the really, really old ones that had no decor)

Much to my disappointment the Church of Santa Grata was closed when we got to it.

Raised garden beds. I think I could really handle small garden beds on cement.

I was also hoping to see the Inter Vites maccabre paintings but we didn't make it there. I didn't even bother trying to find it as the roads are so zig-zaggy. We got lost, naturally, after we descended a ridiculous number of steps and had to climb all the way back. I truly did not think I was going to make it... but as life would have it, I did make it but not without huffing and puffing like a steam engine.

This is the Funicolare which we did not ride but should have as we would have saved ourselves much time and leg aches.

That evening our wonderful hosts took us to a delicious all you can eat Chinese buffet. This is Riso (rice) and parmesan soup served out of a very large hollowed out cheese circle.

This is a pineapple with cinnamon baked on a stick like a kebab.

What a great restaurant. We went back to their home and skyped with the children on FB (ok, so it isn't skyping but tin foil isn't tin either). I slept like a log that night, even though they tell me there was a train right under/next to their home! Bouna Notte!

Here are some videos for these 2 days (all from the 2nd day I believe)