Happy Easter

We woke up in our Milan hotel to a rainy day. It was raining yesterday and we had hoped for a break today, but alas, it is cold, wet and rainy. You could definately call this a Seattle day.

We went down to breakfast and found that the Easter Bunny had left a jar of chocolate easter eggs (kraft is strong here too!) on the front desk counter. So little grandchildren....Athena and Ricky... Grandma and Grandpa got a visit from the Easter Bunny this morning!

Breakfast in Italy is always skimpy by American standards, but side-by-side with a cruise breakfast it was nothing! We remember how it was on our previous trip... you wander into a bar or cafe and order your coffee and pastry at the county. If you eat standing at the counter it is cheap but if you sit down at a table the price rises. The Holiday Inn serves a free breakfast with the room (even our room was free thanks to Holiday Inn points) so we expected coffee, pastry and maybe a table. Instead it was a little more elaborate...more European business hotel breakfast.... 3 or 4 cold cereals in large bowls that you spoon into your serving bowl; two bowls of hard white rolls, one shaped in rounds the other in cylinders; a plate of thinly sliced cheese, salami and ham; cups of yogurt sitting in a bowl of melted ice, and a toaster with white bread. This is accompanied by coffee from a Nescafe machine... your choice of instant coffee served espresso style, cappacino style or Americano style. This is Italian living! Of course, an Italian visiting the US and only eating in a Holiday Inn would also think we did not know what good food tastes like.

We talked to Caitie briefly last night. She was busy with preparations for dinner so we only made arrangements for meeting up tomorrow when she will take the train from Ferrara to Milan, then on to the Milan airport to meet us. We told her of our plans to tour around Milan today, although the rainy weather may have slowed us down. She was celebrating Easter with Pietro's fathers family last night, folks that she has met with previously. Today they were celebrating with his mother's family, people she has not met yet. Then on Monday, she gets her own family!

We have 24 hours of internet at no charge so we will write again later today. In the meantime, I hope you all have a great Easter. Love you,

Deanne