May 18, 2006

Milano..Firenze..Marseille

Well after one and a half month milano, i have not seen the time go by. Meaning that time flies!! we have to enjoy every minute and enjoy all the small moments. What I have been doing for the last one and half month. Besides the regular thing here: the 30 minutes danceshow every night except Sunday's, i have been taking Salsa classes for instance. The school is a well known school in the salsa world Tropical Gem. The teacher Fernando Sosa has created his Sosa Style, very theatrical and showy. Its great to follow his classes because its very choreographed. Off course you will all know that practice makes perfect so i went dancing Salsa in a danceclub, but here you have to forget the sosastyle because you just have to follow the men, and believe me thats difficult because there are so many styles....
Inscription in the gym is another thing and keeps me busy, but i had to occupy my lovely boyfriend with other excercises, hihi. Well he made it for his 2nd time to Milan, this time on time and didnt miss the plane. Cool one whole week with him next to me, we went for Aperativo, wich is a concept, or constitution here, Just go to a bar at around 18. 30 and the happy hour serves you the best and greatest cocktails of all kinds( i love Mojito, Capiroska Fragola or a Pimms) and.... FOOD, you can eat little bits and pieces of the italian cuisine. So for hungry people definitely great, but if you want to go to the restaurant later you have to leave the aperativo for what it is, because believe me once you start you wont stop.
We also went to Florence, Firenze and stayed in the great Hotel Royal, via delle Ruote, in centre of Firenze. You can park car here. Firenze is a very nice little city, the centre is all to do by foot. After seeing the Duomo, Piazza Vecchio, Palazzo Piti, Ponte Vecchio it started to rain, we bought some umbrella's for 2 euros from the chinese lady and went to the other side of the river. This area is called Oltrarno . We walked to the Piazza Spirito Santo, less touristic and here we found a bar with live music, we started on the red wine and the aperativo, nothing compared to milan but was ok for now. We went across the piazza for more drinks, Chianti off course. Then we found the restaurant also on this square and we had more wine and delicious food!! We had a great feast, we got a bit typsy too!! After dinner we "walked" home and Lio fell asleep in the bed.. while i fell a sleep in the bath!!!
The next day we were more lucky with the weather and we decided to walk to see the Mercato and buy some Parmeggiano Reggiano for Lio's Parents and after that we walked to the Gardini Boboli, it was a very nice walk and nice gardens and Toscan Views with the so wellknown Cypres everywhere. We had to drive back to Milano that same day.
The next day back in Milan, we went to the photo exposition of Helmut Newton Sex and Landscapes in the Palazzo Reale next to the Duomo, strolled around in Naviglio area, had aperativo along the water. We also ate dinner at Trattoria Toscane. One night our friend Murali, or Mus invited us and his friends for dinner at his place, great and gorgeous mixed style food of Malay, singapore etc. The next day we went for a aperativo at a nice Bar ALtro which had a roof top terrace. The weather is changing and therefor great to have drinks on terraces, this one is recommended.
Sunday morning we drove to Marseille, where we arrived at 8 am and had breakfast with Lio's parents Alain and Marie-Jose. We were tired and had a nap, i slept until 16 !!! We enjoyed the great soupe au Pistou de Marie-Jose, and the parmesan we brought from Firenze. Monday afternoon i had to drive 500 km back on my own since Lio stayed there. It was too short this trip, but very nice to have had Lio by my side, off course i m a bit sad right now being here on my own, but i know its only for a short time, my parents will arrive the 25th, in one week!!
to be continued...