Went
To Milan in early June along with Mr D’s parents.
The main purpose of our trip was to visit the grave of my mother in law’s grandfather who is buried in a Commonwealth War Grave in a small town between Genoa and Milan. He had died in the First World War whilst assisting the supply route which ran from the port of Genoa up along the railway line, going north up to the front line in France.
We have visited the grave once before, about 5 years ago. On the previous trip we stayed in Genoa, a city often overlooked by tourists but which I really enjoyed visiting.
This time we decided to base ourselves in Milan as the train connections were good from there and we could also visit Lake Como on the same trip.
Mr D and I also enjoyed a great day out this month watching the tennis at Queen’s. We went last year and had a brilliant time so bought tickets again this year fully expecting Andy Murray plus a raft of other high ranking players to be in the tournament. Except they weren’t by the time attended on quarter finals day.
I’ve been to Wimbledon on finals day and, whilst it’s a really sporting bucket list ticket, I much prefer Queen’s. It’s smaller, you can get closer to the action and the people watching opportunities are amazing. Nowhere else would you see upper-middle class ladies of a certain age wandering around barefoot carrying bottles of wine in plastic carriers filled with ice cubes to keep cool between the bar and their chums. Any attempt (uninentential or otherwise) at queue jumping seems to lead to profuse apologies. Which is how Mr D and I found ourselves being bought glasses of Pimms by a chap who inadvertently queue jumped us as he bought a magnum of champagne (price – £160!). We didn’t care in the slightest, but he did and he couldn’t apologise enough. Cheers!
Ate
One of the best gluten free pizzas I’ve ever enjoyed was in Milan, at the Be Bop Cafe. On this trip this restaurant was the one place I wanted to return for a meal at. Yet somehow it just didn’t happen. And despite me having been to The Be Bop on three separate previous trips to this great city, the blog post has been languishing in my blog’s drafts folder for a very long time. If you find yourself in Milan and looking for gluten free pizza, head to the Be Bop, it’s a cracker.
It would not, however, be right to visit Italy without enjoying at least one gluten free pizza. I visited two restaurants (one in Bellagio, the other in Monza) where enjoyed a great gluten free meal and which will be up on the blog soon.
After a very hot and long journey to Bellagio, this was much appreciated.
At Queen’s there were fairly slim pickings on the gluten free front (is Djokovic still gluten free?). And what gluten free options did exist were really expensive.
This. £15.
This Eton Mess. £6. Note the scale with my sunglasses.
You can, however, happily take a picnic in.
Loved
I absolutely loved our trip to Lake Como. I’ve been a few times before, including on honeymoon, and I just love it here. The green hills dipping down in to the dark blue waters of the lake, the gorgeous flowers everywhere, the boats, the people, the real glamour of it all. The weekend we visited was an Italian holiday. And even queueing for an hour in 30C+sunshine with more crowds than I’ve ever seen up there couldn’t dip my enthusiasm. I just love it.
Travelling with young children is an amazing experience but there are definitely downsides. I try not to remember the tired/hungry meltdowns and focus on the special bits, like their utter excitement at being able to choose from a selection of colourful ice cream:
I really think the twingos love Italy as much as I do even if one is now constantly asking to go to Finland and the other talks non stop about Brazil, places neither has been to. But then what kid wouldn’t love days filled with sunshine, pizza, pasta and gelato.
Blog posts I’ve loved this month
Time for reading blog posts has been more or less non-existent this month. I’ve been well and truly ensconced in another intense project at work – thankfully only a couple of weeks to go – and all the spare time I’ve had has been basically spent on the bare essentials of running a busy life. I did manage to read this post on the Languedoc which is timely since we are spending part of our summer holiday near to here. I say part because only one week of a nearly 3 week holiday in August it is booked. I’ve been too busy to book the rest of it. Am I being optimistic that this means we’ll find a last minute bargain?!
