Farewells and a New Staple, 25Aug, Day 12

I cooked some pasta with pesto for lunch, but added a new element. Sardines! All these years eating sardines on crackers, I don’t know why I never tried pasta instead of crackers. It was remarkable!

After lunch I headed for the Castello Sforzesco and adjoining Parco Sempione. To my delight entrance to the castle museum was free, and I had an hour to look at some artifacts, paintings, and furniture. At 17:30 I was ushered out, and headed towards the park. They were having a festival of sorts out back, with a bunch of old people doing some form of Italian line-dancing under a large white tent. They appeared to be having quite a time, but I soon lot interest and began to meander the many paths of the park. This is a pretty large patch of green near the center of the city, and you can hardly hear the external traffic from the center. Eventually I reached the arch at piazza sempion, and headed back by a different way stopping briefly at the comic exposition in a municipal museum.

Friday night I went to the Navigli with four of the girls from the scuola –three of which would be returning home and wanted to go out on their last night in Milan. Katerina, would be going to class a bit more before beginning at NABA here in Milan. We started off with an apertivo at a place that reminded me a bit of Miami playing some of our local favorites like Ricky Martin and Shakira. After the mosquitoes chased us inside and I’d had 4 plates of food we decided to go for a walk. Before long the girls were feeling ready to go, and I was getting a bit tired so we exchanged emails, said our farewells, and went our separate ways.

On the way back I stopped at the lemon truck to try their spiked lemonade. It must’ve been good because I talked to one of the bartenders for about a half hour. When his dad/boss heard I was from the US he excused Fabio to practice his English. It turns out he spent 2 months last summer in White Plains, NY. –A nice kid.