Mil-Loud-O

Ok, so it has stopped raining. The rain has been replaced by ceaseless noise "hear" in Milan. Yesterday, the Germans (or at least I think they did) invaded from the north playing Oom-pa music all through town. My hotel room sits on the first floor (really the 2nd - a quirky numbering system in Europe where the American 1st floor is known as floor zero) on the street side. Literally at 4am a parade of oom-pa playing brass in feathered caps insured right down the street on which my room sits. Surreal.

Instead of brass horns, today it's car horns. Apparently the local entry in the Italian professional soccer league (Forza Azzuria) won the National Championship. Tonight there is plenty of drinking and making merry in the streets and "vias" of Milan are jammed with people. A complete zoo.

What do Madonna, George Clooney and I have in common. Well, we have all been to Lake Como. I took the hour train ride this morning up to the famous Alpine lake. Beautiful.

I spent the evening at my fellow ex-pat's Lisa Mazzenga's home for dinner in beautiful Monza, Italy. She has an Italian boyfriend name Francesco, who prepared a traditional 3 course Sunday (Domenica) meal. Exceptional.