Storyline: Virtual Itinerary
Happy Birthday Anne!
We’ll start this storyline with our visit to Milan and Mutti in 2016. As we said in the status update “Why virtual itinerary?”, this was a real itinerary until it wasn’t. So, we’ll have at least one story from past travels for every country we intended to visit this spring. As many of you know, we were supposed to be in Italy this April. Unfortunately, a tiny virus destroyed our plans and the world as we know it. We’ll have more than one post on our Italian travel from four years ago.
Today is Anne’s birthday. Happy birthday Anne!
We were supposed to be in Mutti for Easter and celebrate Anne’s birthday there too.
I met Anne at VUB or Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Flemish part of the Free University of Brussels. We worked in the same room. She helped me a lot when I was going through some personal turmoil. Then she married Giorgio and I moved to Canada.
Mutti is Anne’s paradise and she loves being there. It is spring now but like all of us, they a locked in their apartment in Milan. Must be hard. It is hard for us with a house and backyard. And they have been locked down for much longer. We hope all this to be soon over.
Back in 2016, Milan was our last stop in Italy. From there we’d take a flight to Sofia, Bulgaria. We’d had great time in Italy so far. From Florence we took a train to Milan, where our friends Anne and Giorgio live. They have a lovely apartment not far from the centre of the city. Dropping our luggage at their place in the afternoon, we chatted with Anne while waiting for Giorgio to finish work.
It was Friday, and after dinner Giorgio drove us to their country house (or should I say houses) in Mutti, a small village between Milan and Genoa. A hamlet would describe it better. It has about 12 houses. Giorgio and Anne had bought 3 of them. One for them, one for their guests and the third one was still under renovation and was planned to be a small conference and event centre.
Old stone houses as I remember from my childhood. The place had incredible charm, with old barns at some of the neighbours, some semi-demolished and waiting for someone to buy and renovate them…
We loved it there. It was a beautiful weekend, up the hills, far from everything and everyone. Mutti is above Bagnaria, which we visited next day.
We visited the neighbours, walked around the village. Visited markets in the area, sat in the yard and sipped wine, enjoying the sun.
Giorgio drove us around small towns and villages: Varzi, Bosmenso, San Ponzo. He showed us the old farm houses, where the original ‘central heating’ was accomplished by keeping the cattle on the lower level and living on the level above.
Everywhere, the old stone walls had moss and greenery growing from them, reminding me of my childhood.
We visited the Hermitage of Sant Albert monastery and at the end of the day had dinner at the spectacular setting of Agriturismo Ca’ Del Monte. This was a great and different experience. It was a real gem, tucked into the hills on the border of Lombardy and Pavia.
It is a family-run restaurant and B&B, close to an accessible observatory and metres away from a popular hang-gliding launch site.
We walked around the premises, Alex and Anne playing with the donkeys and other animals, met with the owners, admired the location and then went in for dinner.
The owners and staff are extremely friendly and accommodating. The menu is fixed. You are there for the experience of local food prepared for the day’s dinner over multiple courses. It’s a 5 or 6 course meal, depending on how you count it. All, including the wine, is home made.
Thus, the menu is what the cook has created on that day. We started with homemade prosciutto and salami and with homemade bread, of course; then a few servings of different vegetable dishes, after which came a bean and pasta dish, spinach gnocchi and a delicious meat stew. At the end there was also a dessert. Pace yourself, it is a lot of food! But it just melts in your mouth. Everything was fresh and delicious.
We are also told that this is a favourite place for wedding feasts. Definitely worth a side trip if you are near the area, but given the popularity of the restaurant, it is wise to book ahead.
Sunday evening, we returned to Milan. We had already visited Venice, Padua, Ferrara, Verona, Florence, Pisa and some other small places around, so in way we had had enough of museums and cathedrals.
We strolled on the streets of Milan, trying a variety of cafés and places like Eataly with its multiple restaurants and bars.
We did, however, visit the Duomo di Milano
and the medieval Sforzesco Castle which houses the unfinished ‘Pieta Rondanini’ by Michelangelo, stopped by one of the ancient churches in Milan Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio, initially having the name of Basilica Martyrum and built in 379-386 by St. Ambrose.
Walked around the old city walls, strongholds and structures from a distant past. And of course, visited the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping concourse. We ended up buying a rain jacket for Alex there. We couldn’t get in to see Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, because one has to book months in advance. So that was left for the next time. That time was supposed to be around now. Perhaps there’ll be an opportunity in a year or two, when this pandemic is over and done with.
So again, happy birthday Anne! We’re sorry we can’t be there to celebrate it with you and it is also not possible for you to realise your childhood dream today. We miss you guys. Sending our love from across the ocean.
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