Sleeping With The Gambinos, But Not With The Fishes

Friday. We are up and packed and ready. We sit out on the lovely terrazzo, play a few hands of scopa and then Jim loads us up and heads us out..."it's a long uphill walk to the train station." We arrive...35 minutes early. But then that's the tradition....the first time over an hour, the second time about 50 minutes, last time about 45 so....the schedule is improving. The trip is fairly uneventful, except when the ticket inspector looked our ticket over for a long time, punched it and gave it back, but then had second thoughts and asked for it again. I was getting worried...I didn't think a €50 per person fine was going to sit well with the budget. Turns out the train line that serves this run had changed since we had purchased our tickets in August...not really a problem after all. There are no Asian tourists with travel questions for Jim so the rest of the ride is calm. We navigate the train station and the two metro transfers and arrive at our hotel. The family that runs it is very nice...the Gambino family...you can't make this stuff up. We arrive and Mama Gambino is yelling at the tiny TV over the bar....she has some disagreement about something that is happening on her telanovella....papa Gambino just shrugs. Our room is small...and the bathroom is tiny....ok there isn't a word that is tiny enough for the bathroom. Seriously, while seated on the toilet you can turn the water on in the sink, bidet and shower (that is while still seated!). And if you are going to construct a bathroom in a closet...could you maybe leave out the bidet...evidently not! We (I) unpack and we walk down to make a reservation at Da Bruno's restaurant...we always go there when in Milan...they are closed...some type of plumbing problem in the kitchen...Al, we could have used you!

Saturday. Breakfast doesn't come with the room this time so the first order of business is to find a good bar with coffee and a cornetto. We find a lovely one...sadly they will be closed tomorrow so there will have to be another search. We do some wandering and some window shopping...this is Milan, fashion capital...Jim is busy steering me away from anything that resembles a shoe store! We have lunch at a really fun vegetarian restaurant...I just want to point out Jim is in charge of food procurement here...and this was his pick....and it was vegetarian! We asked Papa Gambino about the scopa cards used locally....there was some miscommunication (ok...so my Italian is not perfect) and he thought we were wanting to take HIS scopa cards. We straightened that misconception out in a hurry ( they are Gambinos after all!) We explained that we were learning and wanted to buy our own scopa cards. Turns out he was a champion scopa player! We were wandering around killing time before our dinner reservation when we happened upon a 24 hour hat and sock vending machine....only in Milan Italy! Dinner was in a small family run restaurant....all locals.....it was really fun...and tasty.

Sunday. It's our last day in country. We search out a bar for coffee and cornetto, pick up our last deck of Scopa cards and come back to try and check in for our flight, online. In the afternoon we walk to Eataly Milano. A little background...Jim's uncle kept texting us to go to Eataly while we were in Rome. We were picturing a large store of Italian food products, we're not too excited but decide we should go since it was obvious he really wanted us to go. Well it is literally located in an old aircraft hanger. Four floors with every kind of food imaginable. Restaurants each serving a specialty ( there was a cheese restaurant, a beef restaurant, pizza, pasta, fried fish, vegetables, pannini... 2 kinds...you get the idea) It was huge. So now back to the story...we learn there is an Eataly in Milan...woohoo...lets go! We walk about a mile and a half and we are looking... and looking...and looking...where is there a hanger size building? Where are the amazing food smells? Finally I ask the guy at the magazine stand..he says it's in the basement of the Coin department store....ok, not quite the same thing. Although we had a wonderful lunch with entertainment provided by the cooks behind the bar. Not the same but very fun. We walk back to our hotel and Papa Gambino is in the lobby. We tell him we got our cards from his "scopa card guy" and he is pleased. He administers an exam on the finer points of scopa playing and we pass with flying colors. He tells us to practice and we will all play the next time we come to Milan. All that's left is to pack and ....well....we don't want to talk about that now!!