Train to Milan, walked down Garibaldi to Obika for lunch (fabulous pizza! And I loved my 2 kinds of mozzarella, veggies and salad). Walked to Brera (art museum and area around it) and La Scala, through the Galleria to Duomo. George & I then took a taxi to Gretchen’s apt, where I had a chat with a young girl who is interested in coming to the states for a couple months this summer to work on her English. The rest of the group arrived by foot shortly after and we spent about an hour at Gretchen’s before heading back to Garibaldi (maybe 10 minute walk) and catching the train back to Cernusco Merate, collecting our cars and heading back to Poggio Verde.
Gretchen and Luigi arrived around 8:15 with veal tonné and we whittled the evening away with extended food prep time (we were trying to grill carrots and discovered the grill wasn’t heating up quite right so brought them in and roasted them the rest of the way… this extended process produced phenomenally tasty carrots, though!). I thought frequently of Katharine and George and the Farm to Table dinner they were doing that evening at Elderslie Farm. Martha had brought Gretchen a box of really nice chocolates from Paris (Debauve and Gallet (?) – there’s a pic of the green-fronted shop in one of the Paris posts) and that made several rounds before we finally stopped and saved her a few. Lovely dinner in dining room, great conversation, including some history of Poggio Verde, and very late to bed. Wonderful, wonderful evening.
Hither, Yon and Skies 