Buongiorno

So, we made it to Milan. A few potential disasters were averted - Air Canada tried to lose my suitcase on the way back from Ohio Tuesday. Fortunately, it reappeared before we left, but we had to spend some time in the Delayed (Not Lost) Baggage office right before we took off for Milan transferring things we needed from the suitcase to our backpacks. The Air Canada guy tried to convince us to take the suitcase with us, instead of delivering it to Ashifa's dad like we asked. He didn't seem to really understand that we were leaving for three months with only our backpacks.

The only major inconvenience this caused, besides a lot of anxiety, was that the suitcase contained a couple guidebooks for Italy that I had gotten from the library. We were going to copy pages out of them, but didn't have time. We already have about ten pounds worth of guidebooks in our backpacks, so I spent our cab ride to the airport cutting out relevant parts of an old Italy book my sister gave me several years ago with a Swiss Army knife. :)

We didn't sleep at all on the plane ride (5 pm to 2 am Toronto time). Thankfully, our hotel let us check in at 8 am, and we slept most of the day. After our Milanese happy hour and dinner, we wandered around town for several hours. A couple pictures:

Milan's Castello

A photo exhibit along one of the pedestrian streets:

Ashifa misses Binda, so she's been smiling at every dog she sees.

The view from our hotel room.