4/20/15 day 2: Milano, IT

Landed in Milan, Malpensa airport at 8:23AM local time. The airport was quiet. A bunch of Italians in suits holding name signs outside of customs. The only thing open, the only thing there practically was a little bakery cafe with a bunch of Italian ladies w too much energy calling out orders to the girl at the espresso machine. Crushed a couple cappuccino waiting my brother Peter Day to ramble off his flight from Toronto, which he did about 11:45. Didn't have the energy nor the confidence to try to order one of the pastries which all looked friggin' delicious.

Pierre and I snagged the brand new, snappy Renaud wagon rental from Sixt and made the fairly chill drive to the hotel. Weather was beautiful, windows down, pissing off Italian drivers who needed to go somewhere fast. As we were pulling into the parking spot in front of the hotel, who walks up but our other tSR brother Jeff Vallone!? His timing was impeccable as usual. He has been bounding around Italy for a few days in advance of our arrival scoping out the best falafel joints in town. Apparently, pizza is a better option in this country. Weird.

Our hotel rooms are modest but sufficient (at least they have semi-reliable wifi) in a mainly residential neighborhood NW of the downtown. We decided to go for a walk and find some food. We made it about 75 feet to the corner before turning into a little bakery. I completely destroyed some pizza. Dude brought out about 8 fresh French bread pepperoni pizzas out of the oven. I was like "oh damn! They got some Stouffer's up in here!?" And now I was an odering machine, pointing, saying things like "si" and "grazi." The Stouffer's was a good start but the big guy needed a little more in the tank so I asked the nice lady to whack off a slab of this amazing looking pizza. They come out of the oven in huge sheets and they cut you a slice to your preferred dimensions and then weigh it for pricing. I mean get a load of this... So light and clean and simple and tasty... I think this cost me 3€.

After a quick refueling and update on Jeff's travels we took a little stroll around the neighborhood. It's nice. A quiet suburb. Tree lined streets. Kids out of school running around. The weather was really perfect so we found a little cafe by the hotel and toasted the start of another tour and our good fortune for being able to do these trips.

I went down hard for a nap from about 4:15 and we rallied at 6 to head a little bit more into town. We hopped a couple metro stops SE of our location to the Naviglio Grande (canal) and walked around the shops and bars that were jamming today; young Italians talking quickly, waving cigarettes at eachother. We wanted to blend in, so we sat down and unfolded our map...

Yes, there is bacon in peters whiskey. Yes, it was intentional. If you ever get a chance, ask Peter to describe the "feeling" of drinking that drink. He'll use words like "whisk" and "coat tails." It's hilarious. We then realized we were very close to our venue tmrw night (Nidaba Theatre) so we walked over and located it. It was closed so we headed back to the canal for some food and stumbled on a jamming little pizza joint on the canal that didn't disappoint.

Oh, I crushed this whole thing and a couple Arrancini (rice balls) for good measure. So tasty. Just clean and simple ingredients, fresh and light. The bread. The sauce. The cheese. Simple, you little bambino! Oh man. Ricotta di Bufallo. So on point! And then of course gelato because why the hell not; Caffé & Amarena.

We were pretty fried out and crispy by the time 945 rolled around so we made our way back to hotel. I'm laying here now dreaming about dreaming in this very modest little room in my kid-sized single bed. The window is open and the long green curtains occasionally billow. The sounds of scooters down below... Italian white noise... We have arrived.