Day 9 (May 15, 2008)

Our bible during this trip.

The next day we packed up and drove our car to Florence to return it. Of course we had to circle the car around the block 5 times before one of the four spaces in front of the rental place opened up. The rental company was kind enough to let us leave our luggage there for a couple hours while we toured Florence!

Aaron at the Duomo

A fresh pasta shop!

I wish I could have bought some. Alas, no kitchen. 😦

We arrived to a restaurant that I had read about in another travel book. When we arrived, it didn’t look very good so we went to the restaurant next door. It was a bit touristy, so Aaron and I tried to get the most authentic dish possible. We got the baked seafood for two:

It was delicious! It had HUGE shrimp, almost like lobsters, and everything was baked in a delicious seafood broth that we dipped our bread in. Yom! However, the wine suggested was not very good. So it’s just as well that I forgot to write down the name of the restaurant, I guess!

A random graffiti we saw in the courtyard of the restaurant. I have no idea how that is an insult.

We also saw another graffiti in the subway station, above a coke machine that said, simply, “Crap!!”

Me at a random bridal shop, kind of similar to my name!

It’s a circle of life! Here we are back on the Malpensa Express. We took the train to stazione centrale in Milan, then the Malpensa Express because our hotel is very close to the airport. When we got to the airport, we were going to take a cab to our hotel since it was so close. Our cab driver found out where we were going, and very kindly called our hotel for us on his cell phone because he knew our hotel has a shuttle service, which *I* didn’t know.

Here we are sad that we are almost leaving to go home...ok Aaron was just pretending to be sad under my instruction.

Now, happy!

We were very bored on that 45 minute ride. Good thing I snatched a box of FREEKY FRIES! Which essentially are the outershell of fries. I don’t really get it but it was yummy!

We arrived to our hotel, which was probably the fanciest corporate hotel we stayed at this trip, but very reasonable since it was close to the airport.

Novotel Milano Malpensa Aeroporto

Via al Campo, 99
21010 Cardano al Campo, Varese (Lombardie), Italy

+39 0331 266611
http://novotelmilanomalpensa.hotelsinmilan.it/

Hotel lobby, where they had two really nice macs to use, a full bar, and a full restaurant open until two a.m.

When we were waiting in line to check in, the Scandinavian group in front of us tipped the concierge with small bars of chocolate. She was so excited to get the chocolate! There were also lots of pilots and stewardesses staying in the hotel. It was a very fun atmosphere! They also had a small library where you could just take the books to your room on an honor system. They had Twilight!!

Our little coffee station in the room.

And we were finally able to watch American TV! Hallelluja.

I love their ultra modern bathroom with European charm!

A shower AND a bath tub!

After a good night’s rest, we took the hotel shuttle to the airport:

Milan Airport

I was bored and woke him up, um, accidentally.

I am charming.

Shenanigans once again happen once we get on to the plane. That's Aaron trying to hide from me so he can sleep.

Well, that’s the last of the pictures! I will post all the pictures and VIDEOS (!!!) on picasa in the next couple of days. Let me know if you are interested in seeing all three hundred pictures and videos and I will share those delicious moments with you! Thank you everyone for following me along on this trip! We had a wonderful time, and we hope to go to Italy again very soon. Or wherever the cheap tickets bring us!