Trip to Italy with our Resident Italian - June 2008

Our Italian friend Diego invited us to spend a few days at his family's sea-side vacation apartment in a small Italian town called Cogoleto. In terms of tourism Cogoleto doesn't see much international action, so it was a very local experience. The streets were quiet and narrow with laundry drying all around. We spent some time on the beach and ate wonderful Italian food, so overall it was a great trip away.We're a very international group, and quite possibly the only non-Italians in Cogoleto.
Yes, that's Diego. This whole trip put him in context.
Frozen foods section at the supermarket...
Cogoleto was very pretty as it was a seaside town surrounded by mountains. On a cloudy day we skipped the beach and went to the next town up to do some mountain hiking.



Giulia, my former roommate from Amsterdam, lives in Milan. She came to Cogoleto to hang out at the beach and meet my friends. While at the beach we had two Italians hit on us (in Italian). They thought we were sisters but Giulia explained that I was from Canada and she was from Milano but that we knew each other from Amsterdam. The guy actually exclaimed "That's impossible!"... He doesn't leave Cogoleto very often.

In the afternoon we split from my expats and drove off to Milano, where I stayed in Giulia's beautiful apartment overseeing one of Milan's busy streets. We even had sushi.


Beautiful shopping centre near the famous Milan cathedral...
and the Duomo itself; one of the most ornate cathedrals I've ever seen.
The Duomo is famous for its hundreds of saints, including this morbid one...
After the cathedral we headed out to explore and have lunch.



And headed back to Duomo to climb the tower. From there, it was a flurry of activity and we headed off to the airport. The following weekend, Spain!