Month: December 2022

Year End Family Trip to Milan

Between our honeymoon in Italy and now, almost two years living here, there aren’t many places that we still haven’t been in this beautiful country. One of the glaring exceptions was Milan. Although it’s one of Italy’s renowned cities, it’s never managed to get onto our travel route and hasn’t quite ever beckoned loudly enough for a specific visit.

That all changed this post-Christmas as it was a perfect short getaway from Rome with my mom and brother visiting. Last year we went to Florence as a family for a wonderful short stay and this year, after reading about Milan’s epic Christmas market, we bought the train tickets and booked the hotel rooms.

Milan needs no introduction. It’s Italy’s financial and fashion capital and what it lacks in historical charm, makes up for in stature and hustle. We found the crowds in front of the famed Duomo absolutely stunning, in terms of both size and density. If there were any lingering doubts, travel has fully returned post-pandemic.

Milan’s famed Duomo really was the hi-light of the visit and indeed, one of the most wondrous places we’ve visited in Italy or elsewhere. The scale, the lighting inside, the detailed exterior were truly breathtaking. Milan’s Christmas market stalls wrapped most of the exterior of the Cathedral and offered plenty of holiday treats and goodies for the energetic crowds.

On our second day, we ventured outside the Duomo and shopping areas of the city and visited the Castel Szforzesco, Santa Maria delle Grazie (home to the original Last Supper) and finally, the Navilgio Grande canal. We clocked over 15k steps and got to spread our wings a bit in the city’s core.

Overall, we had somewhat mixed reactions to Milan. It’s definitely a worthy visit but is of such a distinct character to most of the rest of Italy. The crowds and ostentatiousness of the luxury shopping set left something to be desired but the monuments, Christmas oriented amusements and variety of food were quite memorable.

Dalia and I both agreed that we probably won’t rush to return to Milan but would take the opportunity to return if a reason made itself available. Maybe more than anything else, to visit some of the surrounding towns, cities and geography nearby in northern Italy.

We hopped back in our high speed train and looked forward to spending our last few days with family and then New Year’s Eve at home in Rome!

All Travellers’ Roads Really Do Lead To Rome

After a relatively quiet first year in Rome, in terms of guests and visitors, this past year has been almost the exact inverse. It seems that as covid travel restrictions and more general travel-related anxieties have subsided, people have turned their sights to Italy in an unbelievable way.

Whereas we hosted a few family visitors in 2021, in 2022, there seemed to be multiple friends, pals, acquaintances in Rome at any given time. Throughout the summer, it was not unusual to see 2-3 people I knew post Rome pics on Facebook – at some points becoming almost impossible to keep up with. From July until the end of the year, we had a grand total of THREE weekends without visitors!

Hard to believe and not always easy to manage, but also a real blessing to see so many people, to share some of our favourite places, restaurants, activities, towns and meals, and always enjoy experiencing this beautiful place through the eyes of our guests.

Here’s just a few quick hi-lights to the year of Italy, friendship and the rediscovery of the joy of travel!

The year starts with grandma in town after a family Christmas visit
Grandpa Joseph makes his first stop in the Eternal City!
In a preview of what’s to come, Dalia’s old friends Kadi and JP pass through for a couple days
A completely serendipitous meeting with old pal Eric in the hour before we boarded our ferry to Ischia
Cousin Jacek finally pulls the trigger and comes to Italy
Our first family friend guests – Joe, Christina and Aleksander’s newest best buddy Andreas
New pals!
Dalia’s mom arrives to save the month of August!
Uncle Zaya drops by for gelato, soccer practice and some listening sessions
Farzane, Nomce, pasta and babies!
Discussing dad tips, inflation and ancient Roman architecture with awesome human Nomce
Uncle Robert and family back for birthday visit #2
Anita makes a return visit to her beloved Italy and drops in on a few of the country’s finest public pianos
Old co-worker Loic, hubby and pal passing through on a long route to Vietnam!
Dalia gets to reconnect with old friend Asma
Aunty Lydia pulls off a quick weekend stop
Cool Chris White shows us around our own town
Mom pops back in and brings everyone’s favourite aunt Terenia
Michael D passes by and drops off a Radiohead record (forever welcome!)
Big A swings through for work and sneaks in a weekend trip to Tivoli
The year ends where it started, with uncle Pauly and babcia back in town! And Aleksander saying their names

One of the reasons I was always interested in living overseas is to be able to share part of the experience with friends and family. In Rome, we’re lucky enough to have a guest room available and couldn’t be happier to share it as a landing spot for our loved ones near and far.

We may have to develop a slightly more judicious guest hosting strategy in 2023 but for all the joint memories made this year, we’re forever grateful!

Babcia and Uncle Pauly come back for Roman Christmas #2

Earlier in the year, when I suggested to my brother that we may come back to Canada for Christmas, he said: Do what you gotta do bro, but I wouldn’t be mad about coming back to Rome for another Christmas!

Rome is not a hard sell at any time of year but during Christmas it really sparkles. We welcomed my mom and brother for their second Christmas here and my mom’s third visit since our arrival.

After a day or two shedding as much jet lag as possible, we visited the temporary Christmas World mini-theme park in Villa Borghese, walked to the Christmas market at Piazza Navona and generally hung out with a sick Aleksander and played with all the toys.

My mom thankfully brought all the ingredients and know-how required to pull off another Polish Christmas meal, despite the challenges here in Italy. Aleksander welcomed his gift haul of sports gear and cars from Santa and, overall, everyone had enough time decompressing from all the concerns of the rest of the year.

Christmas Day was a real beauty and we spent some time at the playground at nearby Villa Ada and although we didn’t quite make it to the Vatican as we did last year, we shared a peaceful and wonderful family oriented afternoon and evening.

Having finally recovered from Aleksander’s week-long fever, we headed to Milan on Boxing Day for a short stay. Returning from Milan, with only two nights left in mom and Paul’s visit, we relaxed and squeezed in one more Christmas lights display at Rome’s Orto Botanico.

Closing this year off with family nearby was a real blessing. We’re always grateful to live in Rome, but maybe never more than when we’re able to share our life here with our closest friends and family. Aleksander is finally at an age where he can interact independently, form his own little relationships and make memories with the people he’s around. It was heartwarming to see nonna and zio learning about Aleksander’s tender, warm and engaging personality.

It’s always hard to say goodbye but this time it was particularly tough knowing that the next visit won’t be for a few months at the earliest. It’s one of the big trade offs of living overseas, the distance from loved ones.

The New Year is just around the corner and for us, big pending news about where our next posting will be post-summer 2023. It’s not something we’ve dwelled on particularly much but a reality that we’ll see be facing down. Upwards and onwards either way!