Flat Stanley's Milanese adventures

My friend Nikki's daughters sent their Flat Stanley to visit us a few weeks ago. His wardrobe was perfect for fashion-conscious Milan:Stanley visited many of our major attractions, although my photos of him are substandard. I guess I need to make sure I have someone to hold future Stanleys as I take their photos.
So here he is at the Arco della Pace (which had just hosted an event and wasn't as accessible as I like it to be):He also visited Giuseppe Garibaldi at Largo Cairoli:But the taxi stand nearby was as close as he got to the Castello Sforzesco:Later he peeked over the rooftops of Bologna:He also visited Bologna's twin towers, but I forgot to send him to the top with Kevin and Laura:Back in Milan he paid a visit to Giuseppe Verdi at Piazza Buonarotti:And then we went to the famous places. You know, like the carabinieri monument in Piazza Diaz:Just kidding! It's not famous, but it is interesting. As is the tower at San Gottardo:And then there was the Duomo:And the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele:Inside the Galleria he admired the dome:Before moving on to important things. Like, you know, Prada:And Louis Vuitton:He sang some opera at La Scala:He stopped to say hi to Leonardo di Vinci in the piazza:And to Alessandro Manzoni outside San Fedele:He also hung out with the statues on the Casa degli Omenoni:(A brief aside: It's really too bad it's so incredibly difficult to get a photo of all of the statues on the Casa degli Omenoni at once -- this is only half of them -- because it's totally awesome.)
Stanley ended his tour of Milan on a modern note with a visit to Arnaldo Pomodoro's Grande Disco, which he agreed with me looks like something from Star Wars:It's totally appropriate that this is the only photo where Stanley's rainbow-striped pants really are visible, too. I think large golden futuristic modern-art discs and rainbow pants are a perfect combination. Don't you?

Why life would be easier without passport-type photos (a photo essay)

Well, first you have to calibrate the camera. After you select the bribe, that is ...Then you take a perfectly fine photo only to realize after downloading it that evidence of the bribe was left behind ...(Not pictured: The video the kid took after the camera became the new bribe.)
Silly me for assuming he knew which camera I was talking about when I said, "Look at the camera!" Several times. In an increasingly irritated voice. And maybe a few extra words I shouldn't have said ...Followed by at least four shots like this:And a few more like this:Is this my blog or TMZ's celebrity mug shot gallery?Nope, won't work either ...In other words, if any of you need any ID-type photos taken of your toddler/preschooler, I'm definitely not the person to call ...

Things I've been cooking

Somehow I haven't taken many photos recently, so you'll just have to imagine what all of these look like if you don't want to click the links to the recipes. But here goes:

People at the consulate Easter party will get to try bacon-cheese dip. I tore the page out of Southern Living many years ago but never had made it until today. It's awesomely tasty.

For this week's Girl Scout bake sale I made white cupcakes with buttercream icing. I didn't do anything fancy to them, which meant they weren't as cute as some made by others (maybe I should ask where they bought the glittery sprinkles). The extra step (and bowl required) to whip the egg whites seems to be worth it, too.

I also made Rice Krispie treats. Not that anyone really needs a recipe for those unless they're like me and never can remember the cereal-to-marshmallow ratio.

For Laura's birthday party I'd made cupcakes, too, with a different recipe I'm not going to link to because I can't find it at the moment -- and I wasn't crazy about it. But let's face it, it's hard to mess up cupcakes, and they still were decent.

I've also made Martha Stewart's bean and sausage casserole a couple of times. If only the kids would eat it ...

Everyone needs a friend to listen to their concerti

I guess this means in Owen's case, that friend is a small, badly battered Thomas the Tank Engine.

Perhaps I should commission a similar dress

I dropped by the American School of Milan this morning to drop off cupcakes and Rice Krispie treats for the Girl Scout bake sale and to conduct some transactions in the business office. On the way in and out I took notice of this "dress," which is part of the International Baccalaureate Art students' show in the atrium. (I'd like to give credit where it's due, but the students' names didn't seem to be posted with their works.) That skirt? Constructed with who-knows-how-many tickets from Milan's public transit system. I'd definitely have more than enough if I'd saved all of mine.

Two big victories: Tulips and vacuum cleaner bags

Today I bought tulips. This wouldn't be news except Laura asks every day whether we can buy flowers from one of numerous trucks parked on corners around town, but we're always on our way somewhere, or I don't have change, or I left my wallet at home because I was just coming to get her at the late bus stop.
Aren't they lovely? Except for all of those extra leaves I need to trim, I mean.
I also found the correct, Hoover-manufactured vacuum-cleaner bags I was looking for in just one try today. Perhaps I love Darty as much as I do Sephora.

Because I haven't gone on and on about a church in ages

Even people who live in Milan haven't necessarily heard of San Gottardo, although they've probably seen it. If you're in the piazza in front of the Duomo and are facing the front of the church, over to the right, behind Palazzo Reale, you see a Lombard-style tower peaking over the tops of the buildings.
The full name of the church is San Gottardo in Corte al Palazzo Reale, and it was built between 1330 and 1336. It's now owned by the city and open during limited hours. There isn't a facade -- that could be one of the reasons few people recognize it -- because it was taken down to make room for the Palazzo Reale.
But obviously the tower was saved. Here it is from the Via Francesco Pecorari side:
That street is named for the architect who designed the tower, who was from Cremona.
I don't have photos from inside the church, but there are some lovely pieces of art there. Some of them are more "modern." You know, from the 18th century. And there are some 20th-century works as well.
A random fact: Azzone Visconti originally dedicated the church to the Virgin Mary, but he changed the name because he suffered from gout and St. Gotthard was the patron of gout sufferers.
I must admit San Maurizio remains my favorite church in Milan, but I'm glad I've discovered San Gottardo. It's pretty neat.

Adventures in baking

Laura's birthday party is this weekend, and of course that means cake. She suggested they eat the cake left over from her actual birthday, but that sounded cheap -- and silly to me. So of course I decided to make cupcakes so we could re-create the rainbow effect ones from her eighth birthday.
Since I used the last box of cake mix on Sunday's cake, the cupcakes would be from scratch. Not a problem, I've done that plenty of times before. I keep all kinds of basic ingredients on hand. Butter, flour, eggs, sugar, milk, salt, baking soda, you name it.
Well, except for vanilla. I suddenly remembered having emptied a bottle of vanilla a few weeks ago, and I knew I hadn't bought any on our last trip to Vicenza. Italians don't do vanilla extract, although I knew there was a powdered variety of vanilla available in little envelopes (similar to the way individual packets of yeast are sold in the U.S.).
So, after asking around over the course of a couple of hours and being offered some of the local vanilla -- I would have ended up buying some at the grocery store if Linda hadn't had some on hand -- I decided Why not? So I mixed up the batter and everything was great. Then I reached into the cabinet to get the food coloring ...
And discovered a bottle of vanilla, with plenty still left in it, right there on the shelf. Where did it come from? Obviously the bottle I remembered emptying must have been in the distant past. Am I going crazy? I asked myself.
On the bright side, now I know where it is for later when I go to make the frosting ...

Butter, anyone?

I found this in the middle of Owen's bedroom floor last night. At least when I asked "Where is that other stick of butter?" he led me straight to it.

Florence Carnevale videos on YouTube

I finally got around to posting three videos I took on our quick trip to Florence a couple of weeks ago, which I wrote about here. You can find them on my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/newswarrior/videos.

Adventures in northern Italy: Bologna

We've been talking about going to Bologna forever, and we finally did over the weekend. It would have worked as a day trip, but we ended up spending Saturday night at the Albergo Centrale, which was great. It also had the best breakfast of any hotel I can remember.
Lucio Dalla, a prominent Italian musician, died last week. He was from Bologna, and his funeral was being held in San Petronio on Sunday. We didn't realize that when we arrived, but Piazza Maggiore was packed with people paying their respects (and lining up to see his casket) every time we walked through. The photos here show the crowds much better than any of the ones we took.
Bologna is more famous for its food than its sites, and we had a great lunch Saturday at Taverna dei Lords, where I had delicious ravioli with artichokes. There were plenty of non-artichoke options for the rest of the family, too.
In terms of sites, Bologna doesn't have one big must-see. There are lots of smaller cool-to-see places, though, such as the archaelogical museum. It claims to have one of Europe's most important Egyptian collections, but of course all of the museums make that claim. There are some interesting artifacts, though.
The museum also has an interesting Etruscan section that focuses on the area around Bologna. I've decided I need one of these for my house:
We enjoyed visits to St. Cecilia and San Petronio, but no photos are allowed in either. And the facade of San Petronio is covered, keeping me from getting a photo of the St. Ambrose there.
But we did see the Neptune fountain a few times:
Kevin and Laura climbed the Torre Asinelli:
Santa Stefano was my favorite of the churches:
Although St. Dominic's tomb by Pisano at San Domenico is pretty neat:
By the time we got to the medieval museum, Owen was pretty much over it all. You'd never believe it from this photo, though, would you?

The Laura turns 11

Yesterday was my tiny girl's birthday. We were in Bologna for a couple of days, not just because of her birthday, and had dinner with some friends after we got back last night. Her presents so far include a game (that she picked out at the P/X in Vicenza last week), a stuffed animal she picked out (because apparently she has no plans to outgrow those), lip gloss (I might do a whole post on why I, who hardly wear real makeup anymore, love Sephora), and an Inter Milan jersey (because apparently she's an Interista, which you can Google if you don't know what I'm talking about).
This photo was taken with our new Canon EOS Rebel T3. At least I think that's what it's called. Maybe soon I'll do a post on my thoughts on the switch to DSLR, although I don't want to get too far ahead of myself ...