A little background…my dear husband turns forty next month, and I had been working behind the scenes to try to whisk him off to Italy for a brief trip.  I renewed my passport, and began planning for flights across the ocean without his knowledge.  Unfortunately the trip was torpedoed by his work and also a family vacation that we hoped to take to Florida (which ended up not happening, also).  I made peace with the fact that we might do it another time.

Then David was moved from his project of four years’ time onto another focus at work.  This project led him to a business trip in Amsterdam.  He schemed to get a flight from there to Milan and we purchased a ticket for me to join up with him there.  It ended up being the very same weekend that I had originally planned for.

For those of you who don’t know, we have dear friends who live in Italy nine months out of the year.  Jobey is a UNCC grad who plays professional ball in Italy, and Kristin and their girls are experienced travelers as they make the trek back and forth from the states a couple times a year.  They always spend their summers here in Charlotte.  They were really the purpose of our visit — a tour of Italy can wait for when the kids are a bit older and they come with us 🙂  We wanted to get to know their life in Italy, meet their friends, and watch a game.

I arrived in Italy on Friday morning. Since I landed in Milan, my flight took me right over the Alps. It was breathtaking! David was already there with Jobey and Kristin, come to fetch me at the airport.

That night Kristin took us on a walk around the center of their city, Varese.

I loved the shop windows 🙂