Summer Vacation Part E

June 16: Drive to Lake Como

We drove several hours to get to Lake Como, but it was beautiful!

After we checked into our hotel room, we took a boat ride from Como to Bellagio. This is what the hotel in Vegas is designed after. And it is such a cute city! Again we ate some tasty, tasty pizza for lunch and everyone got gelato!

When we thought there could be no cars!

The cutest husband ever!

 We got back in time for dinner and watched one of the soccer games on TV.

June 17: Milan

Happy Father’s Day! We woke up early and decided to hike to this old castle. Good thing my dad doesn’t need a map or directions, but we found it! And it was a beautiful view!

With the Chief!

We rushed back to get ready, and rode with the group to Milan. This is the mall we were dropped off at. Not your ordinary looking mall huh?

This is the church. And it is the third largest Christian church. Its unbelievable! The details on everything are exquisite.  

Inside, when we walked in we saw the end of mass. And our guide told us that the stain glass windows on the right side are original and they let in more light. The glass on the left side was replaced and painted because the original windows were shattered due to bombing.

We took a taxi to try to see Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, but we couldn’t get tickets. But this is the building and the church that are next to it. We were able to read some interesting history about the painting though – in most paintings of the last supper it is easy to tell which is Judas, but in Da Vinci’s painting he wanted all the light to be on Christ, and it is supposed to be right after he tells them that one of them will betray them, so they all have looks of confusion. During one of the wars, the room where the painting is was converted into a stable for the horses!

We were also able to go into the Opera house! W.O.W! it was beautiful! Here is one of the rooms just out side, which would have been used for intermission or for showing off the fancy dresses and mingling.

We did some shopping and then made our way to the softball field for our final two games! For the first game the two America teams played against each other. I played short stop and again had some excellent plays and no errors. I hit a change-up to the first baseman, but then had a solid line drive to right field. We won 4-0!

The "Stars" and "Stripes"

Team "Stripes" - the winners!!

We then had a dinner break while the other team played Milan. Then it was our turn. Milan had a pitcher who used to play for the University of Hawaii and she was awesome! I sat the first two innings, but played the last three and did well. And I also just had one walk. It was such a fun day to end my fast pitch softball career on.

This was such a great experience and it was so fun to meet girls from all over the country and play some ball with them. We were able to see so much and learn so many things! A huge thanks to all those who helped us be able to get to this point in our lives to come here and see Italy in this way! Ciao!