Milan, Cremona and Modena

This morning we woke to something we hadn't seen in a while - rain! It was also a little cooler in Milan this morning, which was a relief from the past few very hot days.

After breakfast we caught the
tram and headed to Budget to pick up our car, which will be our transportation for the next 2 and a half weeks. We found it easily and the process of collecting the car was also easy. We are now the proud temporary owners of a white Fiat Panda. (name yet to be decided - perhaps you have a suggestion??)

The end point of our journey today was Modena, but we had planned a stop in Cremona - birthplace of Stradivarius Violins. Shannon was clearly more comfortable and confident driving on the wrong side of the road now and we had a relaxing 1 and a half hour trip to the small, quaint town of Cremona. There is a museum dedicated to Stradivarius Violins and it was quite fascinating. We were able to see and hear many examples of the violin through the eras from as far back as the 1500s. We enjoyed a light lunch in the bistro and headed in to the historical centre of town.

We had another hour or so on the road and we arrived in Modena. We had prearranged a meeting time with the owner of the apartment we are staying in and he was right on time. Our small apartment is centrally located. We haven't had time to explore the immediate area of the apartment as yet, because we had a few things to do after we arrived. The first obstacle was to work out where to park. There are all sorts of signs around the place that tell you (in Italian) where you can and can't park and for how long. Also, some parks are painted with blue lines and some with white, indicating whether you have to pay overnight or not. Confusion. Rather than get too stressed, I messaged our host and he gave us the name of an undercover 24 hour park about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. Not ideal, but the best we're going to get. It would have, perhaps, been nice to know things like this before we arrived. It was time to wash clothes again. Fortunately Shannon had already been busy on Google and found a place nearby. The owner of the laundromat didn't speak a word of English, but between our little Italian and many hand gestures and sign language between us, we got there in the end. He was very helpful. By this stage it's nearing 7pm and we haven't eaten anything. We'd already decided to cook tonight so hit the supermarket for supplies.

The downpour from our apartment.

I can honestly say I cooked the worst meal I have ever cooked. (It was bad - Shannon) However, I won't take all the blame because the ingredients let me down. We bought beef hamburgers, a selection of salad things, cheese and bread. We both ended up eating just the salad and cheese...the hamburgers were awful! They didn't even taste like beef and the bread that looked lovely and rustic was dry and flavorless. Ick! At this point it was either laugh or cry, so we did a little of both and had another glass of red wine.

Fortunately the local Gelati shop saved the evening!

Tomorrow - foodies delight! A gourmet food tour with brunch at a winery.