Lake Como

I have found the place I want to retire! LAKE COMO! It was beautiful, and so not what I was expecting. I was thinking it was a small little town with a medium sized lake. It was gigantic. It seemed as though it was as big as Lake Powell, it just went forever in all directions. It was huge and had a ton of cute small italian towns all around it. It would take weeks to vistit all the little towns. We went to about five. We stayed in Monterosso, where I want to retire. Luke and I took the train and met my friend Lindy and her mom in Milan. Together we took a train to Como and then a bus to Monterosso. We stayed in a cute hotel, and when they left to go to Florence we stayed another night, but in a hostel (only 19 euro for both of us). It was fun to be around so many travelers. Luke was given so much attention by the people staying at the hostel, kind of a family type setting. He loved it.

On the way back from Lake Como I thought Luke and I could spend the day in Milan since I'd never been there. People have told me Milan wasn't that great and not really worth seeing, but I am so glad we went. I have seen many beautiful churches in my life, but the main church in Milan, The Duomo, was breathtaking. It literally took my breath away. I was amazing at how beautiful and big it was. I loved it. We shopped and ate and walked around for the day and then we took the night train, which was a horrible experience and I will NEVER do it again.

The night train was the cheapest option plus I thought it would be empty and we could sleep. The seats are in little rooms with six chairs that you can make into beds, but the train was full, not one seat was empty. I didn't buy Luke a ticket because I thought there would be so many empty seats. Just picture a tiny enclosed space with six seats, four were occupied by big fat Italian men, the one directly across from me was occupied by a really tall African man with such long legs, they all smelled of b.o., Luke was on my lap asleep, but moving around every five minutes, they for some reason didn't want to open the window, it was soooo hot and smelly, the men were snoring, sweating, making noises, I was in the middle, they acted annoyed by every move Luke made, and this was a 7 hour train ride! This was all after transferring from a very small town, with a tiny train station, at midnight, sitting on the dirty floor, looking like gypsies, Luke asleep in my arms, waiting for two hours for our connection to Rome. One woman offered to get Luke some food, we really looked like beggars, all to save $40. Yes I am a Harmsen, it is in my blood, I don't know why I go to such lengths to save money, but I guess there are worse character traits than being frugal.

We are back in Rome, Luke is in school. I had my first Italian lesson today. My teacher doesn't speak Italian and she is pretty funny. She just points to things in the room and says it in Italian, it's a free class so I can't expect too much. My skin has been acting very funny here, it is really red and irritated. She asked me in front of the whole class what was wrong with my skin? She went on forever telling me to go to a dermatologist, and then even had the class repeat words like dermatologist and skin in Italian. She even wrote it on the board. Now I will never forget the word pelle (skin). I was embarrassed but it was also pretty funny. I felt like I was back in Chile where they ask you about every little red mark or irritation and tell you about all the creams you should buy and all the doctors you should see.

Observation of the Week
I have observed that all the Italian children have blonde hair and blue eyes, yet the adults don't. Luke is the most Italian looking boy in his class.