Pavia

The picture shows the latest fashion from Milan. I just wanted the ladies to know before anyone else. I got one of the hats for Mary Ellen.

Well, today was not one of the best so Mary Ellen decided not to post a message, leaving it to me. It may not have been great but any day here has something. We decided to go to Pavia a city south of Milan and especially to go to Certosa di Pavia, one of the must see places in Italy according to Michelin. It is a Cistercian monastery outside the city. Pavia, which has the University where Leonardo studied, was nice and we enjoyed using our Italian to get around. The first person we asked for directions turned out to be an American student studying there (who knew as much as we did) but we eventually talked with an older Italian man who brought us to the place we were looking for. It is nice to be able to ask someone directions and have them not say, “Oh, American?”. Anyway the man told us much more than we understood but we learned a little and we all enjoyed it.

The downside of the day, besides driving in the unbelievable traffic here both on and off the Autostrade, was Certosa. It was very quiet around the monastery, and then we found out that it was closed. Many of you probably know that museums and such are often closed on Mondays here, but we had made “certain” about this place. The guidebook and the monastery website both said “open every day”. Of course they meant “every day but Monday, you dumb tourist.” Such is life. I guess we now have a reason to come back. And tomorrow will be better.