{"id":5918,"date":"2026-09-13T10:26:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T14:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/?p=5918"},"modified":"2026-09-13T10:28:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T14:28:20","slug":"lago-maggiore-and-milan-day-4-august-30th-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/?p=5918","title":{"rendered":"Lago Maggiore and Milan, Day 4 \u2014 August 30th, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>On this day we said good-bye to France and hello to Italy! Jose-Maria drove the four of us, with our luggage and the sandwiches that he had made for us, to the station. We marveled at the Alps we saw from the train’s windows, eating our sandwiches along the way.\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some hours later, we arrived in Milan, where we got a train to Stresa, on the mainland of Lago Maggiore. We arrived at our hotel at 4 PM. \u00a0Agn\u00e8s and Jose-Maria had made the reservations, and once in our room, we took a brief nap. It was brief because I wanted to get outside and begin exploring everything.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Agn\u00e8s and Jose-Maria enjoy swimming. They explored the \u00a0possibility of swimming in the lake, but the ground beneath our feet at the beach \u00a0consisted of slippery rocks that made the thought of getting into and out of the water unpleasant. Instead they swam in the hotel’s pool.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While they swam, Nick and I \u00a0went for a walk. I had brought along a sweater in case I felt \u00a0chilly, \"\"<\/a>but I didn’t need it, because \u00a0feeling chilly never happened during the entire trip. \u00a0We agreed that \u00a0the main street in Stresa, called Corso Umberto<\/em>, with its huge, impressive hotels, \u00a0looked like an old TV show called Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. <\/em>However, \u00a0<\/em>just a few streets away, the locals were buying food and wine from individual shops.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We came upon a plaque dedicated to Robert Baden Powell, founder of the Scouting movement. Our son, Nicholas is an Eagle Scout.<\/p>\n

We happened upon a gelateria<\/em>, where we shared a snack. At home we would typically choose one flavor of gelato, while here we \u00a0were expected to choose two. We settled on lemon and stracciatella, which is vanilla with \u00a0strands of drizzled chocolate. It was delicious and very refreshing.<\/p>\n

Jose-Maria had consulted his phone to find a restaurant where the four of us could have dinner. He found a one called \u00a0il Vicoletto<\/em> that had very good rating a few blocks away and, he made a reservation.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition to technology, Nick and Jose-Maria have many things in common. They are never bored, because they both have many interests and hobbies. Before dinner, we discussed one of J-M’s passions, the Beatles. His daughter Alexandra had made arrangements for a trip to Liverpool for Christmas for the two of them, and he \u00a0absolutely loved it. We agreed that rather than exchanging physical gifts with our adult children, spending time together is a much more meaningful gift.<\/p>\n

The four of us shared two appetizers: spinach “pudding” with Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and grilled octopus. Both were outstanding! For our main courses, Nick and Jose-Maria chose sea bream, and Agn\u00e8s and I both chose night’s special, homemade tagliatelle pasta with locally harvested mushrooms. Dessert was whipped \u00a0yogurt with fresh strawberries and grapes over a plain cookie, not fancy or rich, \u00a0but absolutely perfect! The entire dinner was incredibly delicious.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After dinner, the four of us strolled along the \u00a0cobblestone streets \u00a0to our hotel. When we approached a hat shop, Agn\u00e8s realized that she had left her sun hat at home, so she bought a charming one. As we continued, we heard music being played on street corners by locals. What a lovely day it had been!<\/p>\n

9,899 steps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On this day we said good-bye to France and hello to Italy! Jose-Maria drove the four of us, with our luggage and the sandwiches that he had made for us, to the station. We marveled at the Alps we saw from the train’s windows, eating our sandwiches along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lago-maggiore-milan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5918"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5961,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions\/5961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}