We had a wonderful trip. We arrived in Milan on July 15, we had a great hotel right near the Duomo. The next day Chiara joined us from Umbria. It was so great to see her, we really missed her. On the 17 we picked up our car and drove to Ortisei in the Dolomites. The trip was a bit longer than expected, the scenic route we had chosen was slow going. Ortisei was lovely, the town is small and very pretty, the mountains surrounding it are fantastic. The hikes were long, some parts were hard but mostly doable. Chiara and Laura loved it, Nicky mostly liked walking down hill and going to the local pool. After Ortisei we started towards Umbria, breaking up the trip in Bagno di Romagna. A tiny town. Before arriving to Cristina's we stopped at Sansepolcro to see the Piero della Francesca, unfortunately it was being restored, so we just had a partial view. Sansepolcro itself is quite lovely. We finally got to Cristina's, she has such a lovely spot. Most of the apartments were rented, one of them with a German family with a girl about the Twins age. It was nice for all 3, they played in the pool together and Laura and the girl also played cards. Stella, Cristina's mother came to visit, her son Luca brought her from Rome. While in Umbria we went to visit Montefalco, a lovely town with a lovely museum and Bevagna. After Cristina's we went to visit my aunt Maria and her family. This time we brought Rachelle, Chiara's friend, with us. Maria's family lives in Fiorenzuola, a small town between Milano and Bologna. She comes from a family of farmers, her nephew, Andrea, showed us around his farm. He owns 200 cows, they produce milk for the Grana Padano cheese. I think he uses most of the milk for his own production. Unfortunately we did not get to see his cheese factory. While there he treated us to two fabulous dinners.
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