“Just what is it that Milan is known for?” I inquired, but even as I spoke I remembered, “Oh yeah, isn’t Milan known for high fashion?”

Well, if that isn’t the understatement of the vacation! We don’t really have a chance to think too far ahead on this trip – we are one place one day and quickly moving on to the next. That morning I woke up in Athens and thought it would be a good day to wear my casual purple shirt. We had noticed that our Greek hosts were dressed in bright colors on the previous morning. Haha – it hadn’t occurred to me that we would be landing in Milan, Italy!

We wound our way through the streets of Milan – many of them more than once – as we tried to follow the directions to our hotel. Finally realizing that it would require walking, we found some underground parking. It was evening and many people were out and about for the night. Wow! There wasn’t one of them who didn’t look like they had just stepped out of a fashion magazine. I was wearing purple. Stacey was wearing green. Everyone else wore black. Tailored black.

All of that driving took time so by the time we dragged our suitcases up the stairs to street level (we chose the exit without a lift…), checked in to our hotel and located a restaurant it was after 11:00 p.m.

Our hotel was right downtown – we could see the Duomo less than a block away and we were just around the corner from the mall – I don’t have the name, but it has the flagship stores for several high end brands. I don’t care too much about that – but the people coming and going surely cared and they all looked great. We found a restaurant here that was open until midnight and were relieved that we had taken the time to change our clothes though we were still painfully underdressed. It was again fortunate that we are able to laugh at the situations in which we find ourselves. – and we looked just fine.

At midnight the city center was very much alive and we took advantage to visit the Duomo. What a gorgeous piece of architecture!! We had hoped to go inside the next day but there was not time. Our only meeting here was with a missionary couple from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We ate breakfast together on the street and enjoyed a conversation in English. The rain also joined us and has been our friend ever since.

We popped into one store at the request of Stacey’s daughter-in-law. They didn’t have what she was wanting, but we each found a couple items to help fill those second suitcases that we’ve been dragging around with us.

The rain accompanied us to Locarno, Switzerland for our meeting with Mario. He is a kind and gentle man who is passionate about music, particularly with children. We went through the details of the concert and later joined him for a rehearsal with his youth choir. These children must have been junior high through high school ages and their voices were just angelic. This is the only possible word to describe them. As they ran through their warm up exercises I closed my eyes and was completely carried away and thoughts of Mark now singing with the angels in praise of our God brought tears to my eyes. I had to work to keep my composure. Perhaps Mark was visiting this little room in Locarno with us because my emotions were running over.

The rain also accompanied us – we know that this is beautiful country but it was simply in a cloud during our entire stay.

We ranked our hotel as just barely above the ferry berths … it was rather rough. Since it was late we ate at the hotel with a very limited menu. I had polenta with gorgonzola and Stacey ate risotto with gorgonzola – both quite good as though Swiss fondue had been poured all over our plates. Later we saw other guests being served all sorts of meats, salads, soups, etc. Where was that menu? Once again we were laughing at our situation, but it turns out those lucky people did get a special menu because they were there with a film festival. Something like that.

Limited choices at dinner, a very simple hotel room from 1950 and gray, rainy weather… even the high fashion in Milan….. it simply didn’t matter compared to our afternoon with Mario and that moment of awesome wonder when those young voices carried us away. Life is full of beauty if you take the opportunity to recognize it.