Saturday, January 20, 2018

Of Arancini, Varese and Mexican Food in Milan


Friday, 19 January, 2018

It would be another sunny but crisp day in northern Italy today with lots on the agenda.

A gift from Pietro one of
our amazing Skorpions

He went to the Rams-Cardinals game in London this past season and gave me this much appreciated souvenir from the 33-0 Los Angeles victory.

GRAZIE Pietro!

Dario D'Adelfio, a Sicilian by both birth and inclination, picked me up at mid-day for a drive to nearby Olgiate Comasco to visit a couple of his favorite Sicilian bars in the village.

The Arancini at Regna delle due Sicilie
 was OUTSTANDING!

And the café was perfetto too!

While the cannoli at the second spot
were HUGE!

I opted for a brioche crema at this place, at only 1€ it was a bargain.

It was still early in the day, so after a nice mini-road trip with Dario, I asked him to drop me off at the little train station near the Villa Skorpion.

This is the stop and . . .

. . . this is the station

As timing would have it, I had just missed the train and would have to wait about 20 minutes for the next one.

In 15 minutes, the train had whisked
me away to this large station in Varese

Powerful statues above a Post Office

Great architecture

I need a closer look at this
bell tower

Colorful Pedestrian Street

Monument to Heroes

Passageway to that elusive
bell tower

 Just a few more steps

There it is next to the
Church honoring St. Victor, Martyr

This tower took nearly
160 years to build!

Construction started in 1616 and ended in 1774.

They needed a Project Labor Agreement methinks.

The Divine Mother of Love

A tribute to Varese's War Casualties

A fixer-upper

New bike, old alcove

Interesting Mural

I resisted this temptation

Truth be told, the shop was closed for lunch.

This place looked good

The next time I'm in Varese, I'll eat here.

If I can find it again.

Varese Court Building

Archer riding a bull

Isn't that an Olympic event?

Vanessa would be happy

I love these narrow pedestrian
only streets

Interesting alleyway

 Christmas dies slowly
in Varese

It was time to head home, but I got a good taste of Varese today.

Bart Iaccarino's Lazio Ducks
Italian DI schedule was announced

A rugged 12 game regular season and then the National Playoffs.

You better be in shape for this campaign Ducks.

In the evening I was invited to join former Skorpion Head Coach Giorgio Nardi and his wife Barbara for a ride into Milan where we would meet up with our Offensive Coordinator Gigi Brevin and his mate Martina and their families for dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

Parking on Milan's narrow streets
usually means invading
pedestrian territory
  
 This must be the place

A good, fun loving group
of diners

The food was good and so were the sangria, margaritas, mescal and the company.

GREAT fun tonight!

Of course the topic of American
football came up a few times

We even used coach's stationery, i.e., placemats and napkins to illustrate a few ideas.

Good times . . .

It's GREAT to be a Skorpion!

2 comments:

David said...

Almost had Mexican food in Florence once, but chickened out at the last miinute. Hope you enjoyed it.

George said...

David,

The Mexican food was solid, thank goodness.