I am a firm believer that it doesn’t matter where you travel to, the magic happens when you travel with best buds to enhance the journey! Marianne is on vacation and is visiting her family in Sweden. I was incredibly fortunate to get on this Milan trip with my SFO buddies who I call family. We have flown together in SFO for over 30 years. We have been through so much together….boyfriends, husbands, children, pets, sicknesses and loss, but at the end of the day we have laughter. Through it all, we have always been San Francisco Strong!! We have each other’s back!

First stop after our nap, was to the local grocery store. I am no foodie, but these girls know their stuff. A few of the items that they bring back home are dry pasta, olive oil and cheese. After a successful shopping experience, we headed back to the hotel to have a debrief. (A debrief in Flight Attendant jargon means we go to one of our rooms and have a beverage of some sort and snacks to discuss our next plan of action.)

Debrief complete. Game plan decided. We are ready to tackle Milan.

We jumped on the Metro to go see Duomo di Milano.

It was so impressive. The Duomo is the largest Gothic Church in the world and the largest church in Italy. It is a Cathedral that is home to the archbishop of Milan. It has 3,400 statues , plus marble figures stand all over the cathedral. It took 600 years to complete.

Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square) is the main piazza (city square) of Milan.

The mall, named La Rinascente, is situated right next to the Duomo in the Piazza del Duomo. It has 4 floors with stylish department stores with the best brands of fashion and much more.

It was time for dinner. We were going to an Italian Restaurant that was recommended by another flight attendant. The walk through the town felt magical. I loved all the cobblestone streets.

It was a delicious Italian dinner at a nice restaurant with sidewalk seating. I had spaghetti, but the girls who love seafood had an incredible plate..seafood over linguini. To our surprise it had a delicious crust covering the seafood.

Time to get back to the hotel. It was an unforgettable day spent with my dear friends.

Our night was not over yet, Beth had a surprise for us. She has a dear friend that owns a restaurant across the street from our hotel. It’s closed on Sundays, but he opened it just for us to have a nightcap! That’s Italian hospitality for you!!

We had to get up early the next day to fly our 8 hour flight back to New York. Like the SFO tradition the flight was full of laughter.

Being silly, the 5 of us squished into the crew bunk area for a photo shoot! We couldn’t even move! I’m sure the passengers were shocked when we all piled out from this hidden door.

This is our beautiful view from our office. This trip was definitely full of new footprints and memories from Milan. I am very blessed to have such wonderful coworkers that became dear friends. Sometimes all you need is a great friend and thirst for adventure to make life more fun.

CIAO