Welcome to our little home in Milano...

Wow, its been quite the week!! We have been running since we got here; lots of castings, lots of going to the agency, lots of running around Milano on the metro, trains, & busses; just catching glimpses of the city as we rush by, hurrying to the next location (usually late :) I am finally up and running with the internet service at the apartment, & seem to have fixed the bug on my computer (its been one thing after another on this trip). Really, mostly I have seen subway stations so far, but have taken a few photos: I thought I would start catching everyone up with a tour of where we are staying :)

This is walking down the street, near the apartment: we are really close to a park; lots of people are always there walking their dogs; most of the dogs wear sweaters or other cute outfits here...

This is the little alley where the entrance to the apartment is: its on the right; where the arch is. All the buildings have this big entrace door; like 12 feet tall: open during the day; you walk through to a courtyard area, & then enter into the buildings. At night the big doors are closed & locked & there is a mini-door that you access with a key; I have to duck to go though: like a hobbit door :)
This is what we see when walking through the main door; or the little door at night: we have a key to access the courtyard, & another key to access another little gate on the right; this leads to the stairs & elevator (we are lucky enough to have one). Our place is on the 4th floor...
And, this is the view from the stairwell or elevator on the 4th floor. Our apartment is to the right...

--this is my fav. part; here is Alysa walking down the little narrow sidewalk: the window right in front of her is our place :) The apartment itself is smallish, although bigger than a lot I looked at; we have a kitchen/living room & a bedroom. Its pretty basic; decorated with Ikea furniture, and tile flooring throughout. The last guests left us a few bottles of wine (which I happen to be enjoying right now), lots of rugs, & an odd assortment of italian plug-in power strip things--very handy, since there arent very many plug-ins.

More to come....will post some pics of the agency later. We are getting a bit more settled: figuring out the metro & buses, & how to order in the little cafes: I am finding that I like the really strong cappicinos with no sugar; wakes me up in the morning :) Picking up bits & pieces of Italian; they seem much more welcoming when I try to make an effort to speak the language; even though they are probably just laughing at me, lol.... Looking forward to having some time to slow down & really look around....

Ciao for now...

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