Proposal Trip (March 17-26, 2006)

Meg's most recent journey to Italy, and also her last while I am studying here, begen with a trip to Milan on the day that she arrived to see Leonardo da Vinci's 'Last Supper' and an opera at La Scala. The opera was a Russian opera called Kát’a Kabanová and was a modern opera, which was interesting. The following day, we flew to Vienna, found our hotel (which was an adventure) and then grab a bite to eat for dinner. The following day, we woke up late, found lunch at an out door cafe, and wondered the city. That night, we ate dinner at the restaurant at Hotel Sacher and I proposed to Meg! I am very happy that I chose to propose where I did because it was absolutely perfect.

The following morning, we took a train to Salzburg, checked into the hotel, and again wondered the city ending at the Goldener Hirsch for dinner. The next day was our first real day of shopping on the trip because we had been unlucky with the stores being open when we wanted to shop before. A huge breakfast began our day of fun and travel yet again, as we returned to Vienna in the early afternoon. That night we took a lot of pictures of Vienna, scouted fancy stores for the next day, and cooked dinner at our hotel, pasta with a pesto sauce we bought earlier that day in Salzburg. The following day was spent shopping again, especially when we found Julius Meinl, which Meg dubbed the Temple of Food. This was an amazing graocery store in which we bought many goodies for that night, for the rest of the trip, and to take home too. After a fondu dinner, we made our way to the State Opera House in Vienna for the second big surprise of the trip: an opera by Giuseppe Verdi, 'Un Ballo in Maschera,' with a set designed by one of Meg's favorite artists, Emanuele Luzzati! We are officially spoiled forever with operas, this one was absolutely amazing, especially the set and costume design.

We spent the morning of the next day at the Sisi and Imperial Apartment Musuem at the Hofburg, returning to our hotel in time to grab our stuff to head back to Italy. Arriving late in the evening, I cooked a dinner with what I had left in the kitchen back at me dorm and I must say it turned out pretty good, though the panna and goat cheese definitely helped. We spent the next morning in Pavia and afternoon in Milan. This was the only day that we actually had rain on the entire trip, not heavy rain either, just kind of a drissle. After finding delicious gelato in Milan and purchasing Mandarina Duck luggage (spiffy), we returned to Pavia and a cooking lesson on risotto from my buddy, Matt. The last full day of the trip was spent in the center of Pavia, eating a great lunch and bar hopping for aperitivi (free food with drinks that bars in Italy give you, a wonderful thing) through Pavia, and just enjoying our last day together.

Our last adventure was the trip to the airport. Well, aparently Italy lept ahead that Sunday when Meg left, and neither of us knew. So, we missed our bus to the airport and had to take a taxi instead, which wasn't that bad considering we got to ride in a Mercedes to the airport, which was pretty cool. We arrived in time to check in and find that Meg has been bumped to a later flight. So instead of a direct flight leaving at 10.20 in the morning, she now had a connection leaving at 3.00 pm. I guess the big bonus of all of this was that I got a few more hours with her before she left.

Over all, it was a great trip, though we did have a number of close calls and near disasters. The best parts were the proposal and dinner at the Sacher, and then the opera in Vienna.