Fantastico!

FANTASTICO!!!!!
Parents, Romans, Countrymen & Women: It is midnight on Thursday (Milan time). We have been gone a bit over 30 hrs and we have done A LOT!
The flights were fine. A couple of misplaced passports and a whole bunch of hurry up and wait. All in all pretty smooth.
Our tour guide (Sara) was at the gate in Milano to meet us. We struggled mightily to get the cellos from the baggage claim (we opened them to check and all pieces were there) to the bus. It was hot loading the bus, but everybody pitched in – reinforcing what I already suspected in that we have a pretty good crew.
The first stop was the duomo and “wow”was the most heard explanation after laying their eyes on one of the world’s largest and ornate structures. We hoofed up the 250 stairs to the top and then we really were pooped. Gelato!
Brief visit to La Scala and then some more hurry up and wait before re-uniting with our bus and heading toward Cremona. I’ll bet the bus had not gone a mile before everyone was practicing the art of the ZZzzzzzzzzz. Into Cremona by 8PM and after the best showers in history, we showed up for our first Italian 4 course meal. The kids cleaned up nicely and we really enjoyed a fine meal of pasta, scallopini, salad and dessert.
The real fun came when about 15 of us ventured out to the “Piazza Centrale” after 10PM and found that the entire town, young and old were in the square and doing line dancing. It seemed like the “do see do” with Italian words. We even got Michael out tearin’ it up (pictures to prove it).
We will find and internet spot in the morning and post this along with a few choice pics. Kids are doing great. All of them. A few having some trouble with their ATM cards. I’ll take them to the bank and work it out in La Mattina.
What great ambassadors they are!
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Now it is noon, I am in an internet cafe in Cremona. We visited the cathedral (!!!!!!!), the collection of famous instruments and a consortium of makers where the kids all played several modern Italian instruments. They have free time to shop and find their first trattoria for lunch. Gerry is going back to hotel to get his computer and will download photos on the photo site.
So far, everything is perfecto!