It rained.

That is my bad Hemingway imitation. It is also the title of this entry because we've been seeing lots of rain the past 3 days.

After checking out in Milan, we went back to the center of town to walk along some of the Quadrilatero d'Oro, where many designers have their Milan stores. We did some window shopping and saw plenty of fancy names with prices to match (that's 1,200 Euro for the dress).

We then walked back to the Galleria and ate lunch there, followed by some gelato. It rained off and on the whole afternoon, which made it feel very Hemingway-esque.

We took a late afternoon train to Verona and then Trento. We had the chance to nap, catch a glimpse of Lake Garda (I couldn't get a good photo from the train window, unfortunately), and stay dry.

We woke up the next morning to more rain, not just sporadic showers like in Milan the day before, but a full -on steady pour. We had been watching the weather reports, so it wasn't a surprise. We were even proactive and had packed an umbrella. However, we weren't proactive enough to consider that we might need two, given that my husband was at his conference and my daughter and I wanted to leave the hotel. We sent my husband with the umbrella so that he could stay dry in his professional wear and went out to buy a second one. We met again after lunch and decided to visit the Diocesan museum because a) they have paintings of the Council of Trent (the city's big historical event) and b) we would stay dry. We had a couple of close calls where my daughter almost touched a centuries-old painting, but disaster was averted. Although she didn't seem terribly interested in the art, she kept saying that she wanted to paint. We didn't have any paint, but we did break out the crayons, coloring book, and sketch pad back at the hotel. The rain continued.

We woke up the next day to find more rain. This had been the day that we had set aside for a visit to Lake Garda, but we decided against it because of the weather. Instead, we visited the Castello de Buonconsiglio, the castle where the meetings for the Council of Trent were held. My daughter seemed to like this castle better than Castell Sforzesco in Milan because there were balconies;

it also helped that we went inside instead of just walking around it. She was disappointed to learn that princesses did not live there (the castle was a home for bishop-princes), but when she saw some portraits of assorted noblewomen, she snapped several photos of the "princesses" with her kiddie camera!

We enjoyed the castle, but the best part was that the rain stopped while we were there. It has been dry ever since, so we're hoping for at least some respite from the wet travels.