Wednesday definitely feels like it was a whirlwind. After a flight that seemed to wiz by (with barely any sleep), we arrived in Brussels just before 8am local time. We wasted no time in getting through border control, freshening up, and storing our luggage and so by 10am we had made it to downtown Brussels. After catching a glimpse of the Grand Place we went and found some waffles and coffee/hot chocolate for breakfast at Maison Dandy Tea Room.

Fueled with sugar and caffeine, it was time to get back to sight seeing. We started with the Grand Place and stood in awe of the beautiful guilded buildings. Then it was on to the Galeries Royales St. Huebert to do some window shopping.

Our last stop on sight seeing agenda was the Cathedral of St Michael & St Gudula which was absolutely breath taking.

 
We finished up the morning with some lace and chocolate shopping before heading to Chez Leon for muscles, frites, & beer.

By 1:30pm, we were done with our whirlwind visit to Brussels and heading back to the airport for the last leg of our journey. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we boarded our flight to Linate and managed to sleep the whole time. Luckily my cousin picked us up at the airport so we didn’t have to worry about figuring out the bus schedule. Despite our long day, we still had just enough energy left to head over to Osteria dei Fauni (my cousin’s restaurant) after we unpacked for some dinner and to spend some time with him and his wife.

He made a delicious meal which started out with a cherry tomato, burrata, & pesto salad, saluami plate, and giardiniera ( aka pickled veggies) along with some delicious homemade foccacia and fresh bread plus toasted foccacia pieces (aka croutons).

For our main course we had Veal Milanese with a tomato and green bean salad. All paired, of course, with a delicious red wine. The meal was the perfect end to a great day and an amazing way to start our time in Milan/Italy!

If you want to keep track of all my Italian adventures, be sure to keep an eye out for #ItalianSoiree2015!