As we approach Christmas Eve, Christmas day and the holidays, I am thinking about Milan and all of the Christmases I have spent there. As visions of Christmas dance in my head I read thew news that a police trainee in Sesto San Giovanni was able to stop the man who was allegedly responsible for the attack in Berlin on Monday. What a world, I hate to think of what he was doing in Italy and what else was planned.

While not considered Italy’s most beautiful city, Milan creeps into your heart and is today considered to be an international city of sorts after the Expo and all the new buildings.

As a New Yorker, it’s not the new buildings that interest me but the old such as Sant’Ambrogio where I once spent a beautiful Christmas Eve with friends listening to Mass. I know all of my Italian friends met tonight for an apertivo to toast the holidays. I am sure they are toasting with Prosecco, a Franciacorta, likely Berlucchi if in a bar or Ferrari.

I raise a glass to all of them! Buone Feste Amici Miei!!