After 5th Avenue, for our last day in New York, we decided to go shopping at a place for more normal people – Macy’s!

At their original store, which they claim is the largest department store in the world. 8 floors full of name brands, regular cloths, and even restaurants.

• 

We wandered around checking it all out – coats, underwear, swimsuits – before deciding to just have lunch.

It turns out Macy’s has an excellent Italian trattoria called Stella 34 (since it is on 34th Street). We shared margherita pizza, artichoke on focaccia bread, and burrata with prosciutto.  

Enza loved it that the brick over pizza was named for Mount Etna – the volcano in Sicily!

• 

Then got serious with souvenir shopping. Enza was in the market for magnets, and we found a shop run by a Chinese couple. It was fun to watch them try to communicate (they did better than I do!) and Enza trying to bargain with them. It didn’t work, but she got a good deal anyway.

• 

That night, another cousin came over for dinner.

• 

Antoinette is Frank’s niece, who lives in Staten Island.  She learned Italian before she learned English and had visited Enza in Sicily many years ago with her mom and sister (who was at the dinner earlier this week). It was fun to listen to the two of them share family stories and try to follow along (my Italian is getting a little better every day!).

What a special week this has been!

Next up: Amtrak to Annapolis!