Lombardy - Milan, Lake Como & Bellagio

Our back-to-back train journey from Lucca to Milan via Florence went almost without a hitch, except that we almost got on the wrong train at Florence when they switched platforms 5 minutes before departure time. Mad rush to change platforms, not made any easier with cigarette-touting women who just feel the need to stand in your way. Italian travelling rule #35 : the more urgent your rush, the more women with cigarettes who stand in your way.

Arrived in Milan and a feature of our itinerary was that the hotel was “supposed” to be a 5 minute walk from the station. Unfortunately, road construction activities prevented us from crossing the road and we couldn’t see how to get across. So we went back to the taxi rank, but the taxi driver refused to take us : “It’s-a just-a cross-a da road-a round-a da corner-a – 5 minuta”. So we set off on this famous 5 minute walk and after half an hour, had to admit we were lost and stepped into a lunch bar to ask for directions, sweat streaming down our faces. We finally got to the hotel, not before I thanked God that I had at least asked a taxi driver. Imagine the reaction from my red-headed travelling companion if I had taken it into my own head to do the walk? “I told you we should have taken a taxi……..” for the next 5 years.

Anyway, we made it on time to our pre-booked city tour and had a fabulous tour, including a visit to La Scala, the main "Duomo" cathedral (one of the most impressive cathedrals we’ve ever seen) and, of course the highlight, Da Vinci’s painting of “The Last Supper”. No sign of the code though.

With still some juice left in the tanks, we started the city shopping tour at 6.30 pm lead by guess who, before finally conceding defeat for the day a couple of hours later by falling into a homely-looking restaurant for dinner.

Friday morning, I did a dangerous thing : I agreed for Sue and I to separate for 2 hours – she was going to do the shops while I went up onto the roof of the Duomo. Luckily, by the time we met at 1.00 pm, neither of us had done much damage (to either ourselves or our wallets). So, a quick lunch, back to the hotel to pick up our bags and this time a true 5 minute walk to the station (having done a dry run without bags in the morning).

After much confusion, we got onto the right train to Saronno, where we changed to a train to Como. At Como, we bought our bus tickets to Bellagio and patiently waited for the bus in front of the green benches, as advised by the ticket lady. Only after we missed the bus did we realise there where green benches on both sides of the road! Durr….. Anyway, the next bus came 35 minutes later and we had an adventurous 50 minute ride to Bellagio. The roads are so narrow and you think the bus is either going to collect the oncoming car or else the rock face on the other side.

Lovely stately hotel, 50 metre high ceilings, marble stairs, timber paneled foyers and a room with a view over the lake – postcard-like. Found a lovely restaurant on the edge of the lake – only the violins were missing, but the fresh fish from the lake weren’t so lucky – Gerry ate them.

Bellagio and Lake Como are like a continuous postcard – magnificent mountains rising majestically out of the lake with houses and villages dotted all over the place, especially along the lake’s edge.

Saturday : Walked the shops and streets of Bellagio and took the high speed hydrofoil to Como. Strolled the streets and met Julie Carn for lunch (she’d travelled all the way from Verona to met up with us for the day). Back to Bellagio by bus and had great pizzas, handicapped by 300 steps to get to the pizzeria.

Sunday (Sue’s birthday). Had a “day off” and took a leisurely river cruise down Lake Como to a small village called Torno that has a lovely restaurant on the shore (recommended to us by hotel clerk in Milan). Beautiful lunch in a postcard setting, followed by a cruise back to Como where we again caught the bus back to Bellagio after the hydrofoil failed to start (mechanical problems). We are starting to get used to the 1 hour hair-raising bus ride.

This ends our sojourn in Italy with a big travelling day tomorrow – Bellagio to Vienna, relying on bus, train and ‘plane connections to all work. Watch this space……

Interior of La Scala

The most beautiful Duomo in Milan - took 500 years to build

Checking out the roof of the Duomo - they hold concerts here

Da Vinci's Last Supper

Bellagio on Lake Como

Typical waterfront along Lake Como

View from hotel room at Bellagio

Dinner view at dusk from our dining table in Bellagio on the foreshore

On the Bellagio foreshore

Lunch with Julie Carn in Como

The lovely village of Torno on Lake Como

Birthday girl celebrating lunch in Torno

A Lot of Sightseeing Under The Tuscan Sun

On Sunday, we packed up and undertook a more modest double connecting train ride from La Spezia to Lucca in Tuscany, our new base for 4 nights. We now know many of the (common) tricks of using the Italian rail system, although I’m sure we don’t know them all.

Lucca is a beautiful ancient Roman town, established hundreds of years BC and boasts the only still-intact complete city wall in Italy.

We spent the afternoon strolling through the small and narrow (almost car-less) streets of the old city. Our hotel is an old and elegant regal establishment, situated at the epi-centre. Our room faces onto a public square where a huge temporary stage (and gigantic loudspeakers) has been erected to host the series of summer concerts here. Luckily we missed Duran Duran who had performed the night before we arrived and the next concert is not scheduled until after we leave.

On Monday, we took a 30 minute train ride to Pisa where we explored the city and went to the famous tower. We photographed it from all angles (except vertical) and reflected on our last visit here, some 35 years ago.

On Tuesday, we went to Florence by bus (approx 50 mins) and were rather disappointed as the city is right now at the peak of the tourist season and it was like a feeding frenzy with hardly an inch to spare anywhere. Street hawkers, sidewalk stands and an impossible crush of people meant that our visit was more of a chore than a pleasure. I think that other tourists are a nuisance to us genuine tourists.

On Wednesday, we went on an organised tour to Siena and San Gimignano. Despite the presence of a “reasonable” number of tourists, these were delightful towns to visit. Siena, a medieval city with a long history BC, has the most impressive town square facing the town hall in all of Europe and one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Italy. San Gimignano, being much smaller, has only one main street (all lined with gift shops), two towers but boasts the two best gelato outlets in the world. We tried them both (including the recommended Cinnamon flavour), but couldn’t separate them.

Food? Whilst we miss the French bread and cheeses, we are relishing the pizzas and coffee in Italy. Each country to its own.

This ends our sojourn in Tuscany and we head off to the big smoke of Milan tomorrow (Thursday).

Sue livening up the main square in Lucca

Our humble lodgings in Lucca

Things aren't really as white as they appear here in Pisa

No shortage of leather belts in Florence

The magnificnet Duomo in Florence. Pity about the tourists

Ponte Vecchio in Florence - all that glitters is sold from here

The splendid cathedral in Siena (includes works by Michaelangelo inside)

The main square in Sienna - they hold a horse race around it twice a year

The boring countryside of Tuscany

Sue took a shine to this man in San Gimignano - would that I be so lucky

Having difficulties holding onto one's gelati

It was worth the 10 minute queue

Welcome to Italy and the coast of Liguria

Wednesday 18^th July : We checked out of the Nice hotel and started our ambitious 3 connecting train journey into Italy, changing at Ventimiglia and Genoa. The Italian train system offers so much, but delivers a lot less in terms of catering for elderly tourists with heavy bags full of womens’ clothing and shoes. Each station requires the bags to schlepped down and then up a flight of stairs to get to the right platform – each time praying it was the right platform. Journeys like this are rather ambitious in a foreign country, relying on a number of assumptions for their success. One such assumption is that the train arrives at the changover station before the next one departs. Another assumption is that the seat you booked and paid for actually exists (one that we discovered cannot be relied upon) and another that you might find some space for your suitcases other than your lap – an assumption we had to fight for to ensure its realisation.

Anyway, we did eventually arrive at La Spezia Centrale railway station and after we lifted all our heavy bags down onto the platform, we had to promptly lift them back on again because we had disembarked on the wrong side of the train (the maintenance platform side). So much for being first off the train!

We have used La Spezia as our base for 3 days and have done some lovely trips from here. On Thursday, we used the ferry boat service to visit Portovenere, a lovely historic town in a magnificent position on a headland with a fortified castle as its centre-piece. We then caught the ferry again to visit Riomaggiore, the southern-most of the 5 towns that make up the Cinque Terre group of towns. Carved into the side of the hills and overlooking the Mediterranean, each of the towns has a unique feel and culture of its own. After lunching there, we walked the 25 minute Via dell’Amore (lovers’ pathway) to the next village of Manarola. The path has been carved into the side of the cliff face and is littered with thousands of padlocks attached to things and engraved with peoples’ names to signify their love for each other – graffiti disguised as romance?

We then took the ferry to Vernazza before catching the last ferry of the day back to La Spezzia.

We found the best restaurant in town, based purely on observation of popularity and the fact that it was virtually booked out, and had the best ever pizzas – the crusts were so good, you could just about eat them without any topping.

On Friday, after missing our train because (a) the ticket machine didn’t work (for us), and (b) the ticket window queue was so long, we changed plans and visited the northern-most of the Cinque Terre towns, Monterossso. This is the largest and most modern of the 5 towns and has the best (by Italian standards) beaches. After exploring the town, we had a lovely lunch on the headland overlooking the paid area of the beach – the area you have to pay to enter and you get a deck chair and an umbrella. (You need to supply your own thongs to walk on the pebbles of the beach.)  

On Saturday, we did what we had planned to do the previous day and caught a train to Santa Margherita, a charming town with a beautiful backdrop of mountains. This is the gateway to Portofino, just 5 km around the corner and one of the most exclusive and beautiful towns we’ve seen. The scale of the luxury residences dotted around the hillside overlooking the water and the sheer opulence of the private and charter cruise boats there was just mind-boggling.

On the way back to La Spezia, we called into see Corniglia, the last of the 5 Cinque Terre towns that we hadn’t yet visited. When we got off the train, we missed the sign that said this is where to catch the bus up to the town, so instead we hiked up 382 steps and worked up a decent sweat and missed our train back. The climb, however did us good and also gave us terrific views.

Back at La Spezia, we enjoyed fantastic pizzas, followed by limoncello as our last meal in Liguria.

My own Caffe in La Spezia

Pizzas by the diameter

The waterfront of La Spezia

Portovenere

The castles and fortifications of Portovenere



Some of the love padlocks on the Via Dell'Amore



The Cinque Terre town of Riomaggiore

The Cinque Terre town of Vernazza

The Cinque Terre town of Corniglia

The Cinque Terre town of Manarola

Some of the 382 steps to Corniglia

The range of boats at Portofino - the small one was more in our league



The beachfront at Monterosso, one of the Cinque Terre towns



Portofino - only for the mega-rich

The magnificent church at Santa Margherita

The Fabulous Cote D'Azur

We departed the cruise boat in Avignon on Sunday morning and headed for the train station to catch the high speed TGV train to Nice. The first of our numerous bad experiences saw the train delayed and we wasted a good part of the day just waiting.

Nice was buzzing and our hotel is right on the foreshore in the centre of things. We got our bearings, did a bit of walking and had a leisurely dinner.

On Monday we decided to have a day in Cannes, just 40 minutes west by train. The second bad experience was trying to buy tickets from machines that would only accept coins or credit cards (not Euro notes) and nobody was prepared to cash our 20 euro note for coins. When our credit card didn’t work in the machine, we were faced with a half hour queue to the ticket counter. Eventually, we got our debit card to work. That whole business meant that we missed our train and faced an hour’s wait for the next one, but in between, we had to leave the station when it was evacuated due to some security issue. So there we were, outside the Nice railway station, eating a sandwich (surrounded by the ubiquitous smokers) and waiting for a later train that was itself being delayed by the station closure.

Finally made it to Cannes and spent the day waiting outside of ladies clothes and shoe shops – the only relief came when the shops happened to be opposite the beach and I could do a check of how many girls seemed to have forgotten their bikini tops at home. Sue said I could look, but didn’t like it when I pointed to them to show them who I was looking at. She also told me that I should try to keep my mouth closed and not to let my tongue hang out (I was just trying to dry my mouth out).

Back in Nice again, we had a lovely dinner in a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet (lucky to get in). Sue had tripe and Gerry had Lentils and suasages!

Tuesday : Did a half day visit to Monaco / Monte Carlo – just over-awed by the wealth – wall-to-wall Ferraris, Lambo’s, Porsches, Aston Martins and Bentleys. Land costs A$67,000 per square metre here, Didn’t want to stand still for too long as we couldn’t afford the rent on the piece of pavement we were standing on. In the afternoon, back in Nice, Sue had her nails done and Gerry went on a Segway ride (each to our own). In the evening we had dinner with Charles and Mary, 2 Americans from Chicago who we had met on the cruise. We ate at a restaurant called Le Bistro Gourmand in the old town and this was a memorable experience for our last meal in France.

Monte Carlo - indecent wall-to-wall wealth

Fabulous views along the coastline

Amazing garden and lookout at Eze, between Nice & Monaco

At the beachfront in Cannes

No shortage of ladies shoe shops here.....

With Charles and Mary on our last night in Nice

Sue's tripe was the best she'd ever eaten

The Segway ride was fantastic

It's really just a toy - right?

The view from our hotel room in Nice

Sue with her mussels in Nice

In front of the famous casino at Monte Carlo