Milano: piove

A few weeks ago, I watched a slow Italian video about the rain. I didn't expect that I would be needing the vocabulary from that video, but the events of the past few days - and today - proved me wrong. I didn't realise that it was raining (a polite rain) outside until I was in the hotel's breakfast room that is on the top floor of the hotel and has a panoramic view of the not particularly salubrious neighbourhood. I saw people below walking around with umbrellas. Fortunately I have kept my umbrella from Menaggio.

We didn't have plans for this morning save visiting a laundromat and doing some groceries shopping. The laundromat turned out to be a professional laundry and ironing service that would have cost us an arm and a leg; they also don't wash underwear. It's just as well that we don't really need the service; it was simply to help pack the clothes in the suitcase. Grocery shopping in Carrefour was a warm haven from the slightly cold rain outside. They have a small selection of books for sale, so I checked the Gs and found a few copies of 'La Via del Male', aka 'Career of evil', the third Cormoran Strike novel. I didn't bother buying a copy.

By lunchtime the rain ceased, so in late afternoon we took the metro to the I Navigli district. Bars and restaurants line both banks of the main canal, but to be honest, these are tourist traps. I ate my first (and probably only) ice cream of this visit at the only gelatteria that I saw. Unfortunately the ice cream left me feeling slightly queasy and nauseous, so I didn't bother eating dinner.

Breakfasts in this hotel are very filling; I probably eat enough in the morning to last me for the rest of the day. All the walking is adding to my basal metabolic rate so I would not be surprised if I have lost weight on this trip. On the other hand, I am not eating enough roughage. Saturday: 14,690 steps and 629 calories; Sunday: 18,732 steps and 839 calories; today 'only' 11,754 steps and 499 calories.

When we had taken our fill of the canal area, we walked back to the Porta Geneva metro station, only to find that the entrance from which we had previously exited was barred. I looked for the main entrance and eventually found it; as we were descending, someone stopped my wife and told her not to bother going down into the station as THE METRO IS ON STRIKE! OMG! How do we get back to the hotel? Fortunately a few taxis pulled up, so we were able to get a ride with one of them. We talked to the driver who told us that the strike is only for today; he suggested a few activities for tomorrow. 

After the problems that we encountered in getting from Malpensa to Milano, and from the train station to the hotel, we decided to take a taxi directly from the hotel to the airport and damn the cost. Via the internet this would have cost at least 95€ ; we closed a deal with this taxi driver for 110€ . Better safe than sorry. Our flight doesn't leave until 10 pm tomorrow, so we don't have to be there before 7 pm. This gives us a whole day to fill.

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This day in history (again):

Blog #	Date	Title	Tags
247	06/05/2010	White coat syndrome	Business novel
478	06/05/2012	ERP beats Excel at CRM	ERP, Excel
1027	06/05/2017	Televison detectives	TV series, DCI Banks
1755	06/05/2024	First lie wins	Literature