Today* we began our biannual pilgrimage to Italy. We had decided this time to visit the north of Italy, primarily Lake Como and Milan. The dates were very constrained, by the passover festival on one hand, independence day on the other hand, and hotel availability on the gripping hand. So we start on 30 April for slightly over a week.
This morning began as planned: the alarm went off at 2:30 am and the taxi picked up us at 4 am. Whilst waiting in the queue for check-in, we were plucked out of line (as my wife was using one of her Nordic walking sticks) and taken directly to a special check-in line where we passed straight through. A bit of walking and then we came to the hand luggage check; again we were diverted into a shorter queue and passed through this quickly. As a result, we found ourselves in the departures hall at 5 am when we had to be at the gate at 7:05. The next two hours passed at a reasonable pace, and when we got to the gate, again we bypassed the queue and were among the first people to get on to the plane. As such, there was no problem finding room in the overhead storage space for our hand luggage - one of my wife's fears. I took out my headphones and kobo and settled down for take off.
It took a while for me to notice, but the waiting period was much longer than it should have been. Eventually the captain came on the intercom and announced that due to technical problems, we would have to transfer to another plane. Groans all around. So we went through the usual deplaning process and walked to another gate in the terminal. After about half an hour's wait, we began getting onto the plane; this time I was almost at the front of the queue, so no special treatment was necessary.
<<------------ uneventful plane ride of 4.5 hours --------------------->>
Once in Malpensa airport, we passed through passport control, picked up our suitcase then walked some distance to the train station where I bought tickets then waited for the soi disant Malpensa express to take us to Milano Centrale station. This was very much not an express train and stopped at several stations, so it took nearly an hour to get to the final stop. The Milano train station was packed full with people, so navigating it was problematic. Eventually we fought our way through the crowds and found somewhere where we could wait while I bought tickets to Varenna. Although I tried with an automatic ticket machine, Varenna was not one of the predefined destinations, so I had to find the ticket office. This took some time as the station is huge with several floors; eventually I found what I was looking for. A very nice lady sold me return tickets to Varenna and asked whether both passengers were over 65 years old. When I replied in the affirmative, she said that we were entitled to a discount. The tickets that she sold me were in a different format to those from two years ago so I couldn't easily check their details. Apparently each ticket - return - cost 5.70€; this seems a very low price**, especially considering that each one way ticket from Malpensa cost 13€.
The train was scheduled to leave at 4:20pm, so we had time for a slice of pizza (somewhat different from the Israeli slice) and a cup of tea. Although I tried to order in Italian, the waitress asked me to speak English. So much for Italian lessons. At about 4pm we went to the track where the train was waiting; it took some time to find a pair of adjacent empty seats. By the time the train left, it was at about 133% capacity; many people were standing. But quite a few got off at the first stop, Monza, and more got off at the second stop, Lecco; this was a normal suburban train that perchance happens to stop at Varenna, the fourth stop.
When we alighted, we were in for a surprise: there was no real platform and no real way to get to the other side, which is of course where we exited the station. Some people (including myself) simply walked across the rails whereas others queued to walk across a crossing. Once out of the 'station' (there is no station as such), we saw the taxi stop that had no taxis waiting. So we had to walk - with the luggage - to the hotel; this was a pleasant 10 minute walk down hill, but there's no way that I'll do this in reverse. We'll ask the hotel to order us a taxi.
During this time, ferries were constantly arriving and departing; when we
arrived there were plenty of people on the promenade (including one girl who
looked remarkably like how I think the singer Rihanna looks, although probably
doesn't) but as the hours went on, the crowds thinned until the ferries
stopped running (8 pm?).
By the time we had finished, it was almost dark, so we stopped at the
restaurant by the side of the hotel and finished off the day with a fine meal
of fried mixed fish from the lake with vegetables. As a result of all this, we
saw Varenna at its best in the sun.
Once back in the hotel, we discovered that finally we had an internet
connection (it was off when we arrived) so we were able to connect and
download many whatsapp messages from our children, whose tone became more and
more worried as the day went on. I immediately sent a longish message
explaining why we had not been in contact, and then my son 'phoned' (WA) and
had a conversation. They've never worried about us before, and I think that
becoming a father has increased the amount of responsibility that our son
feels towards us.
* Although the events refer to 30 April, this is actually being written on the morning after. My wife says that it rained heavily during the night, but when I woke up at 6:30am, there was only very light rain that stopped shortly after.
** The tickets actually cost 11.80€ each - still cheap.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 579 | Automating Outlook - adding/updating a contact | Programming, Delphi, Office automation | |
| 948 | Writing lyrics (2) | Song writing | |
| 1025 | April 1977 | Israel, Personal, Food science | |
| 1128 | The Americans | TV series | |
| 1496 | Covid and teeth | Health, Covid-19 | |
| 1612 | Shmulik Budagov |
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