Rapallo log (0): Travelling

Today was a long, long day.

It started at 1 am, when my wife's alarm clock (telephone) rang. We were to be picked up at 2:30 am in order to be at the airport at 3 am for a 6:10 am departure. Unlike last year¹, when the check-in process was very fast, this year it was very slow - the airport was surprisingly busy for that hour of the morning - and we didn't pass passport control until after 5 am. We made our way to the gate; boarding was supposed to start at 5:25 am, but at 6 am, we were still waiting. Eventually we boarded, with a one hour delay, and arrived at Malpensa at about 11:40 am our time, 10:40 am local time. After walking a fair amount, we arrived at passport control, and this time we were diverted into the priority queue, because of my wife's walking stick. Thus we passed that hurdle quickly, but then had to wait for our suitcase to appear on the carousel,  so we didn't really gain anything. 

At customs, we naturally went through the nothing to declare exit, but I was stopped by a lady from the Guardia di Finanza who started asking me questions, such as where I was from, did I have anything to declare, and most interestingly, how much cash I had on me. "Forty euro", I replied, "and ah, four euro coins, so forty four euro". "How do you know?", she asked me. I told her that I counted the coins a few days ago when I prepared a wallet for Italy with only two credit cards and the euros left over from last year. I'm not sure what the point of this exercise was, but I was let through.

As we had got up very early and hadn't really eaten anything, we decided to stop at a pizzeria in the airport. I used to think that Italians viewed the American combinations of ingredients as anathema, but there were all kinds of varieties, including various meats and also salmon. My wife had a tomato and anchovy pizza whereas I had a simple margherita. Very tasty.

Then a long walk to where the trains are; with a little difficulty, I bought tickets from Malpensa to Milano Centrale, and from there to Rapallo. We got a 33% discount on the Rapallo tickets due to our age. We had to wait some time for a train to arrive, and when it did, it was over-full, unlike last year when there was almost no one on the train. When we arrived in Milano, I looked at the departures board for our train - I didn't know what the final destination of the train would be. The trains are numbered, and the train number was on our ticket, so I quickly determined that our train would leave from platform 21 - which was as far away as possible from the platform of the Malpensa express. We got there, found our carriage and thence our seats. A two hour journey passed.

We disembarked at Rapallo station and walked outside. There were two taxis waiting, so we took the first that drove us to our hotel. 15€ for what turned out to be a five minute journey. Never mind: we had the luggage that I had been dragging around almost all day, and we didn't know where the station was relative to the hotel.

From what we've seen of it, the hotel is great. As can be seen from the picture, it's right next to the castle of Rapallo, and on the promenade. We have a 'superior sea view' room; not only do we have a sea view, but we also have a semi-private terrace with sun beds, table and chairs.

After minimal unpacking and a quick shower to wash off all the sweat that had accumulated during the day, I went off in search of the Carrefour supermarker that was supposed to be 250 metres from the hotel. Find it I did: it's on the way to the train station, and I reckon that we can walk there in 15 minutes at the most. I bought a few items there then came home.

It's only 7 pm local time, but we're worn out. It's been a long day and I've walked 9,500 steps already. I don't think we're going to do anything more this evening. I've hardly slept over the past few nights, so an early night will be a pleasure.

Internal links
[1] 1749

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This day in blog history:

Blog #	Date	Title	Tags
401	03/09/2011	Financial report	MBA, Finance
623	03/09/2013	Frederik Pohl, 26/11/1919-02/09/2013	Literature, Obituary
1068	03/09/2017	Casualty - one (tv series)	TV series
1256	03/09/2019	Priority tip: another thing to be aware of	Priority tips
1661	03/09/2023	GAS	Guitars
1813	03/09/2024	Belated birthday present	Personal