Blogs from Milan, Lombardy, Italy, Europe - page 11

Geo: 45.4637, 9.18813We left our hotel for another ride on the efficient Metro system (from Centrale F.S. train station to Duomo we've got it down). The morning was much cooler and less humid as we waited for our Autostradale bus and walking tour. We found ourselves in an international group, including people for Kuwait, Dubai, Austria, Florida, Japan, Mexico, Italy, Germany, and us. Everyone was able to make sense of the tour in English. The tour started with an orientation to the Duomo area (Duomo is the third or fourth largest cathedral in Christendom depending on who you listen to). We would come come back to this site later for a more detailed exploration. We then walked into the Galleria, dedicated to Victor Emmanuel II, the king who successfully unified Italy in 1861. The Galleria was ... read more

We decided last night before bedtime that we were going to up and about and on our way into Milan city centre before it got too hot like yesterday. Well that was th plan but it didn't quite work out that way because we slept so well that by the time we had got up and readied ourselves after breakfast it was already nearly 10am and the heat was building as we left the building to go down the road to take the bus this time all the way to town. The bus seats were not designed for two people down one side of the vehicle but somehow we managed to squeeze two bottoms on and hung on as the driver weaved his way around corners and bumped over cobbled streets to the city. The destination ... read more

The clear,fine and warm weather continues although this mornings temperature at Passo del Tonale was bit cooler than we have had in recent mornings it was still hitting 20C as the sun spread over the mountain town. Another breakfast included with the room rate and again there was good variety including boiled eggs although they were the hard boiled versions. We had two options to get to Milano today and one of them was over another mountain pass which would have ultimately taken us down the side of Lake Como and past George Clooney's Italian home.The other was to continue down through Bergamo and would not have included another mountain pass climb. However,we put off making that decision as we slowly drove out of the ski resort town.This was because Gretchen noticed that the gondola that ... read more

We left Lyon to head for Italy; lucky for us our train was booked to stop in Geneva and then drive (train?) most of the way through Switzerland. We had originally planned to go to Switzerland but with limited time and money we decided to save it for another time. So this was great – still got to check out all of the beautiful scenery!! At our stop in Geneva, we hopped out of the train with our big packs on and went for a little walk around the train station. We stopped into their Notre Dame Basilica and then took a couple of dorky photos on the streets before our train was ready to depart. Milan was bittersweet. Milano Centrale station was really beautiful; we booked our tickets to Venice in advance and then made ... read more

We arrived on the outskirts of Milan yesterday, a fairly easy run with some spectacular scenery and miles of twisty roads and hair pin bends, Ollie loved it, Woolly and I weren’t so impressed. First job of the day was a trip to the airport to collect daughter Zoe, having told her to book a flight to Milan what we had counted on was the airport was at Bermango, a 45 minute trip! Woolly says – forty five minutes shouldn’t be a problem, well it wasn’t except for the stand still traffic. We sat in jams for what seemed like a week and with the clock ticking we were getting more worried about being there on time for the flight. As the traffic cleared Ollie went for it and we flew into a parking space just ... read more