What a beautiful county....!

Day Two Milano to Bergamo

(Forgot to say in last blog that we saw much marble being cut in the mountains coming in from Switzerland.)

This morning, we walked in the light rain to the Duomo. On the way we stopped coffee and a chocolate brioche in very modern café where I got locked in the bathroom! We arrived at the Duomo, where we paid to climb the 250 steps to the wet marble roof, where one can walk around and view the stonework up close and look over the city of Milan. We took a quick look inside the cathedral and visited one the oldest shopping arcades in the world, before taking the subway back to our hotel. Before picking up our bags we ate at a small restaurant with a set menu of 7euros or about $11.00 each.

The rain was almost over by the time we walked to train station and got on a train for the town of Bergamo. We almost had a nasty adventure on the train: we hadn’t realized that we needed to validate our tickets with time stamp after buying them, and were told by the conductor that we therefore had a 50 euro fine each ($75). The Nigerian man next to us pleaded our case and Bill also explained we had just arrived in Italy…we were let off with a warning.

Bergamo has a very old part of the town on the hill and a newer part below. We quickly found a hotel (thanks to Lonely Planet once again), dropped off our bags, and headed for the Old Town. It was really beautiful and so packed with sights it was to know where to look. It seems like just a tourist area at first, but as school kids headed home with their parents, we realized that many people lived there too. We wandered around for a few hours and then headed back to station to find the timetable for our morning departure to Brescia. We had a great pizza dinner, went to sleep early…only to be awakened by a very persistent mosquito. Not a good night for sleeping….

Day Three Bergamo, Brescia, Verona

This morning we took the train to Brescia. We decided to just spend a few hours in Brescia and then head to Verona for the night. There was no baggage check at the train station so we hauled our suitcases with us on our tour of the old part of town. We took a public bus to center of the old town. Old here means a place that was first settled in the Bronze Age (2200 BC)! We saw ruins from the Romans on….amazing stuff. We went to a great city museum where we could see the remains of Roman homes recently uncovered (2000), along with artifacts from the Bronze Age through the Renaissance.

There are almost no tourists…we were alone in many parts of the museum and in some of the squares.
The trains were not crowded on either trip. We have been surprised at the number of African (mostly Nigerian) immigrants that are living in Northern Italy, even in the smaller towns. Everyone is very helpful and considerate…the weather has been cool, and most of the rain has been at night.

Arriving in Verona yesterday, we were amazed at the wealth here. We are staying in the center of town, few blocks from the two thousand year Roman Arena, still used, now as the Opera House. We walked around the mostly pedestrian streets lined with luxury shops of all kinds, among obviously well-to-do Italians, who were not hindered by the rain in their shopping pursuits. Our faded glory of a budget hotel (still, it is $105 a night) is across from Cartier….we are on the fourth floor with no elevator, but we do have our bathroom!

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