Milan

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We decided to book a cheap RyanAir flight to Brussels instead of taking the train (mistake numero uno). Because our flight was at 8:00 am and we had to check in by 6:00 am we decided just to spend the night at the airport. We weren't the only ones with this idea, all sorts of folks ended up waiting for early flights like this. Alex and I had prepared well, buying cheese, bread and apples to sustain us through the night. Around 8:00 pm we decided to eat, and Alex went to wash the apples. I took out the bread and cheese and went to reach for my leatherman in my small bag. To my horror, it was gone! The knife was the least of my worries because all of my ID (including my passport), our camera and our MP3 player were all in this pack. Strangely, we had all of these things in my bag. Generally Alex ends up packing all that heavy stuff. But it was gone. Alex couldn't stand waiting for the cops so he took of running around the parking lots, frantically hoping (to no avail) to catch the thief.

The cops were brutal. Perhaps desensitized is a better word. Having all of your ID stolen isn't apparently anything to be concerned about in Italy. We bagered the cops for a police report for over four hours. We were unsucessful until the shift changed and the night cops were willing to help the english speaking tourist. Well earned police report in hand, we waited until our flight check in time to cancel our flight, hoping to possibly get our money back. RyanAir told us to go to our consulate and hope they could provide me with a new passport fast, because (of course) they don't give money back. So Alex and I threw what was left of our belongings back on our backs and headed for the Canadain consulate back in Milan (the airport was in Bergamo about one hour out of Milan).

We trudged through the pea soup pollution and found the address of the embassy, thinking it was strange how there was no Canadian flag at the door, Well it wasn't strange at all. They take the flag down when the consulate closes and moves to Rome! So we headed back to the airport (we started getting deals on the airporter) to talk to RyanAir and the cops again.We just hoped RyanAir woud trade our Brussels flight for one to Rome, and the cops had found my bag in a dumpster somewhere. Looking back, I think we set our expectations way too high. RyanAir wanted to charge us 350 euro each to fly standby to Rome without any sort of trade in, and the cops wanted nothing to do with us. Totally defeated, we headed back to Milan and the train station to go to Rome. Our only choice was to hope our embassy there would give me a new passport without any other ID.

So I guess we are going to see a bit of Italy now. It's true what they say˝All roads lead to Rome˝.

We will write lots for you all until we can provide some photos. It may be a while though.
Jay

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