Malpensa and the Trip Home

 Milan - homeward - June 23-24 2022

There used to be a commercial for a now defunct airline and the tag line was “Getting there is half the fun!”   I now know why they are defunct!

After a lovely breakfast at the hotel in Torino, we packed up the car for the trip to Malpensa Airport. As a brief aside, I must say that Kent is perhaps the world's best loadmaster. We had a medium sized SUV for the trip but they were coming off a cruise and had four good-sized suitcases, a backpack and another small bag.  Cindy and I each had one suitcase and a smaller bag.  Somehow Kent got all of them in the back of the car and still gave me a ‘window’ so that I could see out of the rear view mirror.  We entered our new address into the GPS and headed out following the directions that Nanny (she had a British accent so we called her Nanny) provided. I had guessed it would take us ten to fifteen minutes to get to the toll road to Milan; I guessed incorrectly!  We crossed the Po river six times - how is that even possible?  We were directed though the downtown, near a cemetery, around malls and through neighborhoods, and almost all of the roads were single lane. It was a thirty minute maze and I think I almost burned out the clutch, but finally we found the highway we needed and we were off. 

We had planned to stop at a gas station to fill up and have a coffee and toilet break, but that didn’t happen. All of a sudden we were at the hotel at Malpensa with a half empty tank. We unloaded the luggage, used the toilets, and then Kent, Valley and Cindy went to the room while I got back in the car in search of a gas station, which I found after about fifteen minutes. Filled up the tank with the most expensive fuel we had seen on the trip and dropped off the car at the Avis lot.  Found Cindy, and while Kent and Valley were figuring out their tickets at BA, we had a coffee at a little shop next to the hotel. 

The airport was a zoo! There were lines of hundreds of people trying to purchase train tickets to downtown Milan. All of the US flights seemed to have landed at once and the mostly young Americans were struggling with European efficiency. I stood in line for our coffee and ahead of me where two American couples in their early twenties. There was no concession to language or custom, they just acted like they were at Starbucks in America and in loud voices and in English, shouted out their orders.  I knew then that the vacation was over and we were no longer really in Italy.

We met Kent and Val after they had sorted out their flights and had a quick sandwich and Prosecco before retiring for naps - well, the old folks napped while the kids wandered through the airport. We had adjoining rooms and met in their room for drinks around six. We were staying at the Sheraton right at the airport and I had booked two Executive Rooms with access to an Executive Lounge. The lounge was of course closed so instead they simply told us that everything in the mini-bar was free to us and that we would get a 40% discount and free drink at the restaurant, in addition to a free breakfast the next morning. I had never heard of such a thing but it was most appreciated as we raided the mini-bar for our cocktail hour. Good thing we weren't looking for hard liquor; the only offering was a miniature bottle of vodka.  The half-bottles of Prosecco and wine were nice touches, however.

We were looking forward to our dinner since Cindy and I have eaten well at that restaurant and with a 40% discount it would make the meal that much more enjoyable. Again, it was not to be. Seems the hotel is short staffed and doesn’t have a chef so the menu was extremely limited. Two appetizers, two pastas and a hamburger were the only offerings - in Italy!!  Service was non-existent, food was basic and unappealing and the glasses of wine, when they came, were dull and not nearly cold enough. At one point they served Valley a glass of water in a wine glass!!  Needless to say, it was not the ending we had hoped for but we laughed it off and polished off the rest of the mini-bar before bed.

The trip home was mostly tolerable. I’m told I’ve developed something called patience! There were huge crowds of people traveling since it was the start of the weekend and everyone wants to travel after Covid.  We flew to Paris mid-morning and then had to take the long walk from Domestic to International, which is normally about 30 minutes. Due to the huge volume of travelers it took closer to an hour to get to our terminal. We had about thirty minutes in the lounge and then boarded our flight to IAD. Air France continues to offer an excellent product and our food, wine and service were spectacular. The new business seats offer lots of privacy and space so we were happy campers for the eight and a half hour trip. 

International arrivals at IAD have always been a pain in the butt. You have to depart the plane and walk in a secured area to a People Mover that they have been using since 1965. Then you are driven to the Immigration Hall and dumped into the lines from hell.  We have Global Entry so we were done quickly, but the lines for non-USA and for those without Global Entry were huge. Hundreds and hundreds of people queued up for more than two hours. Of course, if the folks can’t get though Immigration quickly the luggage piles up and it was all over the floor next to the carousels, which were all stopped since they had no place for the luggage to go. Two men tried to clear luggage as fast as possible but it took another thirty minutes for us to get our “priority” bags. Another twenty minutes for a taxi and we were finally off on the home stretch. 

I simply can’t understand how an airport can be run so inefficiently. Immigration knows exactly how many people will be coming and when - they know that before the flights even leave Europe - and yet they are totally unprepared to handle the crowds. What a horrible first impression of the USA to present to visitors. 

Torino, Italy

 June 21-23 2022

Torino was our final city on the grand tour of Italy and we got off on the wrong foot. Our GPS had done a remarkable job of getting us where we wanted to go, not an easy task in Italy with streets that change names three or four times and a maze of little alleyways in the old cities. We had done well getting out of Rapallo and then heading north just before Genoa. The roads weren’t too bad, and it being a Sunday there was very little truck traffic. We are still not sure what happened but as we approached the city we were directed into a tunnel a few miles long and halfway through the tunnel we were told, “You have arrived at your destination on the left.” Well we knew that was wrong so we exited the tunnel and tried again with no luck.  Fortunately Kent had an app that found us and the hotel and he became the first backseat driver to be cherished and appreciated, guiding us right to the front door of the hotel!

The hotel is located in the old Fiat factory built in the early 1900s and once the largest car manufacturing facility in the world. It now contains two hotels, two floors of mall, and two floors of offices for lots of different companies. For those of you who have seen the movie "The Italian Job," you will remember the escape scene involving driving out of the Fiat Building. The top of the five story building still has the track where every Fiat made was tested before going down the spiral ramp to the shipping area, and you can still walk on the ramp.  It is quite a piece of architecture and has been lovingly restored.

Our rooms had 18-foot ceilings with huge windows that allowed lots of light to enter unless you had the electric shades drawn. In a tribute to Fiat, each room has a floor lamp made from the headlight of a Fiat 550, which means they have very heavy transformers at their base.  We arrived at 1:00 pm and our rooms were ready, so we unpacked and then headed across the street to Eataly, a foodies paradise.  It was started in 2007 in an old vermouth factory in an effort to preserve all customs and traditions of Italian cooking. It showcases the best of all the regions of Italy with separate sections for produce, cheese, dried meats, fresh meats, pastas and fish. And oh yes, the entire basement is dedicated to wine.  Each food section also has a small area where you can order food and drink which makes it a delightful place to have lunch. We wandered each section getting ideas for lunch and then enjoyed marvelously prepared fresh food and wine. There was a table across from us with three men who had just finished eating and one of them had gone to the produce section and came back with two pints of fresh cherries, one from the north and the other from the south. They really enjoyed them and they noticed we noticed them so one came over with the box and insisted we all try them, which we did. Then another one came with the other box to share with us. They then wanted to know which was better and of course I told them the ones from the north, which gave them such great pleasure that as they left they gave us the remains of both boxes, which we in turn shared with our servers.  What a delightful experience!

That night we found a little trattoria in a sketchy part of town where we sat outside. It was beastly hot and there was no air but we also had not found anything around us that was open so we ate there and ordered from a chalkboard.  We ate well and cheaply, nothing fancy for sure, but freshly prepared and tasty. We relished getting back to the hotel and their air-conditioned bar where we had a nightcap to cool down before bed.

The next day we took the subway downtown. Our hotel was about three kilometers from the center of the city and the clean, efficient subway got us there quickly. From our stop we navigated - by "we" I mean Kent and Cindy - to the Egyptian Museum, which has the second largest collection in the world.  We spent two hours there and Kent and Valley just loved it and I must say they did a good job with the displays and timelines. We have been to the Cairo Museum so we had seen most of these things before but I was still quite impressed and learned a few new things during the visit.  When we came out the decision was made to head for the large park down at the Po River, with a short stop for refreshments in another stifling hot caffe.  For some reason we all thought it would be a good idea to walk home along the river which was about two and half mile hike. At the time there was shade and a breeze but after the first mile it became too hot, too sunny and the breeze had blown away.  We did see some cool things along the way, huge fountains with jets of water being blow twenty feet into the air. At one point we came across an old medieval castle - the Borgo Medieval - complete with a drawbridge. It was really fantastic and you can see it here.

We finally realized we were not going to make it back by foot so we climbed sixty or so steps up to a hospital, which I thought we were going to need, and over to the Metro where we hopped on for the last leg home. It was now two thirty and we were hungry and thirsty so we stopped in a little place in the mall for cold beer and snacks, both of which were well received and well deserved.  That night we decided we would find someplace in the mall to eat since it was now clearly too hot to eat outside, even after eight, and we did not want to eat in the sterile hotel dining room. We scouted out some possible locations, there were MANY, and decided on a place called RossoPomodoro (red tomato) that featured the food from Naples. We chose wisely. The food really was good, the pizzas made fresh, the  buffalo mozzarella was fresh and their tomatoes were the best we had on the trip. We all ordered different things and shared, in true Italian fashion, and decided that one can eat quite well in an Italian Mall.

For our last night in Torino we decided to eat at a restaurant we spotted from the top of the Fiat  Factory. Unfortunately it was closed so we wandered around looking for something open. We rejected a Greek Taverna, despite the fact that the smells coming from the kitchen were lovely. We happened upon a little place called La Mina and from the windows we could see white linen tablecloths and napkins so we went in. We were greeted by a lovely, petite owner of a certain age who showed us to our table, which wasn’t hard to do since we were the only patrons! We ordered water and house wine and she turned the lights on just for us.  The food and service were stellar and I had one of the finest pastas I’ve ever enjoyed anywhere.  It was a most fitting end to a remarkable trip to Torino.  

Rapallo

 June 15 - 18, 2022

The trip to Rapallo was longer than expected and much less fun than I had hoped. We drove right by our old house in Vicenza and also past Verona and Soave, which was fun for the kids since we had been drinking Soave the night before. We headed south from there and through the fertile farm land of the Po valley, and things were going well until we had to get over the mountains to get to the sea.  It was a series of switchbacks and tunnels, which I hate, coupled with lots of closed lanes and reduced speeds, all of which added forty minutes and more gray hair to the trip. But finally we were in Rapallo and were ushered to our rooms overlooking the harbor. Well, almost! You had to look beyond the construction that was taking place on the promenade to see the water - but hey, we were at the sea. 

We chose Rapallo because it has frequent ferry service to all the places we wanted to go: Cinque Terre, Portofino, La Spezia, and Santa Margherita - and the ferry terminal was just steps from our hotel.  Did I mention construction?  Turns out they are also dredging the harbor and therefore all ferry service has been suspended.  When I made this reservation, and when I reconfirmed it two weeks ago, no mention was made of this "slight" change to ferry service. They also failed to mention that construction was going in the building next to our hotel and also across the street that involved heavy equipment, drills, and pile drivers, but hey - we were on the water!

Rapallo is far more expensive than Bassano, by lots. No more three-Euro Proseccos and eight-Euro plates of pasta. But hey, we were on the water.  We wandered the town, which is really quite lovely, especially the old town off the waterfront.  We did find an affordable place to eat that night but the service was, shall we say, less than social. Rapallo is a tourist town, plain and simple. Tourists from all over Italy as well as the rest of Europe flock there and therefore the locals are willing to accept their money but they do not extend themselves as they had in Bassano and Ravenna. 

Kent had done some re-con on things to do in Rapallo and suggested we take the funicular up to a church some 600 meters above in only nine minutes, quite the thrilling ride with spectacular views of the harbor and city below. It seems that some shepherd - they are always shepherds - was visited by the Virgin Mary in 1548 and was told to build a church in her name at this site. And build it they did.  It is huge, ornately decorated, and sparsely attended - for obvious reasons, namely, you can’t get there from most places!  We wandered the grounds and noted that there were two B&Bs as well as three cafés to cater to the needs of the pilgrims, all of whom must be wealthy given the price of things.

On the second day we had planned to visit Cinque Terre, and with no ferry service we decided to take the train to the first stop, Monterossa. To avoid last minute problems with tickets, I wandered over to the station early while Cindy ran, intent on getting everything squared away for our 10:20 train. The ticket office was a zoo and I stood in a line that was well outside the actual office for twenty-five minutes. When I got to the head of the line and ordered four tickets I was told there was a rolling strike that had been called by the union so while we might be able to get to Monterossa by train, we certainly would not get back!!  But hey, did I mention we were on the water?

We regrouped at breakfast and made an alternate plan for the day and decided to walk to Santa Margherita.  No one is quite sure why, but we did. It was a fifty minute walk mostly up lots of steps and then down to the sea where you can walk a little by the water and then follow the road into town. The road is dotted with five and six star hotels, huge monsters of elegance and grace catering to those whose cars cost more than most homes. The city itself is a yawn if you don’t like beaches, which we don’t, but we did find a place for some cold water and wine. The kids continued on to Portofino while we opted to walk back to the hotel for a nap.

That night on the recommendation of the hotel we dined at a local place called Elite, our first of three dinners there!  Again, rules are made to be broken and this place had it all:  wonderful staff, great fresh food and house wine in liter carafes. As we reviewed our day, the kids really loved their visit to Portofino and convinced us to go with them the next day - but this time by bus, which is what we did, as did several thousand other people. There were two huge cruise ships off-loading many guests at the port at the same time that buses were unloading tourists at the top of the town. It was a zoo, but a very beautiful one and we were happy to have visited and happier still to hop on the bus home. We had to change buses in Santa Margherita so we used that stop for a quick lunch of sandwiches and wine.

A word about food and wine in Italy. You will note that I’m referencing our frequent stops for refreshments, usually Prosecco. Prosecco is a sparkling white wine that is almost always served ice cold. It only has 11% alcohol as compared to 12.5% for most French sparklers. This means that it is consumed at breakfast, lunch and dinner and all other times between meals. Many times you will have Prosecco with the entire meal, not just for an aperitivo. Most Italians do not eat large lunches, preferring to have sandwiches of all shapes, fillings and breads, depending upon where you are in Italy. Salads are also becoming quite fashionable and tasty.  Dinner usually is served in restaurants between eight and ten at night, sometimes later in the warmer climates. These past two weeks have been unusually warm for Italy, challenging AC units (where available) and using lots of fans to blow the hot air around.

Our last evening at Elite was again lovely - we walked in and were treated like old friends and given our ‘usual table’ and immediately served a liter of wine and a liter of water.  The food continued to be fresh and delicious - and for Rapallo, affordable.  The next day we were off to Torino…..

Bassano del Grappa

 June 12 - 15, 2022

The ride to Bassano del Grappa was without incident, which is high praise for summer travel in Italy. We followed the shore road up towards Venice before heading northwest towards Padova. The only traffic we hit was just before entering Bassano but it was short-lived and gave us a chance to enjoy looking at some of the really small villages in the area.  We stayed at a hotel Cindy and I both enjoy, one that is outside of the walled city but only a ten minute walk to all the action, thus we had a quiet room away from all the tourists. 

I had booked a reservation at a restaurant we knew since Sunday lunches in Italy can fill up a all the good places. Strangely they asked if I wanted a Superior table or Inferior table, not knowing the difference I opted for Superior.  Upon entering it became clear that the Superior tables were three steps up from the entry while the others were in the lower restaurant. They were about to seat us at a table next to a large family group with lots of young kids who even at this early stage of lunch were running around like banshees.  I immediately told them to seat us downstairs, which turned out to be a great decision.  

The food and wine were divine and gave us lots of time to catch up with Valley and Kent, their cruise news, and family updates.  The service in the restaurant was really professional and it was a great way to start our time together.  We took a long walk after lunch to give them an orientation to the old town, which is still one of the most beautiful in Italy.  There are three major piazzas that spill into one another and then small streets that run off of the piazzas, some heading to the river, others crisscrossing the walled city. There was virtually no traffic and lots of folks out for a stroll and afternoon coffee. It felt like home again since we had lived only about forty minutes away back in the early 1980s and used to visit often.

The hotel concierge had recommended a restaurant called Bella Capri for dinner and since there weren't a lot of options on a Sunday night we decided to try it.  Any fears we had that it was too touristic or that it cut corners on the food since it was in such an obvious location for vacationers were dashed.  The food was excellent and so was the service - they put us way in the back of the hotel near the kitchen which was actually perfect.  The kitchen door would swing open and we could smile at the chef quite often.  We ordered several dishes to share family style, including mussels and cuttlefish and grilled vegetables to start, then penne with shrimp and spaghetti vongole and pizza.  My but it was delicious.

The next day I was suckered into visiting two - count them, two different museums - all in the same day!  The first one was in an old medieval estate called Palazzo Sturm set above the River Brenta. There were 70 rooms in the villa which was owned by a family that controlled the printing business in all of Italy and in huge chunks of Europe.  They printed everything from books to wallpaper, lithographs to graphic novels. There is only so much one can see and appreciate about setting type and producing paper and I mentally checked out after fifteen minutes. In the same building was the museum of ceramics, which did have some interest to me and some of the examples were just drop dead beautiful, as were the rooms and halls where they were displayed.  After an hour or so of this I was rather proud of the fact that I had done two museums and suggested we go have a glass of Prosecco, only to be told that this was ONE museum and we had to walk across town for the other.  Told you I was suckered!

The second museum was in a former Franciscan Monastery with a lovely flowered courtyard. It was huge with the second floor having been a large church and that is where most of the large paintings were displayed.  The ground floor had displays on the history of the city as well as some relics and other church related items. After about forty minutes I was punch drunk on culture and started renaming the pictures. I must say that some of my titles were quite wonderful and at one point I thought Val was going to wet her pants laughing. It is a good thing we were the only people in the museum since the laughter rang out for the rest of our visit.

We made a beeline to a beer hall only to discover that it was closed, as were most other places since Monday is a day of rest for the hospitality business.  We did find a corner bar with a lovely hostess and proceeded to have some ice cold Prosecco and bottles of water. We decided to have gelato for lunch since it had gotten late and we didn’t want to go looking for a restaurant (and also didn't want to spoil dinner). Right next to us was a gelateria turning out some darn good looking ice cream so we all had a cone and then walked back to the hotel for well deserved naps.

After a long post-nap walk we had aperitivi in one of the squares and people-watched for a hour or so and then went back to Bella Capri for dinner.  Yes, back to the same restaurant we had dined in the night before and would dine in the next day. Sometimes you just have to break  rules and one of ours is not to dine in the same place twice since there is so much to discover and so little time, but there are exceptions!  We had eaten quite well the night before and the service was impeccable as was the ice cold house white wine at only 10 euros per liter. It was another fun filled, food filled, wine filled evening of laughter and story telling.

Our last day in Bassano was highlighted by a luncheon with one of Cindy’s colleagues from Moscow. Patricia taught French and became a good friend and dining companion during our year in Russia back in 2010-11. She is married to a retired US Army officer who used to fly helicopters and was stationed at the same base where I used to teach in Vicenza Italy. We had never met him but they own a home near Bassano so Cindy contacted Patricia and we arranged to meet. They had a friend staying with them and she came to lunch also at this very local pizza joint near the hotel. You never know how these things are going to work out but from the minute we saw them it was like we had all been old friends for many years. James and I ended up talking about everything under the sun while their friend Gracie talked with Kent and Valley about a range of topics from teaching to walking the Appalachian Trail. Cindy and Patricia had a grand time catching up and remember old friends, and the food and wine were marvelous.  It was a wonderful three-hour luncheon with the requisite "we must do this again soon" parting comment.  I for one hope we do!

The next day we were off to Rapallo…….

Ravenna

 Thursday June 9 2022

We departed the Milan airport in our rental car heading for Ravenna, which turned out to be a longer trip than we anticipated. It is summer in Italy and road construction is everywhere so three lanes become two and two become one. Then the rains start and traffic is further slowed - but the worst is the dreaded electronic signs that announce CODA, meaning traffic jam - and that usually meant traffic was actually stopped. We finally arrived, exhausted, and could not find the hotel. We were on little one-way streets in the middle of Ravenna so we stopped and Cindy ran into a cafe to get directions which turned out to be wrong, and then it started raining!  I found a semi-legal place to park, got out and checked every door on the street where our hotel was supposed to be located.  Ten minutes later and soaking wet, I found the hotel which we had passed in the car TWICE!  Not very good signage in Italy. We got to our room and then I had to go park the car in a lot that was five minutes from the hotel.  The rain had stopped and we were only too happy to start exploring the city ... and even though we had been here before, we recognized nothing!

We started, as we usually do, at a cafe/bar - the same one where Cindy had stopped for directions. It was only a two minute walk to the hotel but he had given rather bad advice. Anyway, it was a mom/son little place habituated by locals, which for us is a good sign that the prices will be fair. We had two glasses of Prosecco and the son provided us with a list of good local restaurants. Ravenna is a compact little city so walking around looking at menus was rather easy. We had been to Ravenna off a cruise ship years before and had happened on a restaurant that we really enjoyed, more-so when our ship's senior staff, all Italian, came for lunch and saw us and gave us the thumbs up. We found this little gem again without too much difficulty but there are times when you really can’t go back again. The food was very good, but the servers were sullen and downright grouchy. Our overweight waitress must have been Albanian and must have had foot issues, as in they hurt and she didn’t want to walk on them. She spent more time hiding than serving and more than once we had to flag someone else down to order wine, water or more food.  Very disappointing. 

The next day was a bit cool and rainy but we nonetheless kept to our routine of Cindy running and me exploring until we met for coffee at OUR bar and compared notes.  We cleaned up in the room and then headed out for adventure. Our first order of business was to find the train station since that is where we were to meet Kent and Valley on Sunday morning. For some reason, and that is a euphemism for “William done wrong," we ended up taking forty minutes to get there and only twelve to return! It did provide us with an excellent opportunity to see places in Ravenna that we would have never, and should never, have seen!  

The city is most noted for the fabulous mosaics in some of their older churches and public buildings. We had seen them years ago and thought it would be fun to see them again. However, they have become so popular that you have to book your visit hours ahead of time and we just couldn’t muster the energy to pre-plan.  So in true Embee fashion, we walked by the sights and lines of people and just viewed the exterior and read the detailed plaques, many with lovely photos so we felt like we were inside.  Dinner that night was another disappointing experience. We sat outside but right on the curb of a rather busy road. The service was really slow and not attentive - we didn't ask the guy if his feet hurt but that may have been the case! The food was okay, some dishes really good, others really not so good but the attitude of the server was once again marginal at best.  We walked home and enjoyed glasses of Vecchia Romagna, my favorite Italian brandy, in our room before bed.

Saturday was fun with lots of walking and lots of good experiences with servers. We had a lunch at a cavernous restaurant filled with Italian tour groups, families, and locals. Our waiter was a comedian and very attentive, and the food was delicious and complemented by carafes of local wine.  We walked some more before our nap and then walked again before aperitivos at our local. We had made a reservation at a restaurant called Bella Venezia and from the moment we arrived we were made to feel like family. It was filled with locals all of whom seemed to know one another and also the staff of the restaurant. The food was the best we had had on the trip and we were delighted to have that as our final memory of Ravenna.

The next morning we packed up and loaded the car and headed for the train station just as Kent and Valley arrived from their cruise. We somehow got all of their luggage packed in with ours and we were off on our new adventure in Bassano del Grappa.

Milan

 We arrived in Milan on the 7th of June in advance of meeting daughter Valley and her husband Kent who would be arriving in Ravenna on the 12th after a seven-day cruise. It is Valley’s 50th and we thought it would be fun to meet them and take them to some of our old haunts in Italy. At the last minute Air France told us that instead of taking us to Malpensa Airport they would be dropping us off in Linate Airport, which is actually much closer to Milan. The lines for the taxis were extremely long and slow moving and I noticed there was a bus going to the central train station. Since I knew that our hotel was only a few blocks from there I suggested to Cindy that we take the bus!  She of course thought I was joking, but happily agreed. It cost a fraction of a taxi and it was a fun ride into the city.  We arrived at the station, got directions to the hotel and walked there in under ten minutes. It was a relatively modern Hilton, very convenient and comfortable, and they upgraded us to a suite which had access to an executive lounge for drinks and snacks so it all worked out well.  I’m trying to use as many points with various hotels as possible and this was an excellent way to start. 

We had two days in Milan before picking up the rental car at Malpensa; Avis would not allow us to pick it up in downtown Milan without a huge increase in price. On our full day in Milan we decided it would be fun and interesting to take the Hop On /Hop Off tour bus. We have had some that were great (Lisbon, Brussels) and others not so much, but this one was horrid!  After purchasing tickets on the bus, we were told that there might be route diversions and lots of traffic due to Design Week in Milan. We had noticed lots of fashionistas in the hotel, all of whom were taking part in some aspect of Design Week.  The traffic was really bad; they totally missed some of the places we wanted to go and the commentary was always 30 to 40 seconds behind where the bus was, so we were constantly looking back to see what we had missed. No fun at all!

What was fun however was breakfast at the Hilton. We are normally not big on breakfast, but this was the biggest and best spread we had ever seen. The freshest fruits, orange juice made fresh to order, a huge wheel of Parmesan cheese where you just dug out pieces, among other treats. There was an egg section with two attendants making eggs to order and at the other end there was a station for pancakes, waffles, etc. In between were lots and lots of cold meats, many of which I had never seen, and a carbo-rich counter with breads, cakes, cookies, pastries, well you get the picture. Needless to say we did not eat lunch. 

The next day we walked back to the train station and boarded our train to Malpensa airport. I had wandered over there earlier while Cindy was running and purchased two tickets so as to avoid any confusion just before the train’s departure. That worked well and after many stops along the way we were back at the airport.  When I arrived at the Avis desk there were huge lines of people because a good number of flights had been cancelled and folks were trying to get out of Milan any way they could. There was a board with my name on it telling me to go to desk one, the only desk without a long line, in fact I didn’t think anyone was there.  But sure enough a young girl greeted me, asked my name and said, "oh William we have been expecting you."  A quick glance at my license and she handed me my key and wrote where to find the car and I was out of there in under five minutes. Well you know that things aren’t really that easy in Italy!  Turns out she gave me the wrong location for the car and the key had the wrong color of the car so we were rather confounded, especially since no car responded to the lock/unlock buttons.  I happened to find an Avis garage attendant just before he closed his office for lunch and he told me the car was in another garage, a short walk but we would never have found it had we not been re-directed.  

And we’re off…..