Thursday, June 24: We are up early. Even though our train to Milan doesn't leave until 10:16, we are leaving nothing to chance. Joachim delivers our breakfast at 7:30. We asked for all three of his and Paola's classical guitar CDs and they have both signed each one. Paola, back from teaching in Basel, comes down to say goodbye. We have enjoyed our brief stay at their B&B. We hope one day they will come to SC to visit us. We're all packed and out a little after
Como sculpture 8:00. It's an easier walk downhill to the bus stop than it was coming up, especially since we know where we're going. The bus is crowded, but we avoid crashing our luggage into any of the locals on their way to work. We get off the bus at the Post Office, just across from the sculpture of the two hands in the park down from the train station. This time, we walk up the path around the park instead of scaling the long flight of steps up--again, we know where we're going this time. We've got a little less than 2 hours to wait, and our train will ultimately arrive about 10 minutes late. We rescue a couple of pairs of tourists who are boarding the wrong train to Milan (doesn't go to Milan Centrale), not realizing that the one they want is late. Finally the train shows up and it's full--even in first class where our seats are. We have to chase a man out of one of our seats and then squeeze our luggage wherever it will fit. In the process, the zipper on the back of Rick's is pulled off (just a minor issue, nothing was back there anyway).

The trip is less than 40 minutes and we arrive in Milan with two priorities: 1) find the right bus to get us near our apartment, and 2) find a "hole in the wall" (ATM). Rick wanders a couple of blocks from the station looking for the latter, finally stops in an Avis Rent-a-car office for help, and is told there's an ATM right at the station, about 20 feet from where Rory is waiting! Finding the right bus is a bit harder. We've been told that the #86 bus is the one we want, but it doesn't come to the station. Then the Tourist Office says we want the #81, but it doesn't stop here either. Finally we show our map to a bus driver, point out where we're going, and he says we want the #87 bus and to get of at the Cimeteria de Greca (Greek cemetery stop). We buy a carnet ticket (good for 10 rides on the bus/tram/metro at a 10% discount over what 10 individual tickets would cost) and get on the bus. We get off at the right place, then have to figure out from our map, which way to go. We know we are not far away when we see the railway tracks. Unfortunately, we have to haul our luggage up, over, and down a steep flight of steps to get to the other side of the street we're on. We haven't heard from Gianfranco (who we called yesterday to tell him when we were arriving and again this morning when we reached the station.) About 2 blocks from the apartment, Gianfranco calls. He didn't get either of our messages, probably because we had the wrong phone number for him!! He is waiting at the apartment. We take care of the payment and he agrees to take US dollars as a security deposit. That way we will not be stuck with a bunch of Euros just before we're ready to leave and have to convert them back to $$$. We've decided that we will vacate the apartment on Wednesday afternoon (rather than Thursday morning) and stay close to the airport on Wednesday night. He'll meet us at 4pm on Wednesday to return our deposit and take back the keys.

OK, we've finally unloaded the luggage. Time to set out for central Milan
Duomo of Milan and see some of what there is to see here. We know which tram to catch and from where when we were here 7 weeks ago. Our mission is to find the La Scala Opera House. Rory wants to see something, ANYTHING, at La Scala. We switch to the M3 (yellow) metro line from the tram and get off at the Duomo stop. Upon resurfacing, we are in the middle of the Piazza del Duomo, Milan's main square,
Galleria and "face to face" with the Duomo Cathedral. The first sight of this remarkable edifice is comparable to the first site of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. You are just NOT ready for it. The Duomo is the 4th largest church is Europe. It is constructed totally of pink (which looks white) marble and covered with marble
Leonardo sculptures from top to bottom. Like the Leaning Tower, it's hard to stop taking photos of the Duomo. Exiting the piazza to the left of the Duomo, we enter the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, the "Rodeo Drive" of Milan. This glass-covered shopping plaza houses such shops as Prada and Louis Vuiton. There is also a McDonald's here!! Strolling through the Galleria, we come to the Piazza della
La Scala Scala. This piazza is dominated by a statue of Leonardo Da Vinci (a preferred resting place for thousands of pigeons). It is also the 100th anniversary of Alfa Romeo, the Italian automobile company. There's a small exhibit here of the 1960 Alfa Romeo Veloce and the new 2010 version. (We'll see this again in some of the other main squares in Milan.) Across the street is La Scala Opera House, a plain, but very famous Neo-classical building. The schedule of performance
1960 Alfa Romeo Veloce is posted and it appears we will have only two choices: the opera Faust or the ballet Romeo & Juliet. Tickets, however, can't be purchased here. The ticket office is at the Duomo metro station, back the way we came. When we get there, we are more than disappointed to learn that there is a strike, and there haven't been any performances for several days and there probably won't be any for a while--certainly while we're here. The strike means we won't even be able to get a tour of the theater. If there was someone to take out our frustrations on, we would have.

We spent the rest of the afternoon window-shopping. Milan is supposedly the fashion capital of Italy. Prices are pretty high, especially when you convert euros to US dollars. (Speaking of which, the euro dropped to just under $1.20 before rising to $1.25, then dropping again to just under $1.23. When we were in Greece three years ago, the euro was at $1.38!!) Returning to the Piazza del
World Cup
- Piazza delle Duomo Duomo, a huge crowd is gathering for the Italy's World Cup match with Slovakia which will start at 4:00. A huge TV screen as been set up just to the right of the Duomo. We're going to the Tourist Office, located downstairs from the Duomo. On the way back through the subway walkway, we hear a gunshot, and a policeman advises us to turn around. At first Rick thought someone was firing at us, but it turned out to be a blank. The football (soccer) crowds in Italy can get pretty rowdy. When we get back up to the piazza, the game is in progress. Slovakia scores early, and wins 3-2, eliminating the Italians who are the defending champions. We're glad we're not in the piazza when the game ends! We have dinner tonight at La Fermata where we ate the first night we were in Italy. Tomorrow, we'll visit some more sights. Back at the apartment, Rick makes a hotel reservation at the airport for Wednesday night. There's also an email informing us (in Italian) that our scheduled time to see Leonardo's The Last Supper has been cancelled, because there will be a staff meeting during that time. We booked these tickets two months ago--they are almost impossible to get. Now it appears we may not see it. It's been a long day and a frustrating one, at times. We are not liking Milan as much as the rest of Italy.

Friday, June 25: Today we are going to the Castello Sforza and take
Metro Yellow Line a tour of the Duomo, among other things. The Sforza family is to Milan what the Medici family is to Venice. On the way to the tram from our apartment, we stop
Metro Red Line for lunch at a little cafe. There is no menu; you just go inside and point to what you want. If you want something else, you just ask. We are treated like family by the owners. Our lunch is good and inexpensive. We'll be back! To get to the castello, we take the #31 tram, change to the M3 (yellow) metro line at Zara station, then change to the M1 (red) line at the Duomo station and get off at the Cairoli station. The metro lines are all color-coded: the trains, stations, even the railings and signs are consistent with the name of the line: red, yellow, blue, and green. This makes it pretty easy to negotiate the maze of walkways especially when you transfer from one line to another--one of the few concessions to visitors to Milan that we've seen. We guess most tourists don't come here!

Castello Sforza
Sforza round tower Today being Friday, entrance to the castle and museums is free after 2pm. The castle is pretty imposing. The walls are intact on all four sides. There are two huge round towers in front on either side of a bell tower. Inside the walls is a large open area with another tower in front of you as you walk to the inner castle area. True enough, it's free today. Unfortunately the access to the tower is closed. What else is new? The main attraction of the museum is an unfinished Pieta by Michelangelo. (The most famous Pieta is in the Vatican in Rome.) What's nice about this one is you can get close to it; walk all around it. There are
Pieta no restraining ropes. You just have to know it's there! Only small groups can view it at a time. There's almost no one here for a while, until a tour group
Sforza inner gate shows up and we leave. We exit at the back of the castle. In front of us is the entrance to the Parco Sempione, the Central Park of Milan. Just inside the entrance are several promotional booths set up. At one of them are two young people wearing bright colored 2010 FIFA World Cup hats. They are sponsored by Hyundai. Rick asks where he might get one of them, and the young woman reaches into a box and gives him one!. The park looks inviting and at the far end we see the Arcodella Pace (Arch of Peace). From a small bridge in the park, there's a good vantage point for photos, and we'll walk to the arch after we visit the Baranca Tower. The tower is 108 meters high, one meter lower than the statue of Mary that sits atop the Duomo. We are not sure if the elevator
Arch of Peace
Baranca Tower to the top is operating, but it is! It costs 4E for the ride up; half what it costs to go to the top of the Duomo. There is no one else there. The elevator holds only 5 people. Bsides the two of us there's Daniel who will escort us up. Daniel turns out to be quite a fun guy to talk with. He speaks reasonably good English and provides a bit of history of the tower, points out sites, and tells us about the Branca brothers and their liquor business. Fernet-Branca is their specialty. The lower walls of the inside of the tower at the top are lined with reproductions of old Fernet-Branca calendars. We ask about whether they sell reproductions of these and Daniel tells us there's a set of 18 we can buy (which we do). It's sunny, but hazy, so the views of the Duomo are not as clear as we'd like, but the Arch and the Castle are! We can also see the old
Sforza from Baranca
Baranca Tower football stadium just below us; and the new one in the haze in the distance. Back on the ground we walk to the Arch. It was built to welcome Napoleon's rule. On the way back, we pass the "Hyundai hat booth" and we stop again to take a photo of the two of them with Rick all wearing the hats. They offer us a free soccer ball, which we accept, with the intention of giving it to some little kid. We walk back through the Sforza Castle, down Via Dante, then decide to go back to the Piazza della Scala to take some more photos.

On the way back to the Piazza Duomo, we walk through the Galleria again and spot the perfect little boy to be the recipient of our soccer ball. He is Gabriel-nino, with his father Carlo. It takes a little explaining, but Carlo takes the ball (which is not inflated). He wants to know our names and where we are from so he can explain it to the little guy. Next stop is a visit to the Duomo, which, believe
Rory wears Prada it or not, is free. The inside of the church doesn't compare to the outside, partly because the walls and sculptures inside are in real need of cleaning. We think they should charge a couple of euros admission specifically to clean up the interior. We've been in more impressive churches this trip. It's after 6:00 when we leave the Duomo and we're ready to head back to the apartment. When we reach the Piazza del Duomo, we notice that all the entrances to the Metro are closed. Apparently the metro workers have gone on strike since we came into the city. This is verified by a nearby policeman, who can't give us much help about how to get back. He's not sure if the buses or trams are running, and in any case, we wouldn't know which one(s) to take. Remind you of Como? We've got a good map, it's still relatively early (it doesn't get dark unitl after 9:30), so we'll be walking! We are liking Milan less and less every day.... On the way, we notice that the buses and trams ARE running. Rick finds the end of the #31 tram line on the map. This line will get us all the way back within a couple of blocks of the apartment. We get off one stop early, because there's a restaurant we've been meaning to try. "Al Desiderio" is a ristorante and grigliera (grill). The menu looks good and the prices are quite reasonable. We give it a try and it's great. After ordering, we are given a complimentary plain white pizza which is excellent. (We would have paid for it!) Next to us is a family of three from Ethiopia--very nice people. Dinner is great and we are full. We'll walk off some of it on the way back to the apartment.

Saturday, June 26: We are going to the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie to get the issue with The Last Supper straightened out. A tram, two metro line rides, and a 10 minute walk gets us to the church. At the ticket office, we explain our problem to Luca behind the ticket desk. He is sympathetic and gives us a customer center number to call. Unfortunately, English assistance is only available Monday thru Friday. It is at this point that Luca begins to restore some of our faith in Milan. He calls the customer center and is told that since we bought our tickets on-line, we'll have to get our refund
Church of
Santa Maria Grazie
Church from courtyard (or exchange) that way. The Last Supper tickets are sold out for weeks, but he offers us two for 12:15 TODAY!! We accept, pay for the tickets (we'll get our refund through AMEX) and gives us two audio tour devices at no charge to compensate for our inconvenience. Only 25 people are allowed to view the painting at a time. You go through successive "chambers" where the temperature and humidity are carefully controlled, until you're finally in the refectory. Leonardo's The Last Supper is on one wall; the Crucifixion by is on the opposite wall. The Last Supper has been deteriorating since shortly after it was painted, because Leonardo was experimenting with a dry technique. (The painting is on a plaster wall; not on canvas. The last restoration was completed in 1999. You are allowed only 15 minutes in the refectory; the audio lasts just about that long. When we're finished, we return the audio devices to Luca and thank him again for his help. We walk around the outside of the church, and find the entrance to a small shady courtyard with a small pond and frog fountain. There are chains blocking the entrances to the area around the fountain, but people ignore them, climb over, and take pictures. (We don't.)

We are going to go to Milan Centrale railway station and buy tickets to both Turin and Varenna, the latter so we can go back to Bellagio for one of Donald Freed's writing lectures and to meet his 18 students. Our plan is to go to Varenna tomorrow and go to Turin on Tuesday. After getting the tickets, we walk to Via Buenos Aires, one of the main shopping streets in Milan. It's a
Tram #31 wide boulevard, but unfortunately NOT pedestrian-only. We cover the length of it, both sides! When we've had enough, we get on the Metro, switch to the tram at Zara and ride back to the apartment. Rick calls Patty in Bellagio to let her know that we're coming tomorrow. She tells us that the students don't get there until Monday, so we decide we'll go on Tuesday. After dinner at Al Desiderio (again), we go online to check out the sights in Turin that we're interested in visiting: the Chocolate Tour and the Museum of Cinema. The latter is closed on Monday and some of the chocolate shops are closed on Monday as well, but almost all are closed on Sunday. Looks like we'll go to Turin on Monday, unless Donald is having a class on Monday, in which case we'll go to Turin on Tuesday when everyting is open. It's getting late, so we'll call the Freeds in the morning.

Sunday, June 27: We are going to do NOTHING today, except take it easy. Rick will spend a while updating our journal for the last three days. It's hot in Milan, but the a/c in the apartment works tolerably well. We'll be up early tomorrow to go to Turin. We hope there won't be any strikes that leave us stranded over night. We ate dinner at Al Desiderio for the third night in a row.

Monday, June 28: We went to Torino (Turin) as planned. The train took about two hours. We had a little trouble finding the tourist office in the train station--the signs, such as they are, are a bit misleading. We had come to Turin to take the "chocolate tour". We bought one "Chocopass" for 12E and spent about an hour trying to plan a route that would allow us to visit as
Piazza San Carlo
Piazza Castello many of the chocolate shops as possible--that were open (it's Monday...). We realized we'd made a strategic error by not coming here yesterday. Even though most of the chocolate shops would be closed, we'd get tastings at enough of them to satisfy our "jones", and ALL the museums would be open, especially the National Museum of Cinema. We liked Turin almost immediately. It's easy to walk around and the free maps are terrific. Most impressive are the piazzas--they are huge and lined on all sides by beautiful architecture (museums, churches, shops, cafes, restaurants, and statuary). They are almost all pedestrian-only. there are signs which tell you where you are and explain what is in the piazza and a bit of history. This city is a far cry from Milan, which we don't care for. We are quite surprised that Rick Steves' Italy doesn't even mention it! We found a cute cafe for lunch where the proprietors actually seemed thankful for out patronage.

After lunch we walked to the National Museum of Cinema. We could see the spire from
National Museum
of Cinema
Turin sculpture blocks away (it's the tallest building in Turin, we think), and were overwhelmed by the architecture of the building, which was originally a synagogue. In fact, the reverse side of the 2 cent coin shows the spire. We knew the museum was closed and were doubly disappointed when we actually saw the building itself. Mounted on the surrounding fencing were blow-ups of scenes from "The Rebels" starring Marlon Brando and Anthony Quinn (two of Rick's favorite actors). All we could do was walk around it, look up, and gape! From here we walked over a bridge which crosses the Po River. On the way we passed two more large piazzas. It's hot today and we were thankful that many of the streets were lined with shaded promenades. Milan could take a lesson from this place! We visited the Castello del Valentino, which is now part of the university so we
Bridge across
River Po
Architecture university couldn't go inside. From there we continued through the Parco Valentino (almost as nice (but larger), as the Parco Sempione in Milan, along the Po to the Borca Medieval Village and Castle. You guessed it, the castle itself was closed, but we could walk around the grounds. (If you haven't caught on yet, Mondays are not good for sightseeing in Italy!!)

Throughout our walk we stopped in at chocolate shops from which our chocopass would get us a free tasting. There are 22 shops included and the pass is good for two days (48 hours). You can't actually get a free taste at all 22, unless you buy two passes, because the tear-out coupons in the pass book have more than
Chocolate shop
Turin central station one shop on each. When you visit one, you have to relinquish the coupon for that shop (and any other shop on that couplon). Even with that and the fact that several were closed, we visited 7 shops, got plenty of chocolate to taste and even bought a little bit at one cute shop where the ladies who ran it were very friendly. Between the heat and all the walking, we were happy to catch the 6pm train back to Milan and have dinner again at Al Desiderio.

Tuesday, June 29: We are excited to be going back to Bellagio to participate in tne first session of Donald Freed's writing seminar. Our train for Varenna left at 10:20, which gave us a chance to sleep in a little. It's a short walk from the train station in Varenna down into town where we caught the ferry to Bellagio (a 14 minute ride). We called the Freeds and spoke to Donald. All the participants had arrived yesterday and it was a bit hectic getting everything organized. We offered to walk up to their apartment and wait for them. Sitting in the courtyard, we met several of the people in the class. About half were from the Los Angeles area and attend Donald's Saturday afternoon sessions. The rest were from England, and one lady from Italy. Many of these people have written plays and books that have been published and, in the case of the plays, produced. We were made to feel quite comfortable, thanks to the Freed's kind introduction of us. We enjoyed our lunch where we sat with four of them. The seminars conist of some lecturing by Donald, readings by the class members of their works in progress, one-on-one discussion with Donald, and discussion with other class members. We would have loved to be able to participate for the entire 10 days. We hope we will be able to keep in touch with a few of them. A little after 6pm, we excused ourselves to catch the ferry back to Varenna. Unfortunately we got on the wrong boat (we were at the wrong dock) and the ferry personnel failed to notice that our ticket didn't match their destination (I mean,that's their job, isn't it?). We wound up going across the lake to Tremezzo and then back to Bellagio. This cost us about 45 minutes and eliminated any chance to have dinner before catching our train back to Milan. Fortunately Al Desiderio was still open at 10:30, and we were able to get a quick pizza before walking back to our apartment. We wondered whether they'd ever had anyone eat dinner there five nights in a row. (Well--the food was GOOD and reasonably priced!) We were pretty tired, and happy that all we have to do tomorrow is pack.

Wednesday, June 30: First thing, Rick checked to see how the Gamecocks had fared in the College Baseball World Series. We knew they were in the final, and were excited to learn that they'd WON IT ALL!!!! Looks like Rick will have to buy another t-shirt! We'll be leaving for the airport hotel sometime after 4pm. It's been a great two months, we've had a great time, seen lots of things, and made many new friends. We are looking forward to geting home to Columbia on Thursday.