Meeting best-selling Israeli author Shifra Horn: We were seated next to Shifra and her long-time companion (or spouse) Peter while enjoying coffee and dessert near the Duomo. Shifra and Peter are such kindly and interesting people. They divide their time among their homes in Israel, Australia and New Zealand. She writes and he performs volunteer work as a dentist. We chatted with them about literature, politics, culture and travel for close to 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon.
Sharing a few moments of light-hearted laughter with the waitstaff of a downtown cafe as we sipped espresso and tried to find our way to a nearby store: The coffee was great in this cafe, but the personalities of the staff were even better. They were located on one of the more commercial, less touristy side streets not far from the Duomo. I got the impression that the busiest time of their day is when locals who work in the nearby offices come in for lunch. Our waiter got a kick out of John's enthusiasm for their espresso flavored milkshake and my ability to speak their language coupled with my apparent inability to understand their spoken directions to where we were trying to go.
Shopping for snacks and bottled water at a busy supermarket on our first day in town (Sunday the 11th): We arrived in town on a Sunday and most restaurants were closed. Those that were open had very limited offerings of mainly beverages and sweets. Thus, we chose to find a supermarket and purchase provisions to get us through the night in our hotel room. The store is called Billa and it's on Via Torino. The Europeans have lots of yummy snacks that are very hard to find in US stores such as boxes of individually wrapped croissants filled with Nutella and potato chips flavored with African spices and sweet paprika. We loaded up on goodies and took the metro back to our room.
Touring the quaint and scenic towns of Varenna, Bellagio and Como: We got a late start on Monday afternoon, after allowing extra time for John (who had gotten a head cold) to sleep in until nearly 11am. Once we finally left our hotel room, we headed downtown to purchase tickets for the Pat Metheny Group concert. Having found the TicketOne counter with a little help from our friends at the cafe mentioned above, we made our way to the Central rail station and boarded a slow-moving and OLD train bound for Varenna which is halfway up the eastern shore of Lake Como. We had to run to make the train and it was so crowded that it took a while for us to find a pair of available seats near each other on the hot and somewhat dirty train. Fortunately, the views of the countryside, mountains and lake were spectacular.
We got off the train in Varenna (not without some drama concerning our train tickets--more on that later) and we headed down to the lakefront. Varenna was gorgeous, but quite small and sleepy. We looked around for a few minutes, snapped a few photos and then jumped on the first lake ferry bound for the much bigger and more touristy Bellagio. While in Bellagio we climbed the steep walkways in search of a place to have lunch. It was very hot (probably 95 degrees F) and uncomfortably humid, but we did not let the weather deter us from exploring. We found an open restaurant with a large, shady patio. The menu looked good so we sat down and ordered a meal. The best part, hands down was the cous cous with fondue appetizer which John and I promptly renamed "Koo Koo La Due" just for laughs.
Talking our way out of a 200 Euro fine on the train to Varenna after the conductor discovered that we had not validated our tickets prior to boarding the train: When the conductor came along to check tickets on the train ride to Varenna, he informed us that it was Italian law for him to assess a 50Euro fine ON THE SPOT because while we had purchased the correct tickets for our trip, we had not gotten our tickets date stamped to prevent them from being reused. (In Italy, you can purchase a ticket that can be used one time within 3 months of purchase date.) We'd read something about "validating" our tickets in one of our guidebooks, but had not done that in our hurry to board the train before it pulled off. We vaguely remembered something about a fine, but could not recall how much it might be.
He asked if we spoke Italian and I decided to play dumb and would only speak to him in English. The situation worsened for several minutes as he informed us that failure to pay him 50 Euro while on the train would result in the need for us to pay 200 Euro at our destination train station. Although we did have the 50 Euros on hand at the time, we had doubts about the absolute truth of his assertions. So, we decided to call his bluff and insisted that we did not have enough cash to pay the fine. We offered to pay by credit card, but that was unacceptable to him. Finally, he began to write up a citation and asked to see our identification documents. At that point, we pulled out our US passports and he concluded that we were dumb tourists who didn't know better. The situation was resolved when he scribbled some notation that none of his colleagues would ever see on our tickets and walked away.
Having a picnic dinner in the car with our travelling companions while we were parked near the site of Tuesday evening's Pat Metheny concert in the nearby town of Monza: The concert was held in the foreground of a gorgeous historic site called Villa Reale in the Milan suburb of Monza. The performance began around 9:30pm and we had arrived in Monza close to 2 hours early. We wanted to find a nice place to grab a light meal before going to the concert venue. Unfortunately, we were not successful in finding a good place. We thought we had found a good place and pulled off the roadway in search of parking. As we got closer to the eatery we saw that it was a cheesy looking Mexican place. Call us crazy, but none of us were willing to take the gamble on eating Mexican food in Italy.
Our search for food continued. We were running out of time when we saw a supermarket. We went in and split up so that everyone could quickly gather his or her favorite snack foods. Having made our purchases, we jumped back in the car and drove a short distance to the parking lot close to Villa Reale. One we were parked, we pulled out our food and began our meal. Everyone was in a good mood and as the food was shared and eaten, the jokes and teasing began. John and I have been friends with these guys for nearly 12 years and we know them well. No one was safe from the ribbing and no topic was too sacred. I laughed til my abs hurt. I only wish I had recorded everything on our video camera.
Chatting in English and Italian with fellow Metheny concertgoers and then joining them in singing our favorite parts of the songs performed by the Metheny group: Wfor e entered the concert grounds and found our seats, which were excellent. We had a 35 minute wait until the show began and gradually each of us began to engage the people seated near us in small talk. By the start of the show, we'd befriended Phillipo, an Italian architect who lived for several years in Miami, Florida and spoke excellent English; and Lorenzo and Marsia who were a very cute couple. Turns out that Lorenzo was actually born and partially raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He currently resides and works in northern Italy, but still speaks excellent English.
Marsia and I talked for a long time in a mix of English and Italian. She works for a fashion company based in Rimini, Italy which is not far from Venice. I actually visited Rimini with my parents and sisters in 1985. Marsia was only somewhat familiar with the Metheny Group's songs, but the rest of us are big fans. When our favorite songs were played, we threw our heads back and sang to the starry sky. All in all, it was una sera perfetta e tutti sono stati molto felici.
More Stories: I do have other, less favorable (but still entertaining) stories to share about Milan. I will save those for another post, soon to follow.
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