I Could Live Like This!

Day 2 Lake Como to Milan

We knew we would be facing a lot of really busy days with Expo coming up, so we had no real plans for this day.  The only thing we needed to accomplish was getting ourselves and our luggage to the hotel in Milan.

We woke up after a restful sleep and had a lovely breakfast at the hotel.

 

This is the breakfast room

 A note on Italian breakfasts:  They are usually provided by the hotel and are daintier than a big old America breakfast.  They include rolls, cheeses and meats, jam, fruit, maybe cereal, maybe hard boiled eggs.  Someone will usually offer you a coffee.

So I had my first Cappuccino of the trip.  I don’t like coffee, I don’t drink coffee, but I am a sucker for a real Italian Cappuccino!  BF had tea, as he is not a coffee drinker either.

 

We then packed up our suitcases…how do things get so scattered in one night!  and left them at the front desk while we explored.  We did some shopping in the little stores.  This is when the BF spent more money than I did.

WHAAAAAAAT???

That just never happens!  But we saw a tie we liked in a window, and went into the store.  We didn’t see that exact tie, but BF was deciding between two others.  We mentioned the other tie to the owner, and off he ran to get it.  Now BF is deciding between three ties.

 

 

We got all three.

 And I had to suffer along with just a pair of leather gloves, and a scarf!

 

But after we got that pesky shopping out of the way, we walked along the waterfront to the Punta Spartivento.  That is literally The Point That Divides the Wind.  It was a pretty point of land with great views of the lake and other towns.

 

But, alas, it was time to leave beautiful Lake Como behind and head to Milano.

 We met a nice family from the US on the ferry dock and had a great conversation about traveling in Italy.

We caught the ferry back, and looked at the train schedule.  Our choice was to race up the hill to catch a train in 10 minutes, or wander around for a bit and catch the next train.  Wandering won.

So we walked down this path

 

And had some gelato here

 

And then off to the train back to Milan.

From Milan, we needed to catch the Red Metro Line 1 to our hotel.  That line does not go to the Centrale Stazione.  We could have caught the Green or the Yellow line, but were unsure of the connection to the red line.  So we decided to walk the 8 blocks to the closest .

 

We did get to walk past this Sex Shop…Oh My!

 

We got to the right Metro line, and got the train to our stop, Gambara.  I had a little map to the hotel and we found it with ease.  It was very close to the Metro stop.

 

Finding a hotel in Milan was my first hurdle for planning this trip.  Hotels are expensive in Milan.  And you don’t get much for the price.  Since the Expo fair grounds were a bit out of town, I wanted something on a Metro line, to make it easier.  I ran across the Hotel Gambara.  It was not a fancy place, it doesn’t come with breakfast.  The reviews were pretty honest, and we didn’t expect the Taj Majal.  But it was clean, it was safe and it was inexpensive.  I splurged and got the room with a private bath for 65 Euro a night.  Since we were staying for 4 nights, that really helped the budget.

We did have to put up with this staircase to get to the front door.

 

And we had 2 twin beds, not a double.  The hotel is near a Stadium, so I suspect they get a lot of fans.  We did hear cars with cheering fans one night.

We did find a close by bar for breakfast and there was a restaurant right downstairs for dinner.  There was a little noise from the restaurant and traffic, but nothing too bothersome.

 

For our first night in Milan, we decided to head into town and have dinner there.  And what a dining experience that was!

But that is a story for another day!