Woke up at 07:00, miserable day again, cold and cloudy. Took one last look at the view over the lake, ferries criss-crossing the still water.
Quick breakfast then shuttle bus to the ferry, bought the ticket to Varenna. Got on the boat, showed the ticket and said ‘Varenna?’ and the guy clipped the ticket and the boat went to Cadenabbia. Had to go back to Bellagio and wait for the next ferry to Varenna. Very pissed off, I’d shown the ticket, asked to make sure, and the guy either didn’t care or was an idiot.
Ran round to the other jetty and just managed to get the right boat this time.
Quick jog up to the train station and met all the people who got on the correct boat. Ticket office was shut because of a public holiday, so hoped to get on the right train and bought the ticket on board, had to wait 30 minutes though.
The train was packed, couldn’t sit together so I had to sit near 3 noisy kids playing games on their phones with the sound up and constantly moving seats. Luckily the journey was only an hour.
Went down to the metro and took the train to the hotel.
Hotel was nice, dropped the bags and went around the corner to the painting of The Last Supper. Sold out. It was a public holiday so we probably picked the worst day to come.
Walked into the main bit, stopped off at a cafe for a light lunch of a slice of pizza for Song and a ham and cheese roll for me, plus a pastry each.
Carried on and entered the Castillo – a huge building with tall walls. As we left we were hassled by guys trying to “give” us string bracelets – it’s a con that is also prevalent in Paris and Rome. They say it’s free and tie it onto your wrist and then tell you to pay them some money. Despite telling them no they persist and follow you around. There are also guys selling selfie sticks and phone chargers – to me that’s fair enough, they are selling something and making a profit, fair go. The other guys are a waste of space.
Walked a bit more and found the Duomo – the main cathedral of Milan. Made of marble, with ornate carvings everywhere, it was very impressive. We decided not to go in because we’ve seen plenty of churches and the queue was huge. There were a lot of police around, some with riot gear and some soldiers with guns. Behind the cathedral was the biggest sweet shop I’ve ever seen – three floors of sweets and chocolate. Bought some nibbles and came out to a demonstration – obviously what the police were there for. It was peaceful and we walked around it, then got the metro back to the hotel. The restaurants didn’t open for a couple of hours so we watched TV.
Walked around the corner to a restaurant from Tripadvisor but it was a different one – an organic pizza joint. Decided that wasn’t for us so walked a bit more and found one by chance. I had spaghetti with yellow tomatoes and cheese to start, Song had seafood pasta. I also had a glass of wine instead of a beer.
For main Song had swordfish, I had beef.
The starter was good but the main was bland – sliced beef with rocket and sweet potato crisps, no dressing or sauce. Cost about $100 and wasn’t worth it.
Walked back to the hotel, fly out to Dubai tomorrow.
