| We bid our friends Dario & Paola in Lake Como farewell, but hope to see them again very soon! |
| Erin's Lake Como Journals 6-25-02 Tuesday, the last day before our flight home, dawned beautiful in Como. We got up early to say goodbye to Paola before she headed off to work, then had breakfast with Dario before taking off to the train station. We used the regional trains rather than the main lines, since they would get us to the station where the Malpensa airport express train leaves from. We wanted to stay as close to it as possible, since we'd be wanting to get to the airport by 9am the next morning. We arrived in Milano's Cadorna station around 11, and called a few of the hotels listed in our guide as being nearby. We expected to pay about 100 Euros for the night, since that was what was listed in our 2-year-old book. But the place we called, the closest one, offered us a room for 57 Euros! We were glad, and headed off on foot. We didn't have a good map though, and ended up getting really hot and sweaty before finding it. When we arrived, the hosts wouldn't let us check in until after 2pm, so we locked our bags together in the lobby and left them. We walked toward the Duomo, our first Duomo and one of the most impressive, thinking we'd take another photo to compare with our first, but found it under construction. We were so glad we'd seen it when we did! We walked around the square looking for the information booth, since we'd misplaced our map and thought we'd ask where to find internet, as we wanted to check on our flight, but we couldn't find the info booth anywhere. I was starting to get hungry, and we decided to find lunch and look in our guide for more insights into where to look. We ended up at the chain pasta store we'd eaten at in Bologna and Florence. It wasn't as good as the real Italian food we'd been spoiled with in the past few days, but adequate to fill my belly! Refreshed, we went back out to find information. It was closed for lunch. We started to walk around to shop for the hour till it would open, but heard a big crowd in the square, and realized that the big screen we'd seen in the square in front of the Duomo was being used to show the World Cup semi-final game between Germany and Korea. We walked back and joined the crowd, sitting in the great square listening to the groups cheer for their chosen team. We stayed until halftime, when my butt was worn out from the hard cobbles, and went to information. We didn't get much useful info there, but after some misunderstandings and wandering, we found an internet spot to check email (first time in 5 days) and get the phone number to call United and confirm our flight. That chore settled, we saw the last bit of the game (yea, Germany!), then headed to the hotel to check in. It was now 4pm and somewhat warm, although nothing like the heat we'd felt in Milan a few days before, as we waited to transfer up to Como! The room had no air conditioning, but the balcony got a pretty good breeze, and we sat there with our books and ice creams & sodas we'd picked up on the way back. After reading a bit, we both napped for a couple of hours - must've been tired! We headed downstairs around 9pm to find dinner, and asked the front desk for recommendations. She waved us to a place right across the street. I was doubtful, but we had the most excellent pizza and pasta in there, I will definitely take advice from strangers again! It was the perfect last meal in Italy! And of course, we followed it up with some great gelato from right down the street, before heading upstairs to rinse up (sticky from the humidity) and get things packed for the morning. |
 |