Lago Maggiore
Ahhh...
After a good night's sleep we got up around 8:30am, had some breakfast, and hopped back in the car for the quick trip from Vogogna to Lago Maggiore.
It appears that this is Italy's largest inland body of water, Chris and I gathered that it was roughly 3 times the size of Lake Chelan. I'm not sure of its depth, but I suppose that really doesn't matter. We drove along the lake for about 20 minutes before finding a place to park on the south end of the lake.
We got lucky with the weather, as it was already about 12pm and it was 75 degrees and perfect blue skies. In talking to some locals, they had received 10 straight days of hard rain before we arrived, which explained why it was so humid. Chris and I were both impressed with how lush and green the landscape was. In addition, the thing that strikes us both about the country side is how each little town is built specifically into the surrounding topography, becoming a part of the landscape. Unlike the states, where we reconfigure the landscape to work with what our housing plans are.
We immediately spotted the main attraction at Lago Maggiore. The largest of 4 islands "Isola Bella". We hopped a water taxi and took the 5 minute boat ride out there to a large mansion and botanical garden. The mansion actually had a very small village attached to it, we can only assume this was for the servants and staff of the mansion. The village was definitely built to be the tourist trap, so we decided to pay the 22Euro to tour the mansion and grounds. Check out the attached pictures...pretty cool house.
After touring the mansion for a while, we stopped and got cappuccino before heading back. On our way back to the boat we ran into a couple from New Jersey. The woman was really funny b/c she was the stereotypical east coast Jewish wife/mom. It was funny to see this stereotype juxtaposed with the beautiful Italian countryside and laid back culture.
When she found out that we paid 5 Euro/Person for our water taxi ride and that she and her husband paid 12 Euro/Person for the same ride, she about lost her mind...it was all she could say "I can't believe it, Frank, we need to negotiate everything over here, 5 euro, and we paid 12, I can't believe it...these kids, on the same taxi for 5 euro." We all thought she was going to have a heart attack, and you know that right now, as they continue on their bus tour through Europe, that's all she's talking about. How those nice people from Seattle paid half for their taxi.
Milano
After leaving the hysterical east coast couple, we headed off to our primary destination...Milano.
In the states, Milan is kind of viewed as the center for art and architecture in northern Italy. And of course, it is known as a world wide fashion hub. When we arrived, it looked like we had arrived in an industrial city, with large factories lining the freeway. Then we hit the city center and understood a little better why Milan got its reputation as a cool city.
Busy is the best word I can use to describe this city. With loose traffic rules, and about 3 times the population density of downtown Seattle you can imagine how interesting getting around was. The funniest thing was watching these professional women coming out of their office and getting on their scooters in skirts and high heels, then racing down the cobblestone streets at 35-40 mph.
We parked, had a slice of pizza, and headed for the Milan Cathedral or the "domo" as it is called locally. You can see from the pictures it was pretty impressive from the outside, and inside was no different. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't really turn out on the inside so I have not included them here.
From what we could understand, the Cathedral took nearly 75 years to complete. I can't imagine that they got that thing finished that quickly back in the 16th century. If we had been more motivated, we could have easily spent 2 hours inside, there really was that much to see. If you are a devout Catholic, you could have spent a full day there, and even gotten your confessional in as there were priests there from 4 different languages holding court.
From there, we headed to the hotel, and found it pretty easily once we figured out that Milan is set up on a series of circular one way streets...I think we made 6 u turns and made the circle around Milan 3 times trying to find the Hotel.
Once at the hotel, we settled in then found a great local restaurant for dinner. Chris warned me to stay away from the pasta with fried frogs in it...I thought that was a good idea. Dinner was served by a very surly Italian man who seemed frustrated with our inability to speak his native tounge. Dinner was fabulous, and drinks and good conversation afterward provided the perfect nightcap to a very long day.
Talk to you soon...
Shane & Chris
