After our lovely long interlude in the Italian-Swiss Lake District north of Milan, it was almost a shock to return to the Big City. Fortunately, we had one night to decompress outside Milan, in an airport hotel, impersonal to be sure, but fully equipped with all mod cons. We had dinner with some of our group and breakfasted the next morning with those who still remained. Some had had to leave at a thoroughly ungodly hour in the morning.
We were quite smug. After all, we were not rushing to get anywhere - our train would not leave for Geneva before 12:30 - and we didn't have long, arduous, transatlantic and transcontinental journeys ahead of us. All we had to face was a train trip of approximately 3.5 hours, hardly an ordeal.
Our biggest concern was learning how to get to Milan's central train station from the hotel. But that proved to be fairly simple. We took the hotel shuttle to the airport and from there, we took the bus into town. The bus trip lasted about an hour and we arrived at
Milano Centrale in good time.
Milano Centrale is Italy's second largest train station, handling about 600 trains daily, in addition to bus, tram and metro networks. It is also considered to be one of the most beautiful train stations in Europe.
Considering all the liquids we had imbibed at breakfast, our first concern upon arrival after the hour-long bus trip was a visit to the "facilities." We tried to follow the signs, but each time, just as we appeared to be getting close, the signs would disappear and we would find ourselves haplessly lost again.
Fortunately, we were not the only ones in such need. Desperate people - especially this particular kind of desperation - love company. In our common need, we managed - finally - to find the appropriate area. Once again, however, we were stymied. Entrance to the coveted facilities was monitored by grim machines that would not let us pass unless we first fed them one EUR. And there were attendants to ensure that we did exactly that.
I am happy to report that we were able to find the necessary euros. After that, with great relief we had some time to look around the station and appreciate the artistic murals, juxtaposed as they were with modern advertisements.
Then we made our way to our train, boarded it and relaxed for our return to Switzerland.
Our wonderful trip to the Italian Lake District was officially over - except for sorting through the 1,000+ photos that we had taken - only a sample of which have been shown in these reports. We highly and heartily recommend this particular Road Scholar tour. It has been the only one I have experienced, but it certainly was worth while - and fun to boot.
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