19 March 2008

Post #45:  Como-Bellagio-Milan, Italy

This morning, we enjoyed a wonderful, quiet, breakfast in the hotel café in the old centre of Como.  The Hotel Posta was a quaint little place, and we had a room with a wonderful view of a shopping plaza courtyard and the hill, which shot upward from about six blocks away. 

After breakfast, we explored Como briefly.  We walked along the beautiful lakeshore, and stopped at Volta’s  Museum which is on a point along the shore.  We didn’t go in, as we were more interested in traveling north along the lakeshore, and we’d run out of daylight, If we lingered too long in Como.

We began our drive to Bellagio, from downtown Como, around 11 a.m.  It took about an hour to get to Bellagio, but it was the fastest hour I’ve ever spent.  It was just one breath-taking view after another, as we wound up and then down the mountain side that skirts the eastern shore of Lake Como. 

After touring Bellagio by foot, and having a snack at an internet café, where we caught up on e-mail and called the kids on Skype, we drove out of Bellagio, following a different route.  This time we drove up and out the eastern leg of the lake, toward Erba.  (Flashearth  or Google Earth maps give a pretty good aerial view of the place.)  As we were driving, I realized where I had heard of “Bellagio” before.  Funny, I should have remembered while at the wine-bar, because they had photos of George Clooney on the wall, and Dave learned that he is a regular there, and he has a villa on the other side of the lake. 

Bellagio is the name of the Casino in the movie “Ocean’s Twelve” (or one of the Ocean’s Eleven sagas) and Clooney is the star in the film.  Wonder if he helped write the screenplay!  Naming the Casino after his favorite Italian town…or is there really a Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Vegas?  Okay, someone go Google that…I’m too tired!

We were back in Milan before 5 p.m., and we learned, quickly, why everyone we spoke to said to not drive the city but stop and take a train in.  Driving down toward the centre was long, tedius and confusing.  But we ultimately found Boccaccia Street and a parking spot, (though it was for a residence only, and a nice young woman, who was standing on the sidewalk, next to her motorcycle, eating her ice cream cone, said she’d watch the car while we jogged a few block away, to the Cenacola Vincenti, where we hoped to go in and see Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper . 

We were directed through a church, where we first came upon a museum.  The woman in there directed us through a courtyard, into another church entrance.  We entered through large wooden doors, expecting a church lobby, only to find ourselves in a gift shop.  Items in there were primarily religious, including prints of the Last Supper.  We wandered out the other end of that place, and entered into a gigantic cathedral.  There were folks wandering about.  Clearly, some were tourists, but most were there for religious purposes.  An elderly woman and man were lighting a candle.  Behind them, in a narthex, was a man, on his knees before a priest, whose head was popping out of a confessional.  Clearly, confession was going on. 

We passed out the main doors, into a large, open courtyard, where children were playing, and to our right was a group of people, clearly tourists, standing outside a building adjacent to the church.  They all had tickets in their hands, and above the door behind them was the sign, “Cenacolo Vinciano” …which was our destination, so we dashed through the doors, and asked at the counter if we could get tickets.  The young woman said, “Sorry, but tickets must be reserved two weeks in advance.” 

Funny, we’d asked a number of people prior to making this trip, and they’d all said that you could just walk to the door and pay to go in.  We were a bit disappointed, as we also knew they’d recently limited viewings to only 15 minutes to pass more people through, so we were almost sure we’d get to see it.  Oh well, maybe next time!  Ha!

We jogged back to the car, and then drove out of Milan, the long, slow way, southward.  We found a shopping mall at the end of the city limits, and went inside for some dinner.  I had some wonderful pizza with artichoke, green olives, and cheese, and a fantastic side salad of mixed greens.  Dave opted for the triple-choice plate of pastas. 

We enjoyed our dinner, and then walked through the mall a bit.  We came upon an amazing store at one end of the mall.  It was like a Super-Walmart!  In fact, it might have been even larger than that.  It was certainly fancier.  The produce section was immaculate.  And the amazing thing is… we just stood there and galked, and then walked the other way.  We didn’t even shop!

We had no reservations for the night, so our plan was to head toward Genova (Genoa) and watch for hotels along the autostrade (like the autobon, the interstate highway, the express-way…).  We finally pulled off in Binasco, as we saw quite a few lodging signs, and after a bit of a tour of the town, we found ourselves at a three-star Hotel Ascot. 

It was late, so we got Bobby to sleep, checked e-mail, chatted online with Nichole, to see how she and the kids were doing, and then we worked on finding a reservation for Thursday night somewhere south of the Cinque Terre.   I fell asleep right after Dave booked a room.  I think my mind was finally able to rest, knowing we’d had a plan for tomorrow.

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