Northern Italy
A week after I got back from Barcelona I moved to a bigger apartment.
While I loved my last place, and especially my landlady, it was time to find
something bigger. And OMG is this place bigger! It has 3 bedrooms, it's closer
to the waterfront, and there is a large kitchen with a formal dining room. The
master bedroom alone is probably bigger than my last apartment. It's very light
and airy, with large windows in each room. There is usually enough of a breeze
that I have to prop the doors open or they slam shut. I don't have air
conditioning, which is the only disappointing thing. The reality is, I only
need it for two to three months out of the year, so it's not that big of a
problem. It is possible to get a portable AC unit, so I may try to get one for
next year.
The move itself went very smooth. I had more stuff then I thought; oh my
how it accumulates. I had 2 people helping me and I ended up using a cab
company. The two places are a few blocks apart and I initially thought about
just loading everything in rolling suitcases and each of us wheeling something
over. When I saw how much it was however, I knew that wouldn't work. So, I
called the cab company and asked for a van. The driver went way out of his way
and helped us load everything. The 3 of us carried boxes out and he stacked it
all in the van. When we were finished it only cost me €15 or about $18. I
tried to give him a €10 tip, but he
wouldn't take it. Can you believe it? I did get him to accept €5, but he still thought that was too
much.
Once I got settled in, it was time for a house warming party
and what a great party! I had a full house, with people spilling onto my tiny
balcony. It was a house warming in every sense of the word too; it was hot!
People had sweat running down their faces and almost everyone had a wet shirt.
I couldn't believe how long my friends stayed! Most stuck it out till about 10
pm with a few brave souls even hanging in there till midnight. It really made
me appreciate how many great friends I've made in such a short time here. I
also started game night once a week. That too has been a lot of fun. I am so
happy I finally have room to entertain!
I've been trying to learn a little Danish because my boyfriend
is from Denmark. It's hard and I've only learned about 100 phrases. The
problem when I speak to other Danish speakers, is they actually answer in
Danish! I haven't learned the responses to my phrases just yet. Oh well, it's
a long process LOL. I am lucky enough to have several friends who I can
practice with, but everyone generally speaks English because no matter
where they are from, that's the common language. When I was in the Air Force, I
was stationed in Germany from 1984 to 1987. During that time I spoke
great German and I still remember a bit even though I haven't spoken it in many
years. There are many German speakers here, and unlike most of my friends, they
do tend to speak German to each other even if no one around them understands. I
had decided when I first got here that I was going to re - learn German and I
have made some half hearted attempts, but I have now decided to get serious and
actually take classes. I start in October. German is the 2nd most spoken
language in Europe and as I said, there are a lot more German speakers to
practice with. I feel like I have to learn German if only in self defense, so I
know what those around me are saying. Lucky for me, Mic speaks some German
too. I told him it should be so exciting for him, to try and figure out if I'm
slaughtering Danish or German.
I have continued to try and lead a more healthy life style and have lost
almost 30 lbs. Of course walking everywhere helps, but I also joined a gym and
try to go at least a few times a week. During the summer, I lost all motivation
to walk anywhere because of the heat and humidity. It's finally cooled off
enough to venture outside, so I may have to take up walking again. My gym has
an indoor pool and spa area, so that should be nice for when the weather
actually turns cold.
Mic and I decided to go to northern Italy for our next trip. On the fight,
there was an announcement that peanuts would not be served because there was
someone on board with a severe peanut allergy. I can understand the person
sitting right next them not eating peanuts, but the entire plane? When the
flight attendant came by, I asked if I could have our peanuts for later. He
said no, especially since the person was sitting right next to me. When I
looked over at him, he had a look of absolute horror on his face. I told them
both, I meant after we left the plane. No joy, they wouldn’t give me the
peanuts. I think we should have gotten a refund on our plane ticket for our
inconvenience. Although to be fair, planes in the US never serve peanuts for
the same reason.
We flew into Milan, took a bus to the central station, then took the train
to our destination - San Remo. It was a long day and we got there around 9:30 in
the evening. Mic lived in a nearby town a few years ago and was excited to show
me his old haunts. Unfortunately he was not familiar with the area of San Remo
where our hotel was, so we took the very scenic route, dragging our bags behind
us the whole way. Up and down the narrow little streets we trudged with our
obedient little carry-ons right behind us. Of course all the people sitting at
the cafes watched us go by. At one point we walked down this narrow street,
past the many watching eyes. At some point we realized we took a wrong turn and
needed to go back. I said no way are we walking that particular gauntlet
again. We decided to go around the block instead and we were so glad we did
because we found the most beautiful Russian church tucked away down a side
street. It was top on our list to go back to in the morning.
The hotel was small but very friendly. It was simple, nothing like the
super nice one we had in Barcelona, but we were only there for 2 nights.
Although it was late, we wanted some dinner, so we headed out to find something
still open. We found a little pizza place who said they closed in 30 min, but
it was enough time to serve us. I didn't want a big meal right before bed, so
we thought we would split a pizza. Oh no, they said, we each had to order one.
Uh OK. The two waiters and the owner were watching a soccer game and seemed in
no hurry, so I guess the 30 min deadline they gave us would not be enforced.
They brought the pizzas out and we dug in. About half way through, I bit into
something hard. Turns out it was the twist tie from the cheese, baked into my
pizza. The owners reaction? Yea, that's a twist tie from the cheese, here's
you bill.
All through dinner, these men walking around selling roses approached us.
Most asked if we wanted one, we said no thank you and they left. Some were more
persistent. One just stood there looking at us, long after we said no.
Eventually he gave me three and said it's a gift. I said thank you and kept on
eating. He kept standing there. I gave him one euro and he took two of them
back. Some gift LOL. This was a problem at every meal on this trip. It was
so annoying to be constantly interrupted. One got really aggressive, and I got
really rude. Eventually our waitress chased him off, but I wondered why
restaurants allowed them to bother the patrons. It really made me not want to
eat at the cafes in the city centers. 
We went down to breakfast the next morning and I was offered coffee,
but said no thank you. (I hate coffee) He then offered me tea. Again, I said
no thank you. He seemed genuinely perplexed. He offered me several varieties
of each, but I still said no. Apparently it was so unusual that the other
people eating breakfast began talking to him, in Italian of course. It was
clear they were talking about me. If they were this upset at me for not
drinking coffee or tea, I wonder what they would have done if they saw me
drinking soda for breakfast. Too bad they didn't have any. The hotel had a
mascot, a very friendly little rabbit. Rabbit is a common meal in Malta so of
course one of the first comments to my Face Book post was how yummy he looked.
He must have been pretty happy there because all the doors were wide open, he
could have left at any time.
We rented 2 bicycles for the day and headed to the Russian church first.
This beautiful structure was erected in 1912 as a legacy of the Russian Empress
Maria Alexandrovna. The Russian nobles of the 19th century used to vacation
here. After some quick pictures, we rode 10 miles to Ventimiglia, right on the
French border. It was a quaint little town with a great market that had fresh
fruit, flowers, household goods, clothes, purses, watches, and all kind of
things. Mic showed me where his apartment was and all the places he used to
hang out. He wanted to have lunch at his favorite restaurant, and I must admit
it was really good. It was a Chinese buffet with a very nice sushi bar. The
food was really, really good and we stuffed ourselves. After lunch, we hopped a
train to Menton, France on the French Rivera. (Pronounced like Montauk, NY) By
mid afternoon, we were so sleepy from our bike ride and huge lunch that we
decided to take a nap on the beach. It was a perfect day; there was a nice
breeze, it was an actual beach with sand, (OK pebbles) and some very nice
shade. It was windy enough that we could hear crashing waves too. Soon
enough we were both snoring away. Literally, we both started snoring as soon as
our heads hit the ground. We were woken up by a screaming child; such a treat,
but the short snooze did us good. After wandering around a bit we hopped a
train back to Ventimiglia. As we crossed the boarder back into Italy we saw the
Italian police boarding the train en mass. They were looking for illegal
immigrants trying to sneak across the boarder. There seemed to be a small
migrant camp in an abandoned hospital near the train station. There were plenty
of people just sitting around, but they didn't seem to be bothering anyone.
They appeared to be from northern Africa, like the ones we get in Malta, and not
Eastern Europe or Syria like you see in other parts of Europe.
The bike ride back to San Remo was much nicer. During the ride there, we
rode on a busy highway. Coming back, we found a nice bike path. We stopped for
dinner and I had tortellini with a cream sauce. I like to add some red sauce so
it's not quite so rich. Apparently, this really puts people off and the
waiter looked at me like I had two heads, much like they did at breakfast LOL.
I had a similar experience each time I ordered pasta. They sure are judgmental
in this neck of the woods!
The next morning we hopped a train to Genoa. This did not make my list of
favorite places, it was much too industrial. Once in Genoa, Mic and I split
up. He went to a convention for work and I rented a car and drove down to an
army base, Camp Darby. I was pretty excited to be driving again, it had been
almost a year. Even better, it was a stick shift. I was looking forward to the
drive along the coast, I was told it was very beautiful. Unfortunately, most of
the drive was through tunnels. Once there, I was further disappointed by the
size of the base. It was very small and looked almost deserted. I was looking
forward to shopping at an American store, especially one where I didn't have to
pay the 18% VAT tax. The store was tiny, and sadly as soon as I entered, they
announced the store would be closing in 15 minutes. Luckily (sadly) that's
exactly how long it took me to go through. I had much better luck at the
grocery store where I had fun getting some food I had missed. Mic really likes
black licorice so I got him 3 packs. I also got the fixings for a Thanksgiving
dinner I'm hosting for my friends. Of course I had to get some Mt Dew which we
don't have at all in Malta. I also got a few root beers, so I could make some
root beer floats at home. I made coke floats a few weeks ago and people liked
them. I told them the root beer floats were even tastier. The drive back was
much better as I sucked down my junk food and soda. At dinner, yes I saved some
room, I was again scorned because I asked for red sauce to mix in with my
carbonara, but it was really good so I didn't care. The flower peddlers didn't
seem as aggressive here.
After a quick breakfast the next morning, we headed out to return the
rental car. We had to fill the car with gas; no problem. How hard can that
be? Turns out, harder than we thought! All the stations were un attended, the
first one we couldn’t figure out how to pay, there was no credit card scanner on
the pump. Another car pulled up, the driver looked around just like we were and
got back in her car and left. At the 2nd station we eventually spotted a
single pay machine for all the pumps. It was in Italian of course and not easy
to figure out. We tried a few times, but couldn't get the pump activated. We
looked around and saw people at another station across the street and those
pumps seemed to be working, so off we went again. Eventually we figured out
that one problem was it wanted a pin. My credit card doesn't have the chip that
European cards have, so I have no pin. OK, now were getting someplace. But
sadly, not much farther, it didn't like Mic's card either. Eventually a
friendly Italian guy came up and tried to help. He couldn't figure out how to
activate the pump either but the 3 of us agreed it may be the pump. We knew his
pump worked, so as soon as he left, I moved over to his pump and viola, it
worked! Well, that only took an hour out of my life!
When I looked at the paperwork for my rental car, I noticed I was
overcharged for the insurance. I asked about it at the rental desk and he said
part of it was damage insurance and part was theft insurance and something about
a deductible. Regardless of the reason, when I rented the car, I had a
guaranteed price that said no hidden charges. I guess I'm writing a letter to
Avis because the hidden charges almost doubled the price of the car. The day
didn't get any better as we missed our stop on the shuttle back to the city
center and got to see the same route in reverse. We found a great little
Chinese place for lunch. Not as good as the one a few days before, but pretty
good. I didn't care for the pizza we had eaten so far and I was getting tired
of pasta so the Chinese was quite tasty.
After lunch we went to Via Garibaldi, it's a central street in the
historical district dating back to 1550. Since July 2006 Via Garibaldi has
been inscribed in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites as part of the system
of the Palazzi dei Rolli and Strade Nuove del Centro Storico of Genoa.
There were magnificent palaces on either side of the street and the narrow
street itself was quite pretty. There were beautiful gardens and frescoes
painted on the side of the buildings. The surrounding streets and alleys were
pretty narrow and not very note worthy. All over the city, we saw graffiti on
every available space and it made the area look really seedy. I noticed it in
San Remo as well, but not as much. Some of it may have been 'street art' but
most looked like spray painted names and initials.
We ended up wandering around and got completely turned around. Unlike
Barcelona, these alleys didn't have anything to see. There were no shops, just
apartments. Eventually we found our way back to where we started, near a large
aquarium and decided to go check it out. It had several nice fish exhibits and
a pool where you could touch some small rays. Most of them seemed to be
resting, but one little guy was quite active. He was swimming along the top of
the water with his head out, looking around. He swam a few laps like that then
upped the ante and got about 50% of his body out of the water, kind of skimming
the surface vertically. I'm not sure what he was doing, but it looked pretty
crazy. Just as I got my camera out he quit and went to the bottom and
apparently went to sleep. Just my luck! The next exhibit was a group of
dolphins. Of course they were pretty entertaining, but one thing I had never
seen before was them blowing bubbles from their air holes. They formed perfect
rings which they would watch rise, then they would swim up and pop them. I
thought this was some unique thing these particular dolphins did to entertain
themselves, but a quick google search shows that it's pretty common. Well,
neither Mic nor I had heard of it, so we spent quite an enjoyable afternoon
watching them play.
The next morning we were back on a train, this time to Milan. We
arrived at the train station in plenty of time and I got to do some serious
people watching. One interesting sight was a lady walking a dog. Dogs are
allowed on the train and in the station, and are not an uncommon sight. This
was a border collie mix and while his mom may have had him on a leash, he was
the one in charge. He was holding his leash in his mouth and leading her
around. I'm guessing they were regulars and visited the station all the time as
he seemed to know where he was going. There was also an older man, who put his
(presumably) granddaughter on top of his carry on bag and was wheeling her
around. You could see this coming from a mile away, but he was going too fast
and the little girl was too far forward and soon enough, both toppled over. The
man did an almost perfect tuck and roll, but the little girl fell flat on her
face. She was unhurt and apparently though the whole thing was pretty funny
because she laughed and laughed!
Our train finally arrived and we made our way to our car. We got behind a
couple with a lot of luggage. I'm talking 6 or 8 bags at least. Sadly, they
were in our car and their luggage was everywhere. Mic helped them get the
bigger ones up on the racks and the rest were lined up in the very narrow
corridor. When they sat down, we realized there weren't 2 but 3 of them and too
many people in the car. A quick check of the tickets revealed they were not
only in the wrong seat, but in the wrong car all together. It probably took the
3 of them a good 30 minutes to move all their luggage 2 cars down to their right
seat. I felt bad for them, we had done the same thing on an earlier trip.
Our hotel was very nice and after checking in, we made our way to the city
center and the beautiful Milan Cathedral or Duomo di Milano. The Gothic
cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete, beginning in 1386. It was the
5th-largest church in the world and the second largest in Italy. The
cathedral was undergoing renovation and I was sickened to see huge flashing
billboards hanging from the sides. It seemed sacrilegious, not to mention a
gross display of greed. At least the front of the cathedral had no billboards,
so we did manage to get some great pictures. We were there right at sunset and
the light was perfect. There were Italian military guards at the entrance and
they had these little caps with feathers sticking out of them, they reminded me
of Robin Hood. Not a very fierce looking group.
In the morning we had a fantastic breakfast buffet, including a row of
homemade cakes and pies. Mic and I had previously gotten into a conversation
about taking food from a buffet. I agree at a regular restaurant, you are not
allowed to take food home, but at a hotel breakfast bar it is acceptable and
something you see people do all the time. In fact, I've had the hotel staff
give me a fresh napkin. I'm talking about a piece of fruit or maybe a muffin
for later. Mic is all too happy to enjoy said fruit or muffin that I nick, but
he would never dream of doing it for fear of being caught. We revisited this
conversation when he pointed out a sign that said do not take food out of the
restaurant. Well, this is the first such sign I ever saw at a hotel breakfast
bar. Needless to say, there were no goodies for him later that day LOL.
Our final day in Milan was cold, dreary and rainy. We walked around doing
some window shopping, but we just weren't feeling it, so we headed to the
airport. We got there early enough to have a nice lunch. Just as we were
finished eating, Mic heard us being paged. It couldn't be, since we had about
15 more minutes before boarding. We paid up and hurried to the gate, only to
find no one there. Seems they had actually boarded early, who knew? It was
especially unusual for the Maltese to do anything early. Well, we were the last
on the flight and sitting in the very back, so we had to walk past every glaring
eye on the flight. As the Maltese say, Mela!
Link to Pictures
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