Chaos and Trepidation Begin

After becoming accustomed to being led by professional guides and seeing much of the most beautiful art in the world, the tour officially ended at the Malpensa Airport and we then spent a day on our own in Milan, with the goal of placing making Leonardo DaVinci's"Last Supper" as our capstone event.

We fumbled unsuccessfully to crack the code to operate the pay phone to call our B and B for a ride from the airport. We were on a deadline to arrive in Milan by 2:00 for a tour through the worlds third largest church and to DaVinci's masterpiece, "The Last Supper". (We'd lost our cell phone in Rome.) We finally hailed a taxi, who thought the trip was too minimal for him and HE called the B and B host, who came and got us. Using the B and B's host's instructions into Milan, we navigated to the train station, 26 miles from Milan but almost took a train going the wrong way. We were saved at the last minute by a frail Italian boy whose dream was to come to America and work as a taxi driver. "I love America", he repeated over and over again. Taking the taxi from Garabaldi Station to the Duomo, we joined our three hour walking tour at the last minute in the drenching cold rain. We were already going in hyperthermia and George was feeling rotten.

This adventure felt like one of our famous canoe trips where I (Joanne) feel in danger of being perpetually lost. The walking tour was a torture. With all that said, we wouldn't trade comfort for this experience.

Lake Maggiore

There IS heaven on earth.


Looking out our balcony at Las Palmas



Las Palmas at Stressa


After Como, we continued our journey to our last stop of the tour, to Stressa, a quiet village on Lake Maggiore, in the Italian Alps. The long body of water extends to Switzerland. This is the lake Hemingway's protagonist, Fredrick, and his pregnant lover used to escape by boat from their responsibilities in Farewell to Arms.

The Hotel Palma on the lakeshore, was most comfortable. Our tour concluded with a first class dinner complimented with excellent wine. There were many interesting people on this tour, including a physicist, Peter, who help develop the MRI, an engineer and his wife from Salt Lake and an extended family from Texas, including a mother daughter pair. All together there were no real jackasses in the group, which really helped to make the tour so successful.

At dawn, before we took the bus to the Malpensa Airport in Milan we scambled to the lakeshore for one last picture. We are very happy as you can see.

To lake Como

We did not take the optional cruise on Lake Como, opting out for a lunch and stroll through the village and along the lake's edge. We opted out of seeing several villas owned by billionaires including Steve Jobs, George Clooney, and sheiks from Arabia. We also missed seeing the place where Mussolini was shot as he impersonated a soldier among a German infantry as they were trying to escaped the country.

Wow. The damage a deranged power monger can do. The people in Italy suffered perhaps as much or more than any other country in WWII from the decimations of towns, beloved churches, and art, due to that awful man's striving to build an Empire.

Observations:

We left Venice under a shroud of cloud. We rode in our Mercedes bus, a huge vehicle driven by Marisio, a very handsome Italian who resembled a young Mussolini. ( I imagine that before Mussolini practically ruined the country, he probably had a certain sex appeal.)

It was comforting watching Marisio driving this bus with the maneuvering capability of a sports car in tight places. It was also interesting watching Marisio and our guide Ricardo chatting en-route. Of note: these guys talked a lot, almost constantly at times and always passionately, when Ricardo wasn't giving us one of his magnificent mini lectures over a comfortable sound system.

It was fun watching these two guys, noting the difference between Italian males and most US males. I have never heard a group of guys in North Dakota chat passionately. Ricardo and Mariso obviously know each other and were very comfortable together. Their Italian hands were always a part of the conversation.

Another observation by Joanne: Italians seem to be petite. Small hands, very small feet. I only saw one obese person on the trip. Italians are slim and petite, for the most part. Pasta portions with their six course meals must be far less than those served at a Ground Round.

Death In Venice

George developed a nasty cold in Venice, which led him to describe it as "a pestilential city." It can have that appearance, especially when the fog is thick and the rain heavy, as it has been. George went on to recall Tomas Mann's "Death In Venice," where the protagonist, exhausted, yet with one great work still in him, comes to Venice and falls in love with a beautiful boy. Smitten, he lingers as the seasonal fever advances and all sensible tourists flee. He finishes the book (it is implied) and dies, looking at the boy, who is standing ankle-deep in the water at the beach. (At least that's George's memory of the book.)

I (George) wrote a conference paper about it, picking up on the dense, perhaps incomprehensible Apollonian / Dionysian themes and relating them to Neitsche's Birth of Tragedy". Of that paper, you could say I was in over my head.

Venice at Night

Walking through Venice at night, through the mist, past Guicci and Prada shops, past a high end art shop with a 4' by 4' portrait of a woman's face done in black and white blown glass, past the Rialto Bridge, and past St. Marcs, to the waiting water taxi at the edge of the Canal, was like encountering a fairy-tale world.

Perhaps the dog, sitting on the edge of the bow in the boat traveling behind us on our way back to our hotel knew something we didn't, but the etherial quality of the evening generated a peace that passeth understanding.

The Rialto Bridge

After our gondola ride, Ricardo led us to St. Marc's in the heavy heavy mist and then through winding streets and up narrow stairways to the unmatchable Rialto Bridge. Built in the late 1500s, the marble bridge has defied its critics to become one of the architectural icons of Venice. Compare the sturdy Rialto to a new bridge that was built recently for tourists to walk across. The new bridge separates the tour bus’ parking lot and the Grand Canal. It is serviceable but already sinking. The 500 year old Rialto is beautiful and remains in tact.