We took a quick one hour flight from Belgium to Milan, Italy, which had amazing views of the Alps. Our first priority after renting a car was to find the Indian Embassy and get our Visa sorted out. Alan printed the wrong directions in Belgium and we were left without a map and the additional pressure of only an hour until they closed until Monday. We soon discovered that there are two airports in Milan and we were at the one outside the city, like we needed another obstacle. Somehow we made it (through my wonderful navigational skills and Alan's excellent driving in these challenging video game like highways) without getting lost and with 20 minutes to spare!
A few days prior Alan had spoken to a guy named Fabio, yes Fabio, on the phone about the visa application process. Upon our arrival the man behind the front desk calls Fabio in. It turns out that Fabio is the owners son and Fabio LOVES New York City. Small talk lead to a drink and then lunch on the house (I say on the house but mind you there was a 55 Euro processing fee for the visa so you so the math!). After much talk about New York, (Alan had some difficulty relating at times to the great shopping in New York and the number of jeans one man can own) he gave us lots of ideas on where to go and soon we had ditched our plans to head up Northwest to Lake Como and Mt Blanc and decided to head Northeast towards the Dolomites and Lake Gorda instead.
We spent the second half of our day in Verona, a small touristy town with lots of charm (I mean Romeo and Juliet for crying out load!) and the night in a not so nice hotel.
The next morning, with just a map for guidance we headed north towards Lake Gorda, opting for the slow backroads that followed the lake North. Soon it came time to find a place to stay, we were tired of traveling and since we rarely make reservations ahead of time we needed to start looking. We decide on camping, even though we did not have a tent. This area is full of Italian tourists and camping is very common along the lake. We plop our things down on a site and set out in search of a make shift tent. In town we find a tarp and Alan assures me that "this will be great," and "it is so nice to sleep outside!"
2km up shore there is a small festival in Navera that begins in the evening complete with fireworks, we are the only Americans there and spent our evening people watching and eating. (I must say so far we have not been impressed by the food, that is until we reached Venice). The small firework show was nothing in comparison to NYCs 4th of July, but it did have a comical appeal. They would routinely shoot fireworks into the ground toward the festival area. Clearly not on purpose but it happened often nough to question their ability. It did provide a nice touch to the show though!
The night "camping" was miserable. The winds picked up soon after we had gone to bed and the tarp was flung around making so much noise and falling all over us that it made it impossible to sleep. I tired to crawl into the car but was only able to lay in the fetal position. After not much sleep Alan and I packed up our things and spent the day driving Northeast through the Dolomites. We passed through field after field of grapes and apples, taking small roads through mountain top towns with streets that barely had enough room for our car. We stopped for lunch at a biker bar. Motorcycles are very popular here and the riders are all decked out in the most extreme stereo typical outfits. We continued driving through Austrian inspired ski towns before heading south stopping outside a small town to stay the night at the cutest place! And enjoyed a bottle of wine outside taking in the great view before we headed out to dinner.
This new life of ours is surreal. Each morning we pack up our day bag and head out for an entire day of wandering. We are both finding out what our "roles" are. Alan always wants to figure out where we are going or where we are. I on the other hand enjoy being lost while in a city without having to worry about going the wrong way or turning here. In his defense his desire to pin point our locations does give us some important historical information and I have lead us to some pretty great undiscovered, less touristy areas.
--Mika
No comments:
Post a Comment