The second of our three European
Grand Tours – Southern France, Italy & Spain – started off in a
well-organized fashion. We had
less trouble packing than we thought, considering we were going away for three
weeks. Neither of our bags were
overweight and it somehow seemed less stressful getting everything
together. Perhaps all the travel
we have done over the last four years left us with something more than great
memories and clutch of fantastic photos.
We
didn’t even get stressed when we got to Aberdeen airport and saw a line up of
about 300 people for security. The
queue snaked outside the security area and almost outside the airport
door. Considering that we had
never seen more than 10-20 people in line, this came as quite a shock. The little sign above the security area
still helpfully blinked a message stating it would be only 4-8 minutes. We figured the line would take about
30-40 minutes to work its way through.
This wouldn’t be a problem for anyone at any normal airport where people
know to allocate sufficient time for security, but people come to Aberdeen
airport expecting to breeze right through in 5 minutes or less, so a bunch of
people got really antsy about missing their flights. This led to queue-jumping, and if there is one thing British
people will stand up for, it is the sanctity of the queue.
For
us it all worked out with minimal drama, we made it on board our flight just as
they were announcing last call. We
took a quick, painless hop to Heathrow, had a nice bite to eat and then boarded
our flight to Milan. Although it
was about a half hour late taking off, it too was relatively painless and the
cloudless skies gave us nice views as we came in to the city. Milan Linate airport was smaller than
we imagined, with only a 30 second bus ride from plane to terminal and an
imminently manageable luggage pickup – we were the first bags on the
carousel! So in a matter of
minutes we were at the car rental agency picking up the keys to our
Hyundai. A quick change of clothes
later to accommodate the increase in temperature and we were on the motorways
of Milan, snaking through the city and heading north towards Lake Como.
I
always worry a little bit about driving in a foreign country. First there is the rental car – you
always get something with a super loose clutch and there is nothing more
embarrassing than stalling out twice in front of the car rental people. But in this case the car was fine and I
have yet to stall it out. And
going back to a manual after more than a year of driving an automatic really
was no problem. Secondly, there is
the fact that you have no idea where you are going and signage isn’t always
overly helpful. But I’ve got the
Tom-Tom, loaded up with all new maps, and Fiona to interpret it’s
instructions. She’s probably a
more important navigational tool than all those satelites and computers. We made it through Milan without one
wrong turn and without having to cut any of the local drivers off. Next, there are the foreign drivers to
deal with. Having driven through
Italy before I was already comfortable with the maxim that the rules of the
road are really more like suggestions and that the only thing to concentrate on
are the things in front of you – everyone else can worry about the sides and
rear. Lastly, there are the
roads. Last time we were here we
stuck mostly to the autostrada, big open highways with perfect pavement and
excellent driving conditions. This
time we took a few smaller highways and a ridiculously narrow stretch between
Lecco and Bellagio where there were barely two car widths between the sheer
wall of limestone on one side and the lakeside barrier on the other. Oncoming traffic rarely slowed down and
was often cutting corners, so I would find myself in the unique situation of both
consciously thinking about which side of the road I was supposed to be on and
questioning my decision everytime I saw an oncoming car. It was a wee bit harrowing, but
thankfully was only a 20 km stretch of our journey.
We
arrived at our hotel and booked into our room, a second floor room with a
balcony overlooking the lake. The
views were spectacular, even with the humidity induced haze that seems to hang
over the whole area. You could
still clearly see the little villages on the other side, and every so often the
sun would burst through and hit selected patches of the mountain, turning the
dolomite this wonderful orangey-red colour. I think we sat out on the balcony and stared for quite some
time.
We
eventually went downstairs for dinner and had a great little Italian meal. Fiona had a nice pasta dish with leeks
and carrots and a delicate little cream sauce and I had terrine made from the
local lake whitefish. Fiona’s main
course beef was perfectly done and worked well with the local Lombardy wine we
tried. My curried chicken was a
less perfect match but was so deliciously tender that it didn’t matter.
After
dinner we came back up to the room and did a little bit of planning before
going to bed. It had been a long
day and we were quite tired. The
bed was large and comfortable and we knew that the morning sun and chorus of
birdsong that appears everywhere you go here would be waking us up early the
next morning. Plus, given the
beauty of our location we were excited about the opportunity to get out and
explore.
No comments:
Post a Comment