By morning I had several e-mails from the airport and Lufthansa, all advising that my bags made it to Milan. With it being Sunday, they could not provide an estimated arrival time. Trying to make lemonade out of lemons, we elected to press forward. We were set to meet up with our tour group for welcome drinks and dinner at 6:00pm, so we spent the day exploring the small city of Como on foot. I had ordered us an audio walking tour, which we both downloaded to our respective phones. Similar to the Shaka guide we used in Hawaii last year, the tour described what we were seeing as we walked the city, while also directing us where to walk. It was a surprisingly good tour, and we both enjoyed it.
Como, During our Self-Guided Walking Tour
Pizzoccheri, which is the pasta shape famous in Como
The Duomo (or Cathedral) of Como
Back at the hotel, while inquiring about our luggage at the front desk, we met our tour director. His name was Johnny and he made a very good first impression on us. He offered to do all he could to help us with our luggage, even though he had no obligation to do so. More importantly, however, was that he pointed us to a grocery and department store nearby, where I could buy some essentials. I did buy toiletries, some underwear and a couple of t-shirts. I knew Lufthansa and our travel insurance would cover these expenses, but it was nice to at least have something different to wear to our arrival dinner, as well as things to properly bathe.
I was unable to reach anyone at the airport or the courier service, was allegedly had my bags, so we resumed out walking tour. We ended up at the funicular, which whisked us to the highest peak overlooking the city. We later learned that it is the steepest funicular in the world. There were lots of tourists, most of whom were American or from the Arab Gulf countries. Evidently a lot of wealthy Gulf Arabs come to Como with their families for the summer months. Much of the time it was impossible to remember that we were in fact in Italy.
We weren't able to spend much time up top, as we had to get back to the hotel, clean up, and meet our group. Though it was already 6:00pm, my bags had still not arrived, but at least I had a clean shirt to wear, lest my first impression with the group were to be of me in wrinkled, smelly clothes.
Museum Dedicated to Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the electric battery
World War Monument (Dedicated to WWI NOT WWII!)
View down to Como from Top of Funicular
Como from Above
Our group was exactly 36, plus our guide Johnny. This made for the largest group we'd ever had with Gate1. On every other tour, we always started the welcome meeting by introducing ourselves and saying how many Gate1 trips we have done. Invariably, though we've now done 11 tours, we were consistently on the low end, in terms of numbers. This time we didn't do formal introductions, but we gradually learned that we were in fact the most traveled in our group, with large numbers of people in our group having never done a Gate1 tour before, and many who had never even left the United States. It really showed that Italy is a kind of "gateway" vacation for Americans. All that said, the group was very nice and we very much enjoyed our table that evening. Johnny went through the basics of our itinerary, to include safety information.
While we were eating dinner, Johnny came up to report that our bags had arrived and he had them portered to our room, which was VERY welcome news. I know it had been only 24 hours, but I was overly relieved to have the bags back. We again collapsed into bed. With our first two days being so long, it all but guaranteed good sleep, with the added benefit of helping us avoid jetlag.
No comments:
Post a Comment