Straniero: The Northern Border

I love the sound of cups clinking in an early morning cafe. I can almost smell the coffee as I walk to the train station catching a line to Milano. Como and Milan. That is this weekend.

We board the train not realizing we have nice tickets that give us a cabin. More comfortable. More relaxing. Adam falls asleep quickly. I read Italian slowly.

When I get to the city that is the furthest north I have been in Italy, I get excited immensely. I am headed to a new place. Como, a place of villas on an Italian lake with Alps in the background. Only about 9 miles from Switzerland. Milano a city city. Hussle and bussle serious economic center of Italy. Yet here the image of an Italian is found. The stylishness they seek is on every person in this designer infested land. How many Italian designers can you name?

The train ride is long but pleasant. I am stunned along the cost. We pass the painted buildings of Portofino, the classic apartments of Genoa, the growing mountains of the countryside. I am glad to be awake. I am glad to be a traveller. I am extremely glad it is the weekend. I cannot wait to get a coffe in me and board the train for Como. Mountain laid lake...here I come.

We arrive at the Milan train station. It is huge and I love it. Reminds me slightly of an airport because of its size. Something about train stations romances me and my wanderlust spirit. We try to get our ticket. Success. We try to find our platform. Fail. We must wait another hour and then switch trains.

We decide to get coffee and wait. As I order due cappuccino, I already feel the rush of Milan.

After a bit of a wait we board the train to Bovisa. From here we take the train to Como. I board the train surrounded by skinny model looking people. This helps me become more self conscious. Yay models of Milan.

The train to Milan has a couple of kids that speak several languages. I decide I want bilingual children. You can order them that way, right?

I dreamt last night I went to Manderly again. The mysterious humid sexy romance of the story Rebecca is what I feel here in Como. Spectaculae views of lake and mountains through fog and moss covered statues. The erieness lends to the forbidden sex appeal. To the appeal of Como.

You and kind of see the Swiss influence. We took a Funicolare to the top of the mountain.

If Como represents desire, Milan represents constraint. We go out the first night we arrive in Milan. It is a Gothic city ran my the designer fashion industry. Everything is beautiful.

We meet a man at the bus stop who is one interesting character. A nice fellow, that was easy to talk to. He loved Modern Art, and shouted "O My God!" anytime I did recognize the name of a modern artist. He pulled out a piece of paper, and pen, and created his own characters in seconds. Pretty good. He spoke of his time in the US. San Francisco to be exact. He was interesting. We like him. We boarded the trolley with him, without tickets. We got caught, and fined. Oh, the seriousness of Milan.

The next day is one to relax and enjoy history and culture. We have tour of the Last Supper....Amazing! I learned such much. The history of the art, the story of a picture. Wonderful! Both Adam and I became awestruck nerds at this point. (EVERYONE WHO GOES TO MILAN MUST SEE THE LAST SUPPER!!!!) Our guide was excellent. His description of the painting made me even more blown away. Leonardo thought a lot about what had to go into making this painting. This moment in biblical history.

The rest of the day we relax. Go to the park. Sleep on a bench. See the French gift of the Arch of Peace. Enjoy the sun. Enjoy each other.

We sit down to eat before our train. I pull out the ticket to check something for some reason. Crap, our train leaves in five minutes. We rush to the platforms. Yay! Our train is delayed by ten minutes. We made it. Oh man. That means we have to walk home. After another four hours of travel, Adam gets Kebab-ed up and we make our way home. Home sweet Home.

Adam said the more and more he travels in Europe, the less it feels like a foreign country. It kind of makea it lose its luster. Agree. It means I am meltting into the culture. A good thing in a way but whan it comes to travel I love the exotic feel. This means next stop....Asia.