TravelinGirl

First post from the actual road - Hi folks. Typing from Venice, in a strange little internet cafe where a bunch of people are playing first person shooter games against each other. Could be home except for the cigarette smoke and foreign languages.

So far I've been to Lake Como. It's beautiful - think of the lake scene in the last crappy Star Wars movie. I think that was filmed at Lake Como. I met the first member of my tour group in the train station in Milan. Angie is also the person who lives the closest (in Fremont). [It's weird typing on this keyboard.] The tour is actually ending up to be really cool. The folks are nice (lots of food and wine people), and not too filled with old folks. It's nice not being the only single person on tour. And how weird is it to have only been feeling out of touch today by not having email?

Ok, this is going to be disjointed and out of order a bit because I'm having to think this thru backwards. Started in Milan (I still hate Milan - no change there - it's dirty and ugly and a pain to get into\out of except for the metro). The one fun thing about Milan was looking at the fashion - both on just the people walking by on their way to work (I've never seen so many women in 4 inch heels - I think they're not allowed to wear anything else), but also in the shop windows. It was when I was looking around at the names in the shop windows that I remembered that Milan is a world fashion capital. Too bad I have A) no money and B) no way to carry anything that I might want to buy.

Met Angie in the train station in Milan. She sat down on a bench next to me, saw that I was reading an English language book and ask if I was american, and then immediately if I was on the tour. We hit it off right away. She's probably in her early 50's, and we get along great. She's lot's of fun and adventurous. We almost got on the wrong train, but got it sorted and went to the train to Varenna. Varenna is a cute little town on Lake Como (which is sort of shaped like a man walking). We trekked up the hill a bit to our hotel, a cute little place overlooking some gardens and the lake. We had a getting to know you hour, and everyone on the tour just hit it off right away. We all then adjourned to a nearby restaurant (walking through the tiny town square, past the little church, through winding, picturesque alleys). The restaurant had an outside terrace overlooking the lake, and we had appetizers and wine and got a orientation to the tour. Our tour guide Tonya and the assistant Kitty told us what to expect, etc.

From there I went with my first roommate (they rotate the single travelers - in this case all women - at each stop) Nancy, and new friends Emily and the "fearsome foursome" (Marge\Donna\Tarnia and Carol - a bunch of fun older blonde ladies who are just a hoot - thank god they're here so I'm not the only alcoholic) and Angie went to dinner and dessert, and then for a stroll back to the hotel. The next day we took ferries around to a couple of cute little villages on the shores of the lake and just wandered around. Bellagio is a pretty little place - I can see why folks would retire to and vacation on Lake Como - I started to run out of superlatives for how beautiful it was.

Oops, in the interest of time at the internet cafe - the highlights. Next we went up into the mountains in northern Italy to the Dolomites. We wandered around a pretty German-looking area in alpine meadows. Lots of hiking, also lots of rain. Hiked up a mountain that had a ski lift on it (I'm sure it's much easier in the winter to go DOWN the hill). Also took the gondola down into the little town (whose name escapes me) for a lunch of Wienerschnitzel and pizza and minestrone (among the 3 folks). The gondola ride up thru the fog was eerie... FABULOUS dinners and meals and wine every day so far. I'll go back and detail that when I get home. Today we drove down the mountain to see Bolzano (another insanely cute little town - but Italian instead of German this time) and the frozen guy Oetzie (or something like that), a 5000 year old mummified\frozen guy. Then we came into Venice, where I found the internet again (hurray!) and where tomorrow I'll probably wander around Piazza San Marco, take a cruise up the grand canal, have a gondola ride, shop and look for my Italian sugar-daddy (yeah... right...). More when I can find another internet cafe - probably in a few days in Florence.

posted by Unknown @ 12:36 PM