Italy: Chasing Rainbows

If all had gone according to plan, I would be on a tour of Eritrea, Djibouti, Somaliland and Sudan but plans go awry and with medical facilities post-COVID in short supply in the Horn of Africa and a civil war raging in Sudan, the tour company cancelled the trip. To salvage some of my flight plans, I invited a former work collegue, Maryann, to join me for a jaunt through Italy.

Thus we arrived in Milan one sunny mid-October afternoon. The weather forecast was not optimistic. While it had been hot and sunny for the preceding 4 weeks, the next few weeks were to be cool and rainy. We raced to Milan’s central Cathedral, the Duomo, in the hope of getting a few photos with a clear blue sky:

The skies started clouding over but the rain had not yet started so we enjoyed some outdoor sights, walking the terraces on the Duomo roof, visiting the Monuments Cemetery and gawking at the environmentally innovative Bosca Verticale apartment high rise with its plethora of trees growing on its balconies:

The rain started and we focused on indoor activities. Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper is Milan’s most famous art piece. Nearby, the Science and Technology Museum has a Leonardo da Vinci exhibit with many of his futuristic designs and drawings on display, with life-size models finally created in the 1950’s, beside the drawings.

The highlight of Milan for us was dinner at the 3 Michelin star restaurant Enrico Bartolini. This was a belated Happy 60th celebration, originally scheduled at another Michelin star restaurant in April, 2020 in San Sebastián, Spain. However, the pandemic happened and our dinner did not.

We arrived at 7:30 and were seated in a sparsely furnished dining room. The performance, and it can only be described as a performance began, with wait staff bringing our beautifully crafted dish after dish, each accompanied by explanations of the food, its preparation and its significance. A sommelier brought wine pairings for each of the 10 courses and even the chef himself, Enrico Bartolini, stopped by the table to say hello. Over the course of 5 hours our tastebuds were delighted with such delicacies as scallops, crab tacos, truffles, pigeon breast, eggplant emulsion in squid sauce, edible gold leaf, a spiced apple, etc. too much to remember but here are photos of just a few:

It was a lovely end to a few days in Milan.

Next up was a short trip to Lake Como. Sadly, the rain joined us and we got drenched in our 10 minute walk around the town of Menaggio. We cowered from the rain inside the ferry for our crossing to the pretty town of Belaggio, spending just a few minutes on its boardwalk before racing back to the cover of the ferry terminal:

It’s easy to see why people are charmed by Lake Como but that charm was obscured for us by the rain. Not a great visit.

The forecast was for a bit of sunshine the next few days as we drove to our next stop – La Speizia- where we would catch a train to Riomaggiore, the first of 5 villages making up Cinque Terre. The plan was to hike the seaside paths between the villages and return via a scenic boat ride.

Alas, it was not to be. Though the day was relatively sunny, the prior days’ rains had made the seaside paths too slippery. They were all closed:

A few of the high trails were open but we were warned they were slippery, difficult, dangerous and not recommended. We passed on the trails and resigned ourselves to taking the train between villages.

Unfortunately the boats were also not running due to high waves. So every potential hiker, boater and passengers from 3 cruise ships docked nearby all crammed into trains making the whole trip feel like a romp in the Tokyo subway at rush hour. We did make it to all 5 villages and, according to my I-Phone counter, climbed the equivalent of 55 flights of stairs and walked well over 20,000 steps so the day was not a complete wash out.

And we did see a bit of sun:

Next: In search of the sun in Florence