Lake Garda, Milan, Lake Como

In my week off after the first two subjects I spent a couple of days in Lake Garda with Chris and then went on to Milan and Lake Como for a few more days by myself. When we bought the train tickets to Lake Garda the day before we left, we were informed that we could only take the Eurostar to Padova, as there was a Train Strike. Unfortunately the lady selling us the tickets couldn't tell us if there would be a connecting train from there, as the train strikes are often localised. Fortunately when we got there, we found that the trains were running and we got to Lake Garda on time, but unfortunately had to pay more for the train tickets.

Lake Garda is a beautiful lake surrounded by Mountains on the northern side, and is frequented by many German Tourists. It was a welcome change hearing all the tourists speaking German instead of American as they do in Florence. We met some other Australian backpackers at the train station and spent the first day with them wandering around Peschiera del Garda, lazing on the beach and sampling some wine in one of the numerous wine bars in the town centre. We also hired some bikes and rode through a couple of the small towns in the afternoon. I also spent the next afternoon sailing on the Lake, which was probably the best way of enjoying it.

The next day I went to Milan, which I didn't like very much. I arrived at around midday and took about an hour to get to the hostel because of the hopeless directions they had given. The city is very modern and whilst it still has a lot of impressive sights it wasn't as I had expected it and I was quite disappointed. I spent the first afternoon wandering around the city centre and went into an Egyptian exhibition at a museum in the Castello, which had a few mummies and alot of the idols and other medallions and things that they would put into the caskets with the bodies. Unfortunately I was hassled quite a few times during the afternoon by numerous young men as well as having one of the African gypsies at the Piazza del Duomo attempt to swindle money out of me. They "give" you handmade bracelets and tie them to your wrist and chat to you for a while before they ask for money. If you don't give them any they say they will take it themselves out of your wallet. Unfortunately for this particular African , I wasn't about to part with any money and he had to walk away with no money and a bracelet less.

The next morning was spent looking at the main sights of Milan with a Belorussian girl I met at the hostel. The Duomo, which is one of the largest cathedrals in the world was very impressive with its many statues, pinnacles, pillars and flying buttresses. Unfortunately much of the front of the cathedral was covered by scaffolding, as part of the ongoing renovations, so much of the initial effect was dampened. The climb to the roof of the cathedral resulted in an amazing close-up look at many of the spires and a wonderful view of the surrounding city. After a wonder through the gardens at the Castello Sforzeco, where we were approached by a self-professed transsexual fortune teller who was determined to read our palms for a mere 7 euros each, which both of us declined we made our way to Lake Como for the afternoon.

Como is the main access town to the lake which we spent most of the afternoon at. It is a sleepy little town (well it was in the middle of May which was presumably prior to the peak tourist season) with a cute little city centre full of pedestrian lanes and little speciality shops. After wandering around the city centre for a couple of hours we made our way to the lake shore where we decided to rest for a while enjoying the view. After a while we noticed this small motor boat driving back and forth parallel to the shore line, laughing to ourselves as we assumed they were checking out the girls along the lake shore. They continued this for a while, and started coming closer to the shore, eventually waving at us and gesturing at us to go somewhere. When we then walked along the lake shore to the next town, they followed us for about 10 minutes trying to talk to us until they eventually realised that we weren't interested in them at all. The next morning I visited Corsa Bunos Aires for some window-shopping before heading home in the afternoon.