Michele arrived on Tuesday, 7/19. We picked her up at Malpensa Airport and hopped on the train back to Milan. We went to our apartment, dropped off her stuff and took the Metro to the Duomo where we then walked to our Salsamenteria for lunch. It was hot but we sat outside where there was a little breeze.
After lunch we walked a little bit and headed back to our apartment. Michele was tired from the flight and it was hot walking around. Once at the apartment, we tried keeping her up for a while but we lost the battle and she fell asleep. She was out for the night. The next morning we did a little more sightseeing. We took the hop-on hop-off bus around the city.
The last time we visited Milan (2014) we spent several weeks in Cinque Terre and our friend there, Claudio, insisted that while in Milan, we visit the Cimitero Monumentale, Milan’s central cemetery. He also told us to do the same in Genova which we visited after we moved from Milan to Genova on that trip. Anyway, these cemeteries, and I am sure others in the larger cities, are amazing. Many, heck most, of the tombstones and crypts are magnificent works of sculpture and could be in museums. Go if you have time. This is the front entrance to Cimitero Monumentale.
Just one gravesite to illustrate how beautiful and meaningful many of the gravestones are, and it is by no means the most majestic, intricate or ornate. This is where Daniela Samuele, the youngest member (16) of the Italian swim team headed for the 1966 Olympics, is buried. The Lufthansa plane with seven members and the coach of the Italian national swimming team on board was headed to Bremen, Germany, but crashed during the landing phase. All on board lost their lives.
The tour was really quite good, although warm in the direct sun. We always take the Hop On, Hop Off or equivalent open bus tours during our first time visits to cities like Milan, Rome or in other countries. As a minimum, they provide an orientation and enable us to decide where to visit during our time in that city. Anyway, it was getting pretty warm so we went to a restaurant we had enjoyed eight years ago. It was just as good. We enjoyed melon and prosciutto, then beer and pizza. It turns out that the maitre d’ had been the cook back in 2014! Time to head back to the apartment to relax.
Thursday we left Milan on a tour bus which took us to St. Moritz in the Swiss Alps. Now here is where the story changes! We signed up for the old fashioned, red Bernina Express train through the Italian Alps, crossing the border into Switzerland and heading to St. Moritz. We thought we were taking a bus up to the town of Tirano where we would catch the train! Not so – we discovered we would be sitting on the bus for 3-3 1/2 hours all the way up to St. Moritz. Regardless, the views along the way were fantastic.
We had a stop where we could have coffee and bathroom break for 30 minutes. Back on the bus and finally arrive at St. Moritz where we had 2 hours to roam around and eat lunch.
St. Moritz is absolutely gorgeous and the weather was beautiful. Much cooler but no one was complaining about that! Jim, Michele and I found a cute little restaurant and sat outside for lunch then walked around the town and stopped at the chocolate shop for – yep, chocolate of course!
Now it was time to head to the meeting point for the train – there were 48 people on this tour – so we were assigned two train cars – or so we thought! We board the train with other tourists shoving folks around to make sure they got a good seat. We just hoped we could sit together. I was with Michele but Jim had to pop into the second car. Suddenly our two tour guides say ok, we have to get off these cars and walk up to the main car where the tour group can all sit together. Oh dear me, here we go again – shove, shove, get to the other car and we three ended up sitting with other people because most of the other tourists just made sure they were seated together. I was only mildly annoyed but what can you do.
As we reached the lower levels of the mountains and reached Brusio, Switzerland, there is a descending loop that helps the trains drop height, or climb if headed up into the mountains. It’s as you’ll see below, the photos make great marketing tools for the train company as well as tour companies.
Ended up being a good tour but I had to keep standing up to take photos because I was not near the window – oh gee, imagine that. It was such a beautiful ride and the windows were open so it was nice and cool. Once we got back into Italy, it started warming up and it got a little hot by the time we got back to the bus in Tirano.
We boarded the bus and it was quite warm. Three and a half hours of this was going to be a problem. Everyone was hot and tired. Most slept but Michele was feeling horrible. Thankfully we made it to the rest stop where we bought cold drinks and that helped. Back on the bus it was much cooler since the driver left the bus and air conditioning running while we were inside so the rest of the ride wasn’t so bad. We left Milan at 7:30am that morning and didn’t return until 6pm. A long day for sure and boy were we tired. We all slept well that night.
Friday we had a relaxing day, did our laundry and just went out to lunch. Next adventure – Florence!