Day 4 Trieste, Venice, Milan, Como, Menaggio

Or The Train to the train to the train to the taxi to the boat to Jo.

We get up early but packing takes longer than expected. We do get to eat breakfast at the hotel. There were pears, yogurt, croissants, rolls, cereal, juice and I finally get my first cup of tea other than the plane.

We go to the train station and I really needed to use the facilities. I go into the restroom and it is a hole in the floor. I wish I had taken a picture. You hold onto a bar and do your business. At first I said I would wait for the train, but then I knew I could not wait. It was not as bad as I thought, but I don't want to repeat the experience. The train to Venice is not one of the nicer trains, but since we took the 8 am train, it is virtually empty and we have plenty of room. Venice is so touristy. This is why I didn't like it much in 1974 when I was in college. But everyone assures me that it is a fabulous city when you get off the tourist track, but we didn't. We walked around and took pictures.

Here is the canal in front of the train station.

The yellow boat is a police boat. I did not get a very good picture.

Someone enjoying a gondola ride.

A view of the town from the train station.

Another town view.

Bill feeding the Italian sparrows pizza.

A boat delivering the goods.

We continued the pizza tour. We ate our pizza slices and cokes on the steps to the train station. Bill fed the Italian sparrows and the pigeons pizza. They are true Italians. We stowed our luggage in the train station so walking around was nice.
Now we are back on the train to Milan! The train to Milan was uneventful. In Milan we switch to the train to Como. The Milan train station is incredibly busy all the time. We get on the train to Como and it is packed. All the tourists are on it. It is a small train too, so getting our bags to fit was interesting, but we did. Glad we only had small bags. We arrive in Como which is very lovely!!

Mountains all around with the beautiful lake! We take a taxi to the ferry terminal. The ride to Menaggio was fun, on the world's slowest hydrofoil.

Nothing like the one I rode on from Denmark to Sweden! We stop at the little picturesque towns and let people off.

We arrive at Menaggio and Jo is waiting for us. As we ascend the mountain to her house, the views are breathtaking. The house is beyond belief. And Jo as usual has seen to every last detail, almost. We had robes and slippers on our bed waiting for us.

The only thing missing was the chocolate on the pillow, but we forgave her for that.

We unloaded the car then immediately took the dogs for a walk up the mountain. The views are even more breathtaking!! Of course I am snapping pictures constantly. There are WWI trenches up the mountain.

We are not quite sure what the soldiers thought they were guarding or who would attack them here. We think they were hiding from the war. But they are quite interesting.

We came back to the house and drank too much wine, had a lovely pasta dinner and enjoyed fabulous company. I took pictures of the sunset. The sun sets behind the house but the mountains across turn red.

And they have had their first snowfall, so it is absolutely gorgeous.