Milan and Lake Como (Heaven on Earth)

WOW WHAT A WEEKEND!  Definitely, a weekend trip to remember for a lifetime!  Our journey started off by Shannon, Torri, and I hopping on our first train ride to Milan early in the morning.  This was my first long train ride ever!  I would say it went smoothly when we arrived just in time to Milano Centrale train station.  When we got off the train, our long day of “transportation adventures” began.  We scrambled out of the train station and into the first taxi we see as fast as we could so we could spend ample time in the city of Milan.  We told the taxi driver to take us to Quadrilatero d’ Oro, “Rectangle of Gold”, where Milan’s famous boutiques including Prada, Armani, Chanel, Versace, etc are located.  We just looked at each other while sitting in the taxicab and laughed.  We were in a town where no one knew who we were and had never been and literally pointed on a map and said take us there, not even knowing if we were correct about the location.  Haha.  So, we get dropped off on some street, and the taxi driver just points in a direction, and we walk that way.  We passed by some famous stores like Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Gucci so we assumed we were in the right place!  We did a little shopping ya know just in and out of the stores, a couple purses, some shoes….yeah right haha.  More like a little window-shopping!  Hehe.  We enjoyed lunch outside under a canopy at San Babila Café that faced a huge intersection with a fountain in the center.  It was so funny trying to find the bathroom at this little Café.  I was sent on a wild goose chase inside of this “lobby like” corridor, through a series of doors, up a spiraling staircase, out another door, across a terrace, and into a shack like room on the roof.  It is always an adventure finding the bathroom in Italy.  Actually, it’s funny, they call it “toilette” here.  

first train ride! 

Anyways, after pesto pasta and some water, we set off to explore Milan and find the Duomo.  On our way into H&M, there was this man dressed in a full on Indian chief costume playing a wooden flute and a woman dressed in a Pocahontas like costume playing a long wooden instrument.  They had a huge set up with all these other detailed instruments and a sound system.  They were in the perfect location where the music bounced and echoed off the walls and made this peaceful, harmonious sound.  It was a beautiful thing to be happening in the middle of somewhere so chaotic.  I appreciate those moments so much.  The architecture in Milan was so big and beautiful!  Milan seemed sort of like the New York of Italy with lots of big city qualities and fashionistas roaming the streets.  When we finally found Milan’s Duomo, there was A LOT of commotion and an abnormal amount of crowds.  What was going on??  We discovered that the Pope was coming!!  How amazing!  Unfortunately, he was coming at 6 p.m. and our train was leaving at 6:10 so we were going to just miss him!  The Duomo was so beautiful that it honestly looked like a fake picture was just painted into the sky.  You couldn’t believe that it was right there in front of you.  Shannon, Torri, and I enjoyed some of the most delicious gelato we’ve had this trip (dark chocolate and some cookie/vanilla swirl flavor for me).  

street performers 

Pascal from Tangled!  I need one of these! 

Ferrari Store 

The Duomo in Milan

Since there were so many crowds due to the Pope coming, we decided to head to the train station early because if we missed our train to Como, there was no way of getting there.  So, we wander sort of far away from where all of the hullabaloo was happening to grab a taxi.  We hop in our taxi, tell him where we need to be, and he takes off.  Suddenly, he starts saying cuss words in Italian, driving in circles, and rolling down his window asking all of these cops who are directing traffic questions.  He makes it aware to us that lots of roads are blocked off for the Pope.  He tries his best to get us to the train station and eventually pulls over, drops us off on the side of the road, and tells us that this is as far as he can take us.  He didn’t make us pay anything, so that was really kind of him!  At this point, I’d say we were a bit freaked out because we had no clue where we were or what direction we should be heading.  We take off sprinting towards an intersection with a lot of police officers.  One of the officers tells us a general direction to go (of course in broken English), so we just take off again.  We look so pathetic racing through the streets of Milan with our big backpacks springing off our backs.  We literally have no idea where we are and somehow, after about fifteen minutes of sprinting around, God sent us a little gift from above.  It seemed as if the taxi sitting on the corner was glowing and angels were singing from above.  A taxi that was on the other side of the blocked roads!  It was definitely a blessing from God because there was NO OTHER taxis around!  It was meant for us!  This kind taxi man takes us to our train station literally ten minutes before our train needs to leave.  #thatawkwardmomentwhenthepopealmostmakesyoumissyourtrain We have become the queens of cutting it close.  He also told us that he loves Texas!  Yay!  When we finally plopped onto the train, we released a big breath and sunk in our chairs.  We made it!  Our car on our train had no air conditioning, so we enjoyed a nice little sweat on the way to Como.  Thank goodness it was only a forty-five minute ride!  Once we get to Como, we head straight to the place to purchase our bus tickets to ride from Como to Cremia, where Hotel Lumin was located.  I had called our sweet little hotel guy earlier that day and followed his instructions to the tee on what bus tickets to ask for.  All I could understand him say on the phone was “direction Colliko to Cremia!” in his little cheerful voice.  (I later find out that he can only speak a few words in English, but is fluent in Italian, German, and some sort of Scandinavian language).  The bus ticket guy understood!  Yay!  He says the bus comes every hour.  So, we sit and wait for thirty minutes, forty-five minutes, an hour, and hour and fifteen…hmmmmm.  Where is our bus?  We were so thankful we had these little train station friends that helped us out and told us which bus was ours (they all looked the same).  But, it was never coming!  Finally, it arrived about an hour and a half later.  We show the bus driver our tickets and in our little American girl voices ask him, “Cremia?”  He said, “No, no Cremia.”  We didn’t know what to do so we just walk to the very, very back row of the bus and pray that we are going the right way and this bus will take us to Cremia.  Hahahaha.  We resort to asking the entire bus, “Who speaks English?  Can anyone help us?  Is anyone going to Cremia?”  Not a peep from anyone.  They just look at us with these faces like, you poor little American girls, I am so sorry I can’t help you.  So, we go to the people sitting near to us individually and ask them to help.  We get one guy who finally says to get off on the last stop!  I forgot to mention, this bus ride one) makes me incredibly car sick because the bus drives about 100 mph up and down and around these cliffs and narrow roads and two) gives us the most beautiful sight I have ever seen.  I would call it the most terribly sickening and beautiful ride I’ve ever experienced.  Haha.  We trust our little friends, so an hour later, we get off on the last stop.  We ask the bus driver one more time when we are stepping off, “Cremia?” and he just points in the left direction of a fork in the road.  Uh oh.  Now, we just got off the bus and are stranded again.  At this point, we are starving, sweaty, exhausted, and on the verge of giving up.  We were so close though!  We march our way over to a random pizzeria down an alleyway.  We ask the first man we see, it seems as if he is in charge of the place, to please call a taxi for us.  By the grace of God, he has a friend who is a taxi driver who pulls right into the alleyway to pick us up five minutes later.  We show our third taxi driver of the day the address to Hotel Lumin, and he knows exactly where it is!  By the time we get into this taxi, we are delirious and laughing at everything.  We can see the finish line!!!!!!!!  When we arrive at the gorgeous Hotel Lumin, we want to kiss the ground.  It is nighttime now.  We go into the lobby, ring the bell, and the little guy (when I say little guy, I am more speaking of a smaller older man who just has the sweetest face, so I feel like saying little guy, haha) who I must have been on the phone with earlier that day rides his little bike right up to the desk.  It was like from a movie!  So adorable!  Haha.  He had our keys ready and everything.  After we threw everything down in our room, which had the most BEAUTIFUL VIEW of Lake Como, we were so happppyyyy!!!  Shannon and I were so proud of us for doing such an amazing job of planning our trip!  How in the world did we get so lucky to find a hotel, which was more like a bed and breakfast that was RIGHT along the water?  It was the cutest place.  It had only thirteen rooms with a very personal environment.  Go us!  Success!  Shannon, Torri, and I scurried down to Ristorante Pizzeria Lumin to enjoy some pizzas and wine.  The perfect way to end our very very very long day.  We ate our pizza on the outside patio of the restaurant at a table where we could see the dark outlines of the mountains in the distance and the moonlight gleaming on the lake water.  So peaceful and beautiful.  There was nowhere else in the world I wanted to be.

Saturday morning we woke up and enjoyed some Italian style hotel breakfast on the same patio we did the night before.  Except, now we could see everything in front of us: the wispy clouds still lingering at the tops of the mountains, the sparkling water lapping along the shore, the green trees and flowers all along the railings surrounding the hotel.  Our agenda for the day included nothing at all.  Just the way I like it.  I took my time soaking in every beautiful thing about Lake Como and my surroundings.  The girls and I laid out all day on a large patch of grass sort of like the “backyard” of the hotel that was right along the lakeshore.  (Pictures will help explain the set up.)  The clouds gradually cleared and revealed the massive forest covered mountains in front of us so that we could see every detail.  I could even spot some mountains in the distance that were snowcapped.  It became the most picturesque day you could imagine.  The weather was flawless.  Just close your eyes and imagine THE PERFECT DAY in your head.  Sunshine, but not too intense or blinding.  A slight breeze to keep you cool.  A few clouds in the sky.  Crisp air.  The bluest sky you have ever seen.  The greenest trees and vegetation.  Pops of purples and pinks in the flowers.  Perfection.  I just sat there in my lawn chair all day listening to my iPod and the sound of the waves, reading Mockingjay (the third book in the Hunger Games series), soaking up the sun, and reflecting on my life.  Lake Como was a place that I imagined my heaven to be exactly like someday.  Truly heaven on earth.  There have only been a few moments like that in my life where I felt God so close to me.  I never wanted to leave and now writing about my time there now makes me want to go back so badly.  I made a promise to myself that day that I had to come back someday no matter when or how.  I was able to Facetime my mom, my dad, and my sister at the hotel restaurant so I got to pan around my phone and share with them all of the beauty!  But you really cannot understand just how stunning the view is, unless you are there.  As I was on the phone with them, I told them about all of the diversity at our hotel.  It was the coolest thing because I promise you, we were literally the ONLY three people at that place that spoke fluent English.  Everyone else seemed that they were from places all over the world; it seemed as if a majority of them came from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, etc.  We were completely the minority.  I love that!   Such a cool cultural experience.  If I were to recommend anywhere to go in Italy at this point or even the world…definitely Lake Como.  I wish for everyone to have the great experience and feeling that I had when I was there.  While laying out, I noticed that wind surfing and wind sailing was an extremely popular sport on Lake Como.  I would say there were about thirty to forty or so of them doing there thing right in front of us at the hotel.  I was so intrigued!!  One day, I would LOVE to try to wind surf/wind sail.  It looks so exhilarating and I would feel so accomplished if I could do it!  

Gorgeous view from our balcony! 

All of these pictures are what I got to gaze at all day long by the lake. 

Hotel Lumin 

Snow capped peaks! 

The restaurant where I enjoyed many meals and got wifi to Facetime/talk on phone. 

After our long day of relaxation, Torri, Shannon, and I got dressed to go eat dinner at a seafood place called La Baia.  This was about one hundred yards away from Hotel Lumin, so we didn’t venture too far, but this was located near a little sailboat area.  Super cute.  Haha.  I ordered the fried fish, Torri ordered the swordfish, and Shannon ordered pasta with salmon.  OMG.  This was the first meal I ordered where I never expected to get what actually showed up in front of me.  When the waiter delivers my dish, I look down with probably the most puzzled/interested/disgusted look of my life.  On my plate was completely intact mini fish merely covered in this fried layer.  I could see its eyes!!!  Yucky!!!!  Thank goodness I had salad and breadsticks to survive off of that night.  Hahahaha.  I was pretty funny.  I just said, “it had to happen at least once!”  It’s all about the memories. :)  The girls and I were excited for the “beach party” that was supposedly happening after dinner.  Then, we realized there wasn’t one…hahaha.  Don’t know how that one got by us.  We ended up wrapping up in blankies, sitting on our balcony, watching the almost full moon glittering across the dark blue water, and bonded with some girly talk about life and everything.  Another perfect ending to a perfect day.

Balcony pic! 

my DELICIOUS meal

The moonlight on the water! 

We woke up on Sunday and enjoyed another breakfast on the patio.  The weather seemed to be a bit more gloomy that morning, so we felt like Saturday was a little gift from God!  We came the perfect day!  I didn’t want to leave at all.  While checking out of the hotel, we asked how to get to the bus stop, if we had the right bus tickets, and if our tickets would take us to the train station in Como.  There were about five waitresses from the restaurant combining everything they knew in English to help us out.  It was so sweet!  You could tell they really cared about us getting home safely.  As we said our goodbyes and were walking away to start another day of traveling, you could tell on their faces that in their heads they were saying, “poor American girls…I really hope that you all make it home!”  Haha.  We finally find the bus stop and Bus 10 slides around the corner about ten minutes later.  Yay it came!  This time on the bus ride I was able to look out the window and notice every detail about Lake Como and all of the little towns we were driving through.  Little canoes filled with flowers along boardwalks.  Renaissance style stonewalls and bridges dripping with vines.  Churches with tall bell towers.  Antique buildings in shades of pale yellows, peaches, and corals.  Suddenly, I began to cry!  I guess it crept up on me on how much I developed such an emotional attachment to this place.  I just kept looking out the window, longing to just get off and spend another week there.  I did make a promise to myself that I would come back, so it wouldn’t be the end of Lake Como for me. :)  The train rides home went pretty smoothly I’d say if you would like to cut out the part that our bus showed up ten minutes before our train was supposed to take off, then the train was late, so we had about five minutes to change trains in Milan…yeah haha but it was fine!  We did it!  My first successful trip that I planned (of course with Shannon too) and no parents!!!  And it was an amazing one!!  We wanted to kiss the ground when we made it back to Florence.  We were starving and went to our little salad place by our apartment to enjoy some aperitivo, salads, and wine.  Yum!  Then, when we got back to the apartment I called my parents and told them about my wonderful day!  And I was finally able to Facetime with my grandparents Pop and Grammy!  I’m so happy we finally got it to work!  I love conversations with the family.  I am so blessed to have so much family in my life to look after me and want to be in touch with me.

pictures I took while driving on the bus to Como train station

Reflection:

I always have been taught that everyone’s heaven is unique to what they love and how they would like it to be.  It is a place where you are truly the happiest person you could ever be.  And not be filled with just happiness, but pure joy.  Heaven is a place where God is everywhere and we worship him everyday, all day.  Endless paradise.  All I know is that I think I may have found a place that will resemble my heaven one day.  I am so blessed to have been able to spend time at Lake Como, even if it was for only a couple days.  Thank you God for allowing the trip to go so smoothly and available to me!  Thank you so much Mom and Dad for trusting me to go out into the world and explore, travel, and take chances.  Ultimately, thank you for letting me find myself in this crazy world we live in.

Tanto Amore,

Diane