Hi Readers,
Well the trip is coming to an end, or should I say it has come to an end as we are now sitting in Milan airport waiting to board the first of our two flights home.
After a very short visit of less than 48 hours in Venice, we were off again to Milan, where we have stayed for just over 24 hours.
Our last full day in Venice was just about the best day of our entire holiday as it was spent with our eldest son who once again travelled over from London to spend a weekend with us.
We had arranged a water taxi for him from the airport to our hotel as they were getting in very late, but when they went to look for it everything was closed and they had no one to contact. They had to take a different taxi, going the long way, and didn't get to the hotel until after 2.00 am.
No wonder they were so tired the next day.
To their credit, they were up for a big day out and we walked miles, visited lots of places, ate well and stayed up late ( for us that is!!)
The day of work starts in Venice.
The next morning was a quick breakfast together, then Jen and I were on our way as we had to catch a train to Milan, where we are to catch our plan home tonight.
I always dread the goodbyes when we leave Sam, or when he leaves us, and I probably let it build up too much inside me.
Thankfully yesterday, as we were outside our doors at the hotel, Jen just said "Sam, we'll just say goodbye here so that you don't have to come down to the water taxi", and with that it was over in a flash and we were on our way. If they had decided to walk us down to the taxi, about a 5 minute walk I would have started to get too emotional on the way and lost it when it came to say goodbye😭!!
Maybe I'm just getting softer as I get older!
The train ride to Milan was uneventful, but still very relaxing, especially as we had flat farmland for most of the way, and snow covered peaks in the distance.
By the time we got to Milan it was the usual, and now well practiced action of finding some transport to our hotel, this time being a bus then a taxi.
A quick stop to chuck our bags in our room and we were out the door as we did not want to waste a moment, especially as we were only here for 24 hours.
Just around the corner from us is the Cathedral, an incredibly impressive building. The whole square was full of people wandering around just like us, taking photos and listening to some extremely talented buskers.
One in particular really grabbed our attention, so we listened for a while and ended up buying his CD. We're hoping it sounds just as good as he did today.
The Square is filled with thousands of pigeons that just fly from here to there as people throw food to them. This also encourages the scammers who walk up to people and offer them a small handful of bird food and get the pigeons to roost on their arms and head. The people of course take photos, and then the scammers demand money from them for the food. Many people walk away, but the scammers are very persistent and in their face in demanding some money, and if it isn't enough they don't give up until they cough up more. Also, they often work in small groups. While one does the scam with the food, the others hover nearby.
There is no way that we would even try to feed the pigeons, or get them on us, as I just consider them to be flying rats, they are dirty and disease ridden as far as I'm concerned!!
At one point a girl was walking around tossing food on the ground and scores of pigeons were following her. She started to get near us, and at the same time we both just said "No" and waved her away.
She must have thought we were the two meanest people in the entire Square.
As my regular readers would know by now, my wife has to eat GF food, so we just can't walk into any place for a feed.
Imagine our surprise last night when we walked past a restaurant, noticed it was really busy (always a good sign) and asked if the did GF food.
"Not a problem" they said ( in a very romantic Italian accent of course), and we proceeded to enjoy not just the perfect meal, but the most professional service we have ever experienced.
They knew their food, wine and beer, and most importantly, they really knew about GF food. So much did we love it, we hit them again for lunch today, and to their credit they remembered us and especially they remembered that Jen needed GF food.
Our online review of this restaurant was glowing to say the least.
As we only had a short stay in Milan, we took off early this morning exploring the nearby streets, and visited a castle that is over 700 years old. This continues to amaze us as in Australia we just do not have buildings that come anywhere as close in age to some of the historic ones we have been in.
The rest of the afternoon has been a bit of a rush as we head off to the airport. We have a few hours to kill here, so this could possibly be my last post for a while, as I'll have nothing nearly as interesting as this trip to write about once I get home.
Our selfies for the day....
And my final sock photos, as once I'm back home the sock goes into the sock drawer with the rest of them!!!
Well Readers, it has been just great sharing this trip with you over the past few weeks. It has been a bit of pressure at times to do a post each night, so if you are a daily reader, you'll have to become accustomed to my posts becoming a little less frequent in the coming weeks.
Don't drop off however, I'll still be writing!!!
Until my next post, (from Australia 🇦🇺)
Cheers!!
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