Italian Toilet Seats, What's The Go?

What's the go with Italian toilet seats? I love Italy but one thing that annoyed the, um, well annoyed me a lot was the toilet seats. I think it took us to the last place we stayed at to get a toilet seat that was secure. I don't know how many time early on where (especially in the middle of the night) you would thump your behind down on the toilet only to have it move and you nearly nearly fall on to the floor. It almost seems like the plumbers were having a little bit of a laugh at tourists and only tightening one bolt.

I must say that the traditional old squat toilet seems to have disappeared in Italian toilets. I only used one in the time we were there, not that I have a problem with them. Although the very first time I used one I almost ended up in it.

But the toilet pictured above gave me the biggest laugh. It was spring loaded to go up after you've stood up. I had to take a picture for my wife who has gotten fairly upset with my seven year old son and I for leaving the seat up this trip! This picture was taken in an Italian train. I actually found it strange as it encourages men to stand up to take a number one whilst moving. I was alway told that was a no-no on trains and buses and I found out why once in Cannes when the bus driver hit the brakes right at the wrong time. Bit embarrassing.

Venice-Milan-Paris

Originally we were going to catch a sleeper train from Venice to Paris, but at the last minute my wife changed her mind (after booking the accomodation in Paris). All the flights out of Venice were were expensive so we decided to spend a night in Milan after getting some cheap airfares with Alitalia. I really like Milan and it is where I derived my daughters name from, Milana, as it's a special place to me. So I was up for the change of plans.

I went for a run on the last morning in Venice and it was a unique experience. I found my way to St Marks square after taking a few wrong turns and hitting some dead ends. The reward was a very quiet square, which is a rarity. The way home was easier although I pulled up with a bit of a sore ankle from the uneven ground and bridges.

The trip from Venice to Milan was comfortable. We had a bit of a laugh at the expense of the American Tourist who for some reason couldn't see the clear as day seat numbers. She got herself all worked up. Thankfully her son came to the rescue. 

We found our apartment which had a drop dead gorgeous view of the Duomo. Sebastian and Milana loved the bath and couldn't wait to have a bubble bath. It was time then to do some quick exploring. I like Milan a lot hence it is why I named Milana after it. 

The kids thought the Duomo with all its statues was pretty cool and they couldn't wait to get home and research it. They later found out it was 108 metres tall, has 3400 statues and is the 3rd largest church in the world.

We made our way down to the Castle and park, after a detour shopping. Milana and Sebastian got to burn off some energy. 

Being into bikes I took myself off to Bianchi Cycles and Cafe in the evening for a quick look, I would have loved to walk out with a new rig but..... Maybe next time. It is a fairly flash set up over four levels. It has a restaurant, bar, lounge, coffee shop and of course bikes. On the way home I saw a lady on a Vespa collect a pedestrian. Both were OK, but the male was more worried about his suit making sure it wasn't ripped.

That evening we got to watch the street performer sing until about 10pm. He was fantastic. This was the downside of the awesome view, it was a bit noisy.

The morning was gorgeous and did the usual stand up coffee and cakes then wandered through the Duomo. Kids liked the link between the fact that Sant Carlo's crypt was there and it was him and his family who built the palace and gardens on Isola Bella.

As a lover of planes and airports I was happy to visit a new airport, Milano Linate. Although I had been passed it as the Milan International Triathlon occurs just outside its boundary. Being the smaller of the two Airports in Milan and it was a very quick check in and customs clearance. Milana commented, "Is that it!"

The flight on Alitalia was extremely smooth, especially considering we flew straight over the snow capped Alps. They seemed close enough to touch.

Customs at Charles D' Gaulle was also smooth and soon we were trying to figure out the tickets for the train. It kept rejecting our credit cards and would take my coins. It turns out you are not meant to spend over €20 in a transaction. Soon we were on the train which turned out to have a bit of action. A male and female transit police officer were in discussions with a traveller. Suddenly she pushed him and gave him a clip over the head. She was very fired up and had to be restrained by her partner. Would be interesting to know what the man said, I have my thoughts on the general nature of his comments. Anyway they dragged him off the train at the next stop.

Not long after we were at our apartment near Gare De Lyon. Kids were exhausted so a quick wander of the streets to get some food and home. Big couple of days.

Beautiful Venice

We boarded our train at the beautiful Milano Centrale and it was a bit of a struggle to find anywhere for our luggage partly because of lack of space but also that the train had come from Geneva so it already had passengers on it.

I was a pretty relaxing trip, one of the things that stood out was around Brescia where all the hills that you could see had stone sections mined out of them. I guess our desire for Italian stone is insatiable.

When we arrived at the station the kids were instantly wowed by the canal. Vaporetto travel is extremely expensive for short trips so we grabbed a 3 day pass and vowed that we would get our monies worth. If you weren't travelling with children you could probably get away with not having one as you could walk everywhere.

As it was the start of the weekend it was very busy but as it turned out it was the weekend of the Vogalonga, which is a non competitive boat regatta which made it even more hectic. Vaporettos were extremely crowded.

Our first stop was the famous Rialto bridge, which was being renovated and it was covered, you couldn't take the obligatory picture on it looking down the Grand Canal. Fortunately I knew this before hand so the disappointment was dulled a little. Although I have been here a couple of times before it was a long time ago and I had forgotten about the little details like the mosaics on St Marks Basilica and the clock building next to it. St Marks Square was busy as usual and it was funny to reflect on my first trip here when we had the whole square to ourselves, it was early morning in winter!

On our second day we did some souvenir shopping at the Rialto Market took another ride down the Grand Canal, which was amazingly busy. In the afternoon we headed out to Murano to watch some glassblowing, which the kids loved. Sebastian wants to be a glass blower now (he has also wanted to live in Rome and be a Gladiator, a flag thrower in Cortona, an Artist in Florence). I swear it was the same glass blower I had 17 years ago, I'll check the pictures when I get home. 

We finished the day with a gondola ride. It was great and Sebastian is now torn between a Gondolier or a Glassblower. He enjoyed being able to wear the gondoliers hat and whistle along with him. It is crazy to think how they were able to build these buildings 600 years ago, let alone do it in the mud. There are over 400 bridges in Venice, my favourite is one of the ones that doesn't have any sides. The ride cost us 80 Euro. 

Our last full day started with a wander down to the Cannareggio canal to watch the boats come in. We sat ourself down at a cafe on the canal edge, drank lots of coffee to keep the shop owners happy and watched the festivities happen on the water. It was a great morning. In the afternoon we headed out to Burano, a famous fishing village that also specialises in lace work. The houses are all painted colourfully. The story has it they did this so they could identify their house on foggy days. It was spectacular, as was the lean on the bell tower! It was a shame that we couldn't stay longer.

The trip home ended with the good wife and I not really talking as we both blamed each other for getting on the wrong ferry and probably adding over an hour to the trip home!

We stayed in the Cannareggio area, which I can highly recommend, it is a lot quieter and is more of a residential area so you get a better feel for the place.

Running Levo

I started my day with in a rewarding way by running up to Levo.  It is 6.5km up to Levo and all up hill and steep.  I started up with phone in hand, having ridden up there a number of times on the way to Mottarone, I knew how beautiful it can be. Half way up the view had disappeared as I was surrounded by clouds. I contemplated turning around. I thought it wasn't going to be worth going through the pain and possibly having very sore legs by continuing up, but alas thankfully I kept going. 

Suddenly I was on top of the clouds and the mountain tops that had been covered for days revealed themselves. Many of them were covered in snow. Even though I could no longer see Lago Maggiore below I had decided it had all been worth it just to see the mountain tops this way. 

As I continued the cloud and fog started to disperse. You couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I could see the beautiful lake, Islands, Stresa and Verbania below me. I finally made it to Levo with a few early bird locals giving me a bemused look. I stopped at the cool little drinking well, had a quick drink before the leg pounding return. 

If you were on a bike you would continue along the ridge before tackling the rest of the brutal Mottarone climb.

The way down was fantastic, stopping at a few points to take some pictures. It was a great way to finish what was a little frustrating week with the weather. Oh yeah the legs did ache for a few days.

Isola Bella

Isola Bella- Translation Beautiful Island. It is every bit that, although name is after Isabella, countess of Borromeo. The Islands of Stresa and Verbania were the things that made me go wow many years ago when I visited the area, but it wasn't until this trip that I visited them.

Today was our last full day in Stresa and Kylie was really looking forward to visiting Isola Bella after seeing that the gardens of the Island featured in the Worlds top 10 gardens and after today's visit it is easy to see why.

First stop on the Island was the Palace which dates back to the mid 1600s and we were blown away. The rooms and flooring was sensational but for me it was the grotto rooms that were like nothing I had ever seen. The floor, walls and roof were decorated with small rocks set into concrete. It was just amazing and mind boggling thinking how long it must of taken to complete the rooms (about 6 of them). All the rooms in the palace were filled with art works and relics. Kylie thought the saddles dating back to the 1500s were great. It was interesting to walk around rooms that have housed the Queen Margherita, Napoleon, Mussolini and more recently Princess Diana had visited.

We were lucky that the rain held off and we could explore the terraced gardens with its architecture. Anyone who has seen my house will attest that I am not much of a gardener, but it was easy to admire how much work was put into these gardens. As the island is rock all of the soil was brought in 100s of years ago. I can't believe that it had taken me so long to visit the island. Sorry dad for not going out there when we lasted visited.

The afternoon was spent wandering and of course getting our gelati. The evening finished with our best dinner of the trip at Cafe Torino. It was sensational. Kylie had freshly cooked rabbit and my ravioli was topped of with Tiramisu- yum.  It was a great way to finish our time in Stresa. This area is stunning, it is a pity for Kylie and the kids that a lot of its beauty was hidden by clouds for the majority of the trip. Tomorrow Venice and the kids can't wait to go for a ride in a Gondola, but the bank balance can.

Rain Rain Go Away.

The sound of rain was disappointing when I woke yesterday morning. But what was devastating was when I looked outside and I couldn't see anything, not even one of the biggest lakes in Italy that was only 20meters away. Why so devastating? We had a car booked and I intended to show the family the local sights including driving up Mottarone, down to Lago Orta and down through the valley I used to love riding through. So in the end we decided to cancel the car, no use spending the money and not being able to see Jack Sh#te. Instead we headed to Verbania for the morning. Kylie did some shopping and I walked around in the rain wishing she would hurry up. 

Lunch was back in a little bar back in Stresa and Sebastian loved his Spaghetti Bolognese although he seemed to get more on his jumper than in his mouth. We did some wandering around before having the usual gelato. 

This morning I woke up with optimism, it had stopped raining and there was reasonable visibility. We had decided that today we would take the Lago Maggiore Express  (not a very good description of the speed) to Locarno and get the ferry back.

I had a quick run and the one down side to Stresa is that if you want to have a flat run you almost have to do loops up and down the main drag or brave the road with no edge or footpaths. If they have footpaths around here they aren't in very good condition. Unfortunately by the time I had finished running it had started to rain and clouds had rolled in. We decided to go for it anyway.

We caught a train to Domodossola that rolled passed Lago Mergozzo, a lake I used to love swimming in and through the valley to Domodossola. We then bordered the Lago Maggiore express that wound its way up the mountains and back down to Locarno in Switzerland. Despite not being able to see all of the tops of the mountains the scenery was unbelievable. There were many sheer cliff drops and valleys, plenty of rivers and waterfalls and numerous small mountain villages. Some of the houses were so remote that they seemed to have a cable line across a huge valley with basket attached. At the border Swiss border patrol boarded the train, they didn't bother to look at our passports, they just saw that we were Australian and kept wandering, they did however give the German couple behind us a good grilling.

Lorcano was a nice town, unfortunately we didn't get to really explore as much as we would like because of the weather. I had forgotten how expensive Switzerland was, our Maccas lunch (I know we shouldn't have eaten that junk) cost the same as $57 Aus. We found an awesome chocolate shop and spent up. Sorry none of it will be making it home.  We wandered some more and we aghast at some of the prices for shoes etc. 

We jumped on the ferry for the slow 2hr trip home, pity the hydrofoil wasn't going at the time we need it. No passport checks on the way home. The fog was probably worse on the way home. I was disappointed for the family as I know how beautiful the area is and it was a shame they couldn't see it in all its glory. 

Turning 40 in Style

After being shown the ropes by our AirBnB owner Rosanna we wandered along the lake as they had a market on showcasing food and produce from the Piedmont region. We fell in love with some local salami and ended up going through that on the first night, luckily the market was still going the next day and we bought more. 

We walked down to where the cable car used to run from (it is getting repaired and should be operational again by July), along the way getting some great snaps of the 3 Borromean Islands, Isola Bella, Madre and Superiore.

The cobbled town centre was the next destination on our wanders. It is a beautiful little area of narrow streets filled with restaurants, shops (particularly clothes and leather goods) and of course Gelaterias. Straight away we found our favourite Gelateria. If you wander the back streets more you can find out more of where the locals hang out playing bocce. 

The next day was Kylie's 40th and of course Mother's Day. It was great to look out across the lake from the comfort of the bed. Here in Stresa they were having the I Love Mumma festival in the pedestrian centre of town. It seems every where we have gone we have come across a festival.

For lunch we headed out on a ferry to Isola Superiore or as it is now known, Isola Pescatori. It is only a small island that is cram packed with lakeside restaurant and hotels. We booked in to one of the highest rated restaurants on trip advisor, Hotel Belvedere restaurant.  Whilst the meal was good I didn't find it as spectacular as I was hoping. But the views are amazing. The highlight for the kids were the fact that there was a cat wandering around and also when the lady on the table across from us spilt red wine all over her partner. Thankfully he had a sense of humour and laughed along with the kids. 

That evening we headed back into the town centre and they had a number of singers performing outside some of the restaurants. We ended up drinking beer and cocktails on the street (oh how much more relaxed the liquor licensing is here) whilst the kids danced around the some classic English songs. It was a nice way to end Kylie's 40th.