What a day!! We spent our last full day before we start work traveling around Italy- and boy was it an experience!!!
We started at the train station this morning to head to Lake Como for the day. Thankfully I had been given lots of great advice about pick-pocketers and gypsys so I was on the lookout with my hand on my purse the whole time. We got to the ticket kiosk and were automatically helped by a man we thought was in line behind us. He helped us purchase our tickets and I began getting a bit suspicious, so I stepped back to watch everyone's purses. When we got our tickets we stepped away and so did he, he didn't go to the machine to buy a ticket for himself.. when we turned around we noticed 2 police officers standing behind the man. They had obviously seen him "helping" us and were watching him too! Close call- apparently we stick out like sore thumbs (who knew!) Next, we had to get a ticket for the metro to take us to our train station. Just like the last kiosk, we were immediately helped by 2 women. This time I was on guard and was keeping a close eye on them, and our bags. One of the women kind of stepped back and the other was helping us with the machine because we had no idea what we were doing. Without giving us a chance to figure it out on our own, she was in there pushing buttons for us. When we were waiting for our change she continued to stand there. One coin fell onto the floor and when my teamate bent down to pick it up, the other change from the machine was snatched up by the gypsy lady- she was quick! We knew she did it, but we were so taken back that we just let her have the 2 euros and quickly left, we were thankful that is all they got!!
So, pretty eventful, and we were still in Milan!!
So we finally made it to Lake Como- it was GORGEOUS!! It's one of the largest lakes in the world, and it is surrounded by mountains and huge houses! (George Clooney has a house on the Lake, we looked for him, but no luck!) We hung out by the Lake on the south end and then took a ferry to Bellagio, one of the towns on the opposite end of the lake. It was about an hour ride by the ferry, very scenic! A lot of kids that lived in towns around the lake were on the ferry with us when they got out of school to get a ride home- what a cool school bus! There was a little conflict on the ferry between one of the captains and a lady that wouldn't pay for her ferry ride.. that was interesting!
We got off at Bellagio and immediately went to a pizzeria for lunch! I had my first Coke of the trip and another amazing pizza! We walked around, window shopped, and took in the amazing Italian town! It was exactly what you would expect an Italian town to look like! I loved it! and the people are so nice! Even when they have no idea what we are saying!!
We ran into 2 other girls that are on our team at an outdoor restaurante. They slept in and came out by a different route later in the day. We decided to try their route home since we ran into so many speedbumps on our ride down. After waiting for the train for an hour and a half we got back on our way home to Milan.
After shopping for some groceries at a local grocery store, we got back to the hotel. I went to my room with all my fingers and toes crossed hoping my luggage would be there to welcome me home.. aaaaand my key doesn't work to my door. Fabulous.
Soooo we went back down to the lobby and ended up staying down there for dinner with the rest of our team. Then I got the best knews of the day, one of my team leaders got a phone call when we were at the Lake from the airport- my luggage was on it's way!! WOO HOO!!!! Just in time for our first day of work!!
So, I am all unpacked and settled in!! We have an easy day tomorrow- a store walk through, some construction clean up, and a meet and greet with the management staff! If we get done in time we will be checking out the Duomo and the central square!
Hope these posts are finding you all well! I miss home very much! Buuut I'm not going to lie.. the food here definately has one up on the US!
All my love!
