A horse with no name

16 September

It feels like such a sin to leave the beauty of Maggiore. Especially for time in a city.

We were given clear instruction on how best to get to Milan. Off the autostrada, parking “silo’s”, underground  train– simple. We ended up driving into the city, until eventually we saw a parking garage a few blocks away from the city centre. At least taking the tram from there to the duomo was simple enough.

No matter how you think that you’ve probably seen it all, these duomo’s still have an uncanny way of taking your breath away when you first see them. Their size, beauty, and the incredible detail of all the statues and frescoes are just amazing. Milan’s Duomo took 500 years to build. Imagine the patience that must have taken!

From the Duomo we walked to Teatro alla Scala, which is not quite as impressive from the outside, and seeing that it was..... siesta(!), we dared to split up. I chose the famous fashion streets, Niel chose to go to Castello Sforzesco, a Renaissance palace from the 15^th century.

Walking down Via Manzoni, towards Via della Spiga, I was shocked to see just what these Italians can turn into exclusive designer items. I expected to see fashion, shoe and jewelry stores.  I also so a store that sold designer cellphones. And a store that sold designer chambermaid outfits! Halfway through all the stores, I found myself wanting to get out of there. It may be quite cool for some people to be this rich to be able to afford a 600euro pair of shoes. I almost find the glitzy and ellaborate stuff a bit shallow.

Back at La Scala, we did the tour of the museum, which also allows you to stand on one of the balconies of the theatre. Some people were busy on the stage with a set for some show, which unfortunately meant that the rest of the theatre was in darkness. It must be such an experience to listen to a full orchestra in such a theatre.

It took us a while to find our way out of Milan again, but eventually got ourselves to Bergamo along the autostrada. From here, we had to take a minor route to Ponte di Legno. I should perhaps explain some of the difficulties in driving in Italy

·         Roads are well signposted, but by the time you are presented with the options, it’s very difficult to find those towns on the map to at least ensure you are going in the right direction. Most of the small towns are not even on the map.

·         Our map shows the autostradas, which are great to drive on. In some areas, it shows a slightly lesser form of autostrada. These are mostly like our normal national roads that pass through small towns. The next step down are roads that makes you feel like you are driving from Cape Town to Johannesburg along Voortrekker Road. You pass through village after village, seldom seeing countryside, and at times, the road is so narrow that there are no markings, and two cars can only just pass each other. And should this happen to go through an older town, there are areas where the buildings are no more than a white line away from the road. In one town, we had to be careful to miss the steps leading up to the front door of some houses.  So getting somewhere takes time.

·         Those signposts don’t always work the way we expect them to. A sign that we would have taken as having to turn right, actually means  that you should enter this road straight ahead of you. We have lost count of the number of times we have turned right instead of carrying on straight.

We found Ponte di Legno quite easily, but our accommodation was in the little town of Pezzo, a little further along. And it should come as no surprise that we somehow took a wrong turn, and ended up driving halfway up a mountain, through some very old towns. And if we thought that some towns had narrow streets, we had not seen it all. At one stage I did not think that our car would fit through the narrow roads that make up the main street of these villages. And with it being dark already, it was quite the challenge to figure out where exactly we were, so we were very pleased to find an open restaurant to ask. Fortunately we were very close to where we needed to be.

Yuri’s B&B is in Pezzo, halfway up a mountain, overlooking a beautiful valley surrounded by even more beautiful mountains. And Yuri certainly gets the prize for Mr. Hospitality. He did not stop talking, even following us into the bedroom of the small flatlet he reserved for us on the top story of his grandfather’s house. He then drove us up to the restaurant in the village, to ensure that he could give the chef strict instructions to treat us well. In Stresa, Francesca told us that there were two dishes we should try while we were in this area. Pizzoccheri, and Bresaola. The latter was not on the menu, but, from what she described bresaola to be, the close equivalent was – Cavallo steak. So I tried the pizzoccheri, while Niel tried the Cavallo. I found the my food very reach, consisting of pasta, potatoes, cabbage, and lots of cheese. Niel, however, thoroughly enjoyed his steak. And if you have not yet googled Cavallo – it’s horse steak.

Niel spent the rest of the evening whinnying at everything I said. J