italy travel_3

mumbai to milan trip was uneventful. food was good by airline standards. but couldn't sleep much.
reached malpensa in morning.
customs and immigration were perfunctory.
took a bus to mialano centrale station. road is probably an express highway. malpensa airport, typical two tired airport. snow covered mountains to north. weather quite cold. not much security about. few people in the bus. mostly indians. though the plane carried about 250, 90% indians.
met one mr valentine who works for thailand government in germany and hails from india. teamed up with him to see milan and monza.
little traffic on the road. road passed through agricultural land, some industry, warehouses. being sunday, few people about. not many flats but individual houses. all houses have tiled roofs.
bought day pass for milan local transport, and ticket for genoa. kept bag in cloack room. one stupid policeman suddenly decided to be aggressive and checked the bag. said something about the swiss knife. had to ignore as could not understand a word.
went to tourist counter and got maps of milan.
ate a burger and milkshake in macdonalds outside the station. first glimpse of europe.
first metro ride to duomo station.
sunday service was in progress. many elderly men and women entered the cathedral, took water from the font and sat down. understood nothing but organ was playing, it was good to experience that.
walked through victor emanuelle gallery and plaza to castle sforza.
castle is covered by ivy and has some sculptures. though the main museum was closed. some girls and boys sunbathing on lawns.
saw la scala from outside. back to square, tram to abbe maria majore. saw the last supper. what an experience. too short a visit.
back to milano centrale by metro.
took a local train to monza.
outside monza station, a long line of buses waiting to take people to the autodrome. bus ride was free.
throughout the day, we had seen groups of boys and girls with ferrari flags in milan station boarding trains to monza, singing songs, shouting slogans.
had to walk about 2 km to the autodrome gates. last few laps were in progress. mr valentine smoothtalked his way into the galleries where we could watch schumacher racing to victory.
as soon the race got over, spectators were allowed on the track and we could actually walk where the cars were racing few minutes ago.
we could see the actual presentation up close. a dream come true.
collected few souvenirs and returned to milano centrale. said goodbye to mr valentine. he was to return to berlin by the evening flight.
got the bag, got in the train and reached genoa at last.
some confusion on the station name. when reached stazione centrale genoa, the conductor did not understand what i was asking him. brignole was next and i just managed to get down by asking some tourists who knew english.
there was a difficulty at genoa.
the instructions said to take a taxi or bus. i did not know which bus to take. genoa is not a tourist spot so no tourist office. information office was closed. it was getting late and dark. did not know what to do.
there was a railway information office. so i barged in. the gentleman politely said this was a railway information office but i explained him my difficulty and he studied a map and told me to take a no 17 bus and get down somewhere.
so i come to the newspaper shop and buy a bus ticket.
wait for the bus for some time. on the wrong bus stop, going in the other direction.
so finally another gentleman helps and directs me to the correct bus stop.
got into the bus. no conductor, had to punch own ticket.
the next trouble is getting down at the correct stop.
no one understands.
showed the written address to a lady who promised to tell me when the stop comes.
and did so. got down herself and showed me where the hostel was and then walked away.
walked across to the hostel and finally found my room.
feet aching. must have walked 10 km from morning, without much food.
the first day's experience was very good. very friendly and helpful people.
i am a stranger, don't speak the language, look like an arab probably but no one shooed me away.
genoa seems a quiet place.
first view of europe and italy is attractive.