Land in Milan after a long but uneventful flight. It was immediately apparent that it was more of a regional airport than a huge hub like Dubai is; much smaller in terms of size and scale and traffic. Then you see the same advertising that you see all over the world; Prada, Armani, Alfa Romeo; but here they’re the local brands. And once here, it’s evident that this fashion and elegant design is part of the culture, even down to the beautiful “looks like he just stepped off the cover of Vogue” man who assisted us at the Rental Car office.
Then onto Bergamo, one hour east of Milan. What a perfect place to start our holiday. A large enough town to have sophistication and great shopping, but small enough to have a local buzz. First night I wanted some good old fashioned genuine Italian pizza. We found a pizza place and ordered two small pizzas. 20cms. But it turned out that 20cms was not diameter; it was length – or was it width? And looking around the restaurant, eating a whole pizza on your own was normal. But these people were not fat. How is it so? I always say I will return home from a holiday fatter than I start out; but usually it’s not the case – all the walking etc burns up the calories. But this trip, I fear it will actually be true.
Wine? Of course. Pizza place, in Italy. Good wine. Of course. Ordered a bottle of Francciacorta, which is considered the highest regarded sparkling wine in Italy. We thought it would be nice but were really unprepared for how spectacular the wine is. It’s really quite different to champagne, and completely different to Prosecco. And we weren’t even in Francciacorta wine country yet – yay! They offered us complimentary liquor of Meloncello and Lemoncello. We’ve had Lemoncello before, but never Meloncello. It was excellent.
Next morning go for a walk up to the old town. We were up pretty early (jetlag, you know the drill), so there wasn’t anything open yet, worried we wouldn’t find a café for breakfast. Stumble into the central piazza. Several churches and the university buildings. Wow! Absolutely beautiful. And they’re playing opera. And they’ve got a flower show on. Sit down at the only place open so early; café latte and a chocolate croissant. A young girl who looks like some modelling agency will be offering her a contract sometime soon, is watering the garden. I remark how beautiful these people are. Trevor says, “check out the waitress”. Yes, she was also beautiful.
