I love going to Italy. It has a great combination of modern European culture with cheaper prices than us northern European countries, along with more preserved art and history than anywhere else I’ve seen. Add to that the excellent food, wine and coffee in even the most bog standard cafés and you have a damn fine holiday.
(Oh, and did I mention that Ryanair were offering flights to Bergamo at £9 each way? That’s another good reason to go…)
Milan… almost
From Bergamo, we took the airport bus service to Milan’s magnificent 1930s railway station. It’s normally difficult to find a decent/cheap hotel in Milan, so we decided to stay in nearby Pavia, once the capital of the Lombardia region, and only a 30-minute train ride away. So far so good. We’d booked into the Hotel Plaza by email, and remembered to bring printouts of all relevant emails and suchlike… except for the address of the bloody place!
Luckily, though, there were plenty of road signs pointing to Pavia’s hotels. We found the one for the Plaza and walked in that direction. And walked. And walked. In the pouring rain. Seems the hotel listing website hadn’t mentioned that the Plaza was out in the suburb of San Martino Siccomario. Still, it turned out to be a nice (if not exactly cheap) hotel, and the 10-minute bus route made it easy to get to central Pavia.
We spent the rest of the day (first buying a cheap umbrella) exploring Pavia, which turns out to be a fascinating little university town, packed with Romanesque and Renaissance buildings. We then spent part of the next morning looking round the bits we’d missed the previous day, before heading for the big city…
Lacroix, darling!
If you didn’t know about Rome, you might assume that Milan was the capital of Italy. As a focal point in Italy’s finance and industry, it does seem to function very much like a capital city. It’s quite a gritty, functional place, as you’d expect, but like Paris, there’s plenty of fine architecture, not least the enormous cathedral (third largest in the world). It’s an expensive place by Italian standards, but that’s to be expected – there’s a lot of disposable income floating around, and plenty to spend it on.
We did the usual march round all the main sights (the castle, cathedral, La Scala, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Parco Sempione, churches) grabbing the occasional beer, coffee or focaccia on the way. Our bad timing meant we missed the all-too-short opening time for Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper’… well, we’ll just have to go back sometime. We also made a point of strolling down Via della Spiga and Via Montenapoleone, where all the high-fashion shops are. Always amusing to see what some people will pay over £2000 for… and then actually wear in public.
Then, another night back in Pavia before moving on to the second stage of our trip…
To the Renaissance… and beyond!
Day 3, and this was where the real reason for our trip began. Apart from the fact that Florence is probably my favourite city anywhere in the world (or at least from what I’ve seen of the world) I’m also a big fan of the local football team, AC Fiorentina. And my Xmas/birthday prezzie from g/f Nicola was a trip to see I Viola in action. But first…
Like seeing an old amico…
Arriving around lunchtime, we easily found the refreshingly cheap Hotel Bretagna on the riverbank, just behind the Santa Trinitá church and the Medici palaces, and a block or two from the Ponte Vecchio. We then spent the rest of the day wandering the streets to the tune of the usual “oohs” and “aahs”. If Florence doesn’t fill you with joy, you’re clinically dead.
We also made sure to visit a couple of things we’d missed (and in a city like Florence, there are plenty) during our visit in 1999, particularly the Pitti Palace with its Medici hoard of Renaissance art. More coffee, more wine, more fantastic (and stupidly cheap) food.
90 minutes from relegation…
The next day, after another brief wander around a few churches and so forth, we headed for the north-eastern suburbs, to the Artemio Franchi stadium. Frankly, our timing was pretty poor… Fiorentina’s worst season since 1993, only a mathematical hair-split away from relegation to Serie B. Still, it was good to be there, and despite the 1-0 defeat to Lazio, the Viola played with a surprising amount of spirit and flair. And look on the bright side – match tickets should be even cheaper next season…
Americans
We often criticise Americans with their gun-toting, warped world view, but just about all the Americans I’ve ever met (mostly in Europe but also in the US) have been wonderfully warm, generous and friendly people. So why do they have to ruin it all by being so embarrassing?
In a restaurant that evening, a large American group came in. One guy immediately started quizzing the maître d’ about the restaurant’s impressive wine list. It was a bit cringe-making (‘What ANNI is this from? What COSTA?’) but I was impressed – I think it’s important to drink local wines wherever possible. Then he thought for a while and said ‘Bring me a Shar-DOE-nay’. Doh!
Arrivederci
Last day… our flight wasn’t until 21:30 that evening, but we had a three-hour train journey back to Milan (did I mention how fantastic Italy’s rail network is?) so there wasn’t time for much more Florentine sightseeing. We did, however, find time to climb up to the top of Brunelleschi’s amazing dome at the cathedral – truly a work of Renaissance genius. Back in Milan, we had another few hours to kill, and explored the Parco Sempione (most of which was inexplicably being dug up) and the bohemian Brera neighbourhood, before getting the bus to Bergamo airport for the return flight.
Damn, I love that country…