Sylvie's Travels Home

September 24 and 25, 2024

We put our luggage outside our door at 7:15am, went for breakfast then met with our guides at 8am. We then walked through the garden of the hotel which I had no idea was that spectacular and reached the path following Lake Garda, the biggest lake in Italy at 32.25 miles. It was a beautiful walk to the ferry where we said our goodbyes to our guides.

The ferry ride was over 2 hours long and it stopped at different little towns on our way to our stop. It was a great way to see the lake. We grabbed a quick lunch to bring to the bus and drove 2 more hours to reach Milan. The bus stopped in front of the hotel where everyone was staying but Pogo had rented rooms somewhere else for 2 nights so we said goodbye to everyone and walked to our hotel.

Derrick decided to go biking while we rested. My right knee had been bothering me a lot since sitting in the car yesterday as it was quite compact and I couldn’t stretch my leg. We went for a walk around the neighborhood, did a little shopping at an outdoor market then had a drink and snack at a restaurant. We continued walking on our way to Chinatown but my knee wasn’t cooperating so we turned around and had a mediocre pasta dinner at a close by restaurant. We stopped at a drugstore and the pharmacist suggested sticky pads containing ibuprofen for my knee. I put one on before going to sleep.

The next morning, my knee felt a lot better so maybe that medicinal pad worked. Deidre and I walked to a small cafe for breakfast while the boys were biking. They met us at Galleria Milan, a covered shopping area with mosaic tile floors and Italian designer boutiques. We visited the Leonardo3 Museum where we found 3D reproductions of some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous drawings and plans. They also had explanation on how he painted the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, among other masterpieces. Since we couldn’t get tickets to see the real Last Supper in person, it was second best.

The boys had a quick lunch then we did a hop on hop off tour of the city. Yawn! The company we used was telling us about buildings and statues way ahead of seeing them and they never announced the stops coming so most of the time we had no idea what we were looking at. The last stop was at the Duomo of Milan where we disembarked.

It had started raining when we go out of the bus, so Deidre, Pogo and I stopped at a cafe on our way home and had a glass of wine and shared a pizza while Derrick went to take a nap, ahead of a phone meeting he was having at 4pm.

We went back to our hotel and took a nap. As soon as I started falling asleep, I had a sneezing attack. I think I might be allergic to napping. How sad!

We met at 7pm for dinner which was a few minutes away from our hotel. Deidre and I had ossobuco, Pogo had sea bass and Derrick had pasta.

We were back at the hotel by 9pm to pack as we will have another early start in the morning, on our way to France.