Lake Como to Milan to San Francisco June 18

                                                          June 18                               Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                       4.4                                            418.6

Feet Climbed                                        60                                          44,340

Song of the Day: Two of Us by the Beatles

Two of us sending postcards
Writing letters
On my wall
You and me burning matches
Lifting latches
On our way back home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home

You might recall that I posted this photo yesterday and called it "Two Jackasses".  I am reposting the photo today as "One Jackass and and One Dumb Ass".   You will soon find out which one is the dumb ass....

Yesterday, we bought train tickets to take us to Milan Centrale Station, and then on to Malpensa airport.  The train leaves Como at 10:30 and if we make the connection, should arrive at Malpensa a little after 1:00.  That should give us plenty of time.  And in fact, all went well, and we did arrive around 1:00.  I looked on the monitors at the airport and saw that the flight from Milan to Frankfurt was now at 2:20.  Strange, but, not a problem, we have plenty of time.  We went to the Luthansa window to check in and the lady searches and searches and searches.  Finally she finds our flight...."Uh, Mr Fawkes, your flight is from Linate airport, not Malpensa."  Oh, oh.  Linate is another airport in Milan.  In a very different part of town.  (I think you just found out which one is the dumb ass here...).  "OK, how long will it take us to get to Linate"?  "Well, probably 90 minutes in a cab if all goes well.  We have plenty of room on the 2:20 flight from Malpensa, but since you booked your flight through United Airlines, we can't make the change.  You will have to call United Airlines to figure this out."  

So, I whip out my handy iPhone and call United airlines in the USA...after going through a wait, I am finally connected to a real person.  I explain the situation to the United representative, she goes away, comes back 5 minutes later and says "there is nothing I can do for you.  My supervisor won't approve the change."  Huh?  "What am I supposed to do then?" I ask her.  She says, let me try another supervisor.  About 5 minutes later, she comes back and says that after checking with several different people, she found one that would approve the change and  we are good to go on the 2:20 flight!  Woo hoo.  About 10 minutes later, after we get through security, I get an email from United Airlines informing me of the change and the e-mail also says that my credit card has been charged $6,020!  The agent had said no additional charge.  I smell another battle with United Airlines coming on.  Will just have to deal with that one when we get home.

After we finally got checked in, we went through security.  We always carry everything on.  We don't really have that much- just our backpacks and walking poles (which collapse down to about 18").  Well, what do you know, they wouldn't let us take our walking poles on the plane!  We have been doing this for many years now and never had a problem.  So, we just left them with the European TSA equivalent.   We will have to go buy some new ones for our upcoming hiking trips.  I suspect we put over 2500 miles on those poles over the past three years.

The Luthansa flight to Frankfurt was excellent.  I'm always amazed how they are able to serve  a food course AND a beverage  course (with free alcohol) on European flights that only last an hour.   From Frankfurt, we took a United flight to San Francisco.  The United flight was 90 minutes late departing.  We boarded on time, then sat forever.  Typical United....

Here is one last Italy photo, this one from the front of our hotel in Varenna. This is the same view we had from our room.  Lake Como is a beautiful place, and we hope to return to further explore in the near future....Speaking of which, I will take the summer off, then start working on our plans for next year.  We are vacillating between returning to Europe for another long hiking/touring trip, or taking a longer trip around the USA, with a particular emphasis on the National Parks.  To be continued. Whatever we decide, it will be good- is always is when traveling with Linda.  And, in the near term, we will be hiking in the high backcountry of Yosemite in early September and then to Spain in early October.  

Thanks to everyone who followed us these past 5+ weeks.  We always appreciate your support.  

Lake Como June 17

                                                          June 1                                  Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                       15.8                                            414.2

Feet Climbed                                       2080                                          44,280

Song of the Day:  Ends of the earth by lord Huron:

Oh, there's a river that winds on forever
I'm gonna see where it leads
Oh, there's a mountain that no man has mounted
I'm gonna stand on the peak

Out there's a land that time don't command
Wanna be the first to arrive
No time for ponderin' why I'm a-wanderin'
Nowhere the buses lay

A perfect day of hiking to wrap up our  trip to Italy.  First, the weather  cooperated- sunny in the low 70's.  Our hike today had so many things that we enjoy about Italy- incredible beauty, a challenging and physical walk, friendly people and even a great lunch along the way.  The hike today took us up the eastern side of the upper lake.  The first 10 miles wandered over the mountains surrounding the lake and the last 3 miles bordered the lake shore, ending at the lakeside village of Dorio.  We then took a train back to Varenna where we are staying.  After a brief respite, we set off again to further explore Varenna.

The border with Switzerland snakes around Lake Como to the west and north.  While hiking today,  we certainly had the impression of being in Switzerland- geography, architecture and even food. One fun fact about Lake Como- it is purported to be the deepest lake in Europe at almost 1300 feet deep.  The bottom 7000 feet would be under sea level. 

We have really enjoyed our 3 day visit to Lake Como and look forward to coming back, next time for a longer stay. 

Here are a few shots from the day.  First, a great view south down the lake.  Bellagio is way in the background here.

Most of the walk today was through very dense forest.  There were streams pouring down the mountain everywhere, emptying into the lake.  So, there were many bridges like this over the streams.  Wish we had some of this water in California where we live....

A weak attempt at a selfie.  Linda and I are just not very good at this kind of thing.  Must be a generational deal.  Or perhaps we need one of those damn sticks we see everywhere.  One of the several villages that we passed in the background.  As you can see from this shot, we are quite high above the lake.  Throughout the hike, the trail would head down to the lake and then head back up again.  This is how we were able to rack up a total climb of over 2000 feet today.  As always, the going down was usually harder than climbing.  

Another bridge over a stream.

I call this one "two jack asses..."  Funny, I was just walking along, and all of sudden I hear this loud braying directly above my head.  Scared the hell out of me.  I definitely wasn't expecting to see or hear a donkey on the walk!

Yet more water.

On our walk, we would emerge from the forest from time to time, and have this view.  A very spectacular place.

This was the last part of the walk, along the lake front.  Switzerland and the alps are in the background here.

Tonight we had an excellent meal in a local restaurant.  There was a very nice couple from Vancouver Canada sitting next to us.  They had been to the World's faire "Expo" in Milan today.  The expo is going on throughout the summer. We had not heard of the expo until a few days ago when we took the train to Milan.  Funny enough, two days ago, I got on my iPhone app for the Fort Dodge (Iowa) Messenger newspaper (my hometown newspaper).   I was served up several ads for the Milan Expo!  The worlds faire of course has large pavilions and displays from the countries of the world.  The Canadian guy was a little miffed because Canada did not have a pavilion or display at the Expo.  He said the USA had a very large pavilion.  

Tomorrow, we have a 10:30 train to Milan and then to the airport.  We will arrive back in San Francisco Thursday evening.  This has been another terrific trip for us.  We look forward to coming back to Italy again in the near future.  But, next on our agenda are a hiking trip to the high country in Yosemite National Park in September, and then a trip to Barcelona, Spain in October (a little hiking, but mostly seeing friends and attending a wedding). 

I want to end with a shout out for the Golden State Warriors, who won the NBA championship last night. This was their first time in 40 years.   Notwithstanding the meltdown of the 49ers last year, this has been a good 12 months for Bay Area sports teams.  

Lake Como June 16

                                                          June 16                                Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                       13.6                                            398.4

Feet Climbed                                        980                                           42,200

Song of the Day:  Cripple Creek Ferry by Neil Young

Hey, hey

Cripple Creek ferry

Butting through

the overhanging trees

Make way

for the Cripple Creek ferry

The waters going down

it's a mighty tight squeeze.

When we left the hotel this morning, it was overcast, with rain in the forecast.  So, we brought our rain ponchos just in case.  We ended up being fortunate, as it didn't actually start raining until 4:30 when most of our hiking was completed.  By the way, the weather forecast for tomorrow is sunny and warm.  That would be a welcome relief.  

After taking the ferry to Menaggio on the western shores of Lake Como, we headed south for a hike along the lake shore and inland through the lower mountains.  The great thing about this hike is that the views are spectacular no matter which way you look.  After completing our hike, we took another ferry from Lenno to Bellaggio.  Bellaggio is a beautiful, upscale town on the shores of Lake Como.  Lake Como is shaped like an upside down Y.  It is said that that it is shaped like a headless body, with Belaggio representing the crotch!  Here is a map of Como:

Tomorrow, we are hiking up the eastern side of the lake, from Varenna to Bellano and Dervio.  Should be a great hike, with a fair amount of climb.  As we are flying back to the USA on Thursday afternoon, tomorrow is our last serious day of hiking.  So, we hope to go out with a bang.

Here are some shots from the day.  First, from the ferry across the lake this morning, with Varenna in the background:

This one from the lakeside trail, with Bellagio in the background:

Here are a couple from the inland trails:

We also visited a place called the Villa del Balbianello today.  This is a fantastic lakeside villa that has been donated to the country.  Apparently it has been used in many movies including Casino Royale and Star Wars Episode II.  These photos really don't do service to how beautiful this place is:

Here is a shot of us as we are pulling into Bellagio on the ferry:

Last but not least....We have had some great meals on this trip.  But one of the interesting and at times boring parts of Italy is that they only have Italian restaurants here.  This year, I have seen a few sushi joints, but that's pretty much it.  As much as I love Italian food, it's also good to have a little variety from time to time.  On the menu of the restaurant in Bellagio was a "panini di wurst con croti."....don't you love that title?!  Basically it's a hot dog with sour kraut!  And it was really good!!  Two hot dogs on a bun with kraut and mustard.  A true feast.  But of, course, for my first course, I had lasagna (can't stray too far) then the double hot dog for my main course!!

After finishing our meal in Bellagio, we took yet another ferry from Bellagio back to Veranna and called it a day.

Naples to Varenna (Lake Como) June 15

                                                          June 15                                Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                       6.8                                              384.8

Feet Climbed                                       650                                            41,220

Song of the Day:  America by Simon and Grafunkle

Laughing on the bus,

Playing games with the faces,

She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy.

I said, "Be careful,

His bow tie is really a camera."

So I looked at the scenery,

She read her magazine;

And the moon rose over an open field.

This song by Paul Simon is one of my all time favorite road trip tunes (a niche market to be sure!).   There is just something so evocative about this song in terms of travel.  Although it is set in America, it seems to me that it fits for roadtrips anywhere.  Linda and I have traveled all over the world, and one of our favorite pastimes is to make up stories about people we see!  Perhaps similar to Paul Simon implying that a guy on the bus was a spy. The stories about people are almost always better than their reality.

We took a train from Naples to Milan, and then caught a local train from Milanto Varenna on Lake Como.  The train from Naples to Milan was on Italy's modern fast train. It only stopped in Rome, and  then was non-stop to Milan.  The train had a speedometer in the car that constantly read in excess of 300 km per hour (about 200 miles per hour).  It was a very comfortable ride, and only took 3 hours from Rome to Milan.   The only thing I didn't like about the ride:  the train was covered a plastic wrap advertising the expo going on in Milan.  You have seen these wraps on busses all over the worlD, advertising movies, etc.  the majority of these wraps are printed on large format HP printers by the way.  The reason I didn't like it:  the views out the windows were distorted by the film.  Too bad, because much of the ride was through prime Tuscany.  

We had one of those only in Italy stories today.  When we arrived in Rome, a guy who was sitting next to us left, and another guy came on the train and took his place. The new guy saw my San Francisco Giants hat and asked if I was a Giants fan.  As it turns out, he is an Italian who lives in San Francisco, and only 2 blocks from our home!  We had a similar thing happen to us last year in a small town in Italy where we met  another Italian guy who runs a restaurant a few blocks from our San Francisco home.  What are the chances of this stuff happening?  He was a terrific guy, and conversations with him easily took up the three hour trip.  

We arrived in Varenna on Lake Como around 2:00 afternoon.  We are staying in an old villa, set on the slope above the village of Varenna on Lake Como.  The villa has been made into a B&B with about 8 rooms or so.   We have a pretty incredible view of the lake and the mountains from our room.  After hiking around the area for a while, it started to rain.  We stopped for a lunch at a small cafe on the lake, shown in the photo below.   Unfortunately, the forecast is for rain on Tuesday as well.  

 I want to wish  a happy birthday to my brother Larry in Virginia today.  Hope you had a good one.

Tomorrow, we have planned a good hike on the west side of the lake.  We will take a ferry to the village of Menaggio, then hike about 8-10 miles south along the shore and over some of the lower mountains.  We will then take a ferry to Bellaggio for a late lunch/early dinner.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that the weather cooperates. 

Sorrento to Naples June 14

                                                          June 14                                Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                      10.1                                              378.0

Feet Climbed                                       380                                             40,570

Song of the Day:  Street Life by Randy Crawford and the Crusaders

I play the streetlife because there's no place I can go
Streetlife, it's the only life I know
Streetlife and there's a thousand parts to play
Streetlife until you play your life away
You let the people see, just who you wanna be
And every night you shine just like a superstar

That's how the life is played a ten cent masquerade
You dress, you walk, you talk, you're who you think you are
Streetlife, you can run away from time

This morning, we took a 1 hour train ride on the "Circumvesuviana" from Sorrento to Naples.  This is the train that runs around the bay of Naples, with Mt Vesuvious/Pompei about halfway between Naples and Sorrento.  The train is often called the pickpocket express because of all the petty crime that goes on.  The train was jam packed and hot.  Fortunately, we didn't get robbed, although we heard stories of people who did.  

After arriving in Naples, we walked about a mile and a half to our hotel.  We are staying in a nice hotel, but Naples is a pretty rough, industrial town.  Almost all the buildings are covered in graffiti and there is trash everywhere.  Naples is Europe's most densely populated city, with a population of about 1 million in the city itself, and 3.2 million in the metro area.  It also has the highest crime rate in Italy and an unemployment rate of about 35%.  Apparently the mafia is very active in Naples.  Sounds inviting!  

The streets in Naples are packed, with lots of teenagers and younger people.  I couldn't help but think of the excellent Crusaders song Streetlife when out walking today.  This song was from the late 70's, but was also featured in the outstanding 1997 Quntin Tarentino movie "Jackie Brown" (adapted from the Elmore Leonard novel).  We were warned in several articles and by other people to be careful when walking in Naples.  At one point today, Linda thought she had a short cut figured out, and all of a sudden we found ourselves in a sketchy neighborhood.  A very kind Italian woman helped to guide us us out and told Linda to keep her purse close to her and for me to keep my iPhone in my pocket.  Here is a photo I took of some kids playing soccer in this neighborhood:

When we arrived at the train station in Naples this morning, we were surprised to find a big group of people Tango dancing in the train station.   Last month, we went to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on a Sunday afternoon, and there was a big group of Tango dancers there as well.  It was fun to watch for a few minutes:

Naples is well known for its pizza.  We were directed to a famous street not far from our hotel often called "pizza street" because all the best Naples pizza restaurants are there.  One of the restaurants had a big photo of President Clinton out front as he ate pizza there several years ago. Several years ago, Linda and I were in Viet Nam and saw a restaurant there with Clinton's photo.  I guess this guy has eaten his way around the world.  I always think about the old Saturday Night Live skit with Phil Hartman playing Clinton visiting a McDonalds.  Hilarious!  In any case, our pizza was outstanding, and cheap.  We each had a pretty big pizza, at about $6 each.  There was a huge line to get into the restaurant and we had to wait about 30 minutes.

This afternoon, we visited the excellent Archaeological Museum in Naples.  This is more or less a companion piece to visiting Pompei, as most of the art and other pieces in the museum are from the Pompei ruins.  The museum is surprisingly well laid out, with descriptions in Italian and English.  Here is Linda on the stairway of one of the galleries:

Here is a statue that was subtitled "Excederin Headache #9":

Here is a painting that was titled "Second Base".  I had not realized that the Italians played baseball:

You might recall yesterday, when I posted a photo of lemons in the market that had a sign "do not touch" on it.  Only I did touch the Lemons.  A similar situation at the museum, only I refrained from touching today....

Naples is packed with many huge churches.  Here is a shot from inside one of them.  I am not kidding when I say that there was a church even bigger than this one less than 50 yards away.

Tomorrow, we have a 8:40 am train to Lake Como.  If all goes well, we will arrive there around 3:30 or so.  I checked the weather forecast, and unfortunately, rain is predicted for the next three days.  I have hopes for some excellent hikes around Como, but that may have to be put on hold depending on the weather.

Sorrento June 12-13

                                                          June 12-13                                Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                      16.5                                              367.9

Feet Climbed                                        940                                            40,190

Song of the Day:  Window on the World by John Hiatt

A cup of coffee in a shaky hand

Waking up in a foreign land

Tryin' to act like I got something planned

That's my window on the world

Other than a visit to Pompei, these past two days were pretty lazy.  On Friday morning, we hiked around Positano, and then set off via bus for two nights in Sorrento.  This was about a 15 mile bus ride, mostly along the curvy, mountainess coastal road.  I think this bus is lovingly referred to as the vomit rocket....once again, the bus was jam packed, with many people standing for most of the ride (including Linda and I). Linda had a woman next to her who got sick. There was a young boy next to me throwing up most of the ride.  The Dad of the young boy asked me when we would reach Positano, as that's where they wanted to get off.  I told him that we passed Positano about 30 minutes ago!  You might recall we had a similar experience yesterday and missed our stop by 5 miles.

Sorrento is a very beautiful coastal town on the bay of Naples.  It has a permanent population of 16,000, but grows substantially  through tourists, both people who overnight like us, and day trippers.  The past two days, there were large cruise ships that stopped in Sorrento for the day.  

We are staying in a very nice hotel on a main plaza in Sorrento.  It is very lively, with lots of outdoor restaurants.  Every night at 5:00, cars are prohibited from the main streets around this central tourist area, making for a very active street scene.  Our hotel is the large building in the background here:

From what I can tell, weddings are a big industry in this area.  We have also talked to several people who are here celebrating their honeymoon or some wedding anniversary.  When we were in Positano on Thursday, a young couple got married at our hotel.  When the wedding was over, they jumped in the swimming pool of our hotel.  Linda was there, but unfortunately, didn't have a camera with her at the time.  We did pass a few weddings on Friday in Sorrento:

In the past, I have talked about the large Sorrento lemons. These things are huge, larger than a grapefruit.  Apparently this is the type of lemon used to make lemmoncello.  It seems like every shop sells lemmoncello, with "factories" advertised everywhere.  I thought about using the old Trini Lopez song "Lemmon Tree" as the song of the day.  Here is shot from one of the many stands on the streets.  You will note a "please do not touch" sign on the Lemmon box...of course, I touched...

 

There are also many horse carriages on the street.  This morning, we looked out our bathroom window and saw this guy getting his carriage ready for the day:

On Saturday, we took a short 30 minute train ride to Pompei.  We signed up to take a two hour guided group tour.  Sounded like a good idea, but the group was too big and it was hard to hear the guide at times.  Still, we did pick up some interesting tidbits along the way.  It was extremely hot at Pompei, with temperatures reaching the low 90's.  

Pompei was founded in 600 BC.  In 79 AD when Vesuvius blew, Pompei was a port city, with a population of about 20,000.  About 2,000 people died from the eruptions in 79AD.  Today, it sits about 10 miles inland, as the sea was filled in with all the debris from the explosion.  Pompei was accidentally discovered in 1599 and excavations began in 1748.  This is still an ongoing process.  

A few fun facts about Pompei.  The city of 20,000 had 40 bakeries, 130 bars and restaurants and 30 brothels.   Our guide told us that most people ate lunch at restaurants, but had dinner at home.  Not sure where/when they conducted their sex.  Apparently much of it at the brothels.  Probably 20% of the tour was conducted in the so called red light district.  There were several families on the tour, and it was amusing to watch the Moms explain to their children about "red light district"!  Here are a couple of shots from the red light area.  For signage, the ancient cities used representations of the activity in the business.  So, for brothels, a large, stone penis was hung from the doorway.   I believe this particular brothel was called "stubs" (not to confused with the outstanding music/bbq venue in Austin!):

And here was a bed from inside one of the brothels.  Just does not look very comfortable....It does explain some of the hard beds we have encountered while in Italy!

Here are a couple of shots from the more prosaic parts of the tour:

All in all, an interesting tour.  

Tonight we had an outstanding dinner at a gourmet like restaurant in Sorrento.  Really a terrific meal in an outstanding setting.

In the morning, we take the train to Naples.  We will explore Naples tomorrow, including an excellenct history museum we have read about.  Then on Monday morning, we take the train from Naples to Lake Como, via Milan.

Praiano to Positano June 11

                                                            June 11                                    Trip to Date

Miles Walked                                      11.5                                              351.4

Feet Climbed                                      1890                                            39,250

Song of the Day: Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin 

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

We ended up leaving the hotel a little later than we had hoped this morning, primarily because the breakfast took longer.  Virtually every breakfast so far has been some derivation of a crappy breakfast buffet, ranging  from a few crackers and dry toast to slightly more to include cold cuts, yogurt  and pastries.  However, today was a hot breakfast, cooked specifically for us. I'm know, it doesn't sound like that big of deal, but after 30 days of eating Italian breakfasts, this was a welcome relief!  We truly enjoyed our little stay in Praiano and appreciated the outstanding efforts of Luiggi, the hotel proprietor.  

Here is a photo just as we were leaving the hotel this morning:

The Pathway of the Gods (in Italian Sentiero deli Dei) is a famous hiking path on the Amalfi coast.  There are several videos on YouTube of this walk.  Here is but one example: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Pa56-Gln0. Luiggi told us a story about a Dutch guy who came to the Amalfi coast 20 years ago and convinced local authorities to fix up all their ancient hiking paths and use them as a tourist attraction.  Apparently it has worked, because people come from all over the world to hike this area.

For us to join this pathway, we first had to hike about 1.5 miles from Praiano.  No problem there, except it's also about a 1000 feet climb to get to that point.   The first stop is a convent in the mountains. This convent can only be reached by walking.  Truly a stairway to heaven.  Along the way, we passed several of these crosses.  I'm not sure if they were there to indicate that we were approaching the convent, or as a rememberence for the people who likely died from heart attacks along the way!

The walk on the Pathway of the Gods was one of the most beautiful, exhilarating and at times downright scary, that we have ever done.  For most of the hike, you had the Mediterranean Sea far below.  Here are a few shots from the walk:

Here is a shot under an archway.  Reminded us of some of the hikes we have done in Utah (if Utah had the Mediterranean in the background!):

Along the way, we also saw some mountain goats:

We also passed another juiceman along the way.  He told us an interesting story about how he met an American girl who was vacationing in Positano.  So, he moved to Newport Beach for three monthsto be with her.  Only it didn't work out.  He said she was a wild American girl and he was just an Italian country boy...

Positsno is an terrific little seaside town.  Here is a photo of Linda on the beach, with the church in the background.  We ate lunch at the restaurant with the white awnings.  

This evening, I had a three hour board of directors meeting.  Here I am, calling in for the meting from the balcony of our hotel....we are staying in a very beautiful hotel right on the beach in Positano.  During the meeting, they shot off fireworks from just below us.  Made for a nice diversion in the meeting....

Tomorrow, we are going to Sorrento where we will stay for two days.  We are planning to visit Pompei on Saturday.  Then on Sunday, we move on to Naples for a day.  On Monday, we take a fairly long trsinride from Naples to Milan, then will catch a smaller train to Laker Como where we will explore and hike for 4 days.  Hard to believe we have been gone for over four weeks.  Harder yet to believe that we only have a week left.