Day 65 - Milan

Road trips with semi-random people are fun! Especially when you go to a place like Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is five villages in North Italy, Italian Riviera. The villages are built in the mountains but all have access to the water. The location is so gorgeous that Cinque Terre was declared one of UNESCO World Heritage sites.

We left Geneva around 8:30 am on Saturday and went to Milan. Since we had a sweet six-speed diesel Fiat, and I was driving, it didn't take us too long to get through three countries.

I loved driving in Europe! The scenery is beautiful, especially around Mont Blanc; the roads are perfect; there are very few cars and no cops. French maintain speed limits. However, once you go through the tunnel under Mont Blanc you are in Italy, and the driving style changes dramatically. Apparently, 120mph is too slow - it seemed that there was always someone behind me flashing the lights and trying to get me to move over to the slow lane...

We got to Milan around 11:30 am, had lunch, walked around a bit, looked at Duomo, got into a fight with a fake parking attendant (he tried to rip us off, but in vain) and went to La Spezia.

There is no driving in Cinque Terre so we left the car in La Spezia and took a train to Riomaggiore (the first village). We didn't get there until fairly late, so there are no pretty pictures from the first day.

srah said on Thursday, July 21, 2005 at 3:38 PM about A tiny part of Duomo

I'm so excited! I've never been to Italy!

srah said on Thursday, July 21, 2005 at 3:38 PM about Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

GREAT! It looks like Nickels Arcade, only about a trillion times better. In fact, it's just vaguely arcade-shaped. :)

srah said on Thursday, July 21, 2005 at 3:39 PM about He's too serious!

I think he's going to spit on you.

srah said on Thursday, July 21, 2005 at 3:40 PM about Pondering...

'Man, I hate that guy on the back of my head.'