Kathi visits Italy

Overview

After Chris's many visits to Italy, especially the one last year where he spent 10 days in the Dolomites, Kathi was looking forward to seeing Italy's wonders for herself. She prepared by studying Italian for about 6 months and was pretty excited to immerse herself in an environment filled with the language and to see the beautiful Lago di Como and Lago di Garda areas. We invited several friends to join us on this trip, but only one was available. We had a great time sharing the experience with Ana Lu. Originally Chris' plan was to rent Vespa scooters and do a 6 or 7 days of scooter sightseeing around the lakes and in the mountains, but weather, beaurocratic limitations, and Kathi's preference to enjoy Lago di Garda won out over Chris's Iron Butt tendencies and we rode Vespa scooters for 3 days around Lago di Garda.

Daily Details and Naration

0) Sep 3 Sun	Depart PDX at 2:10pm heading to ORD and then MXP
1) Sep 4 Mon	arrived Milan at 1:10pm and took a train to Milano Centrale and checked into our hotel
2) Sep 5 Tue	Market day, Duomo, and Museo Castello Sforzesco
3) Sep 6 Wed	Cementerio Monumental, bookstores
4) Sep 7 Thu	Day trip to Varenna and ferry to Bellaggio, train strike experience
5) Sep 8 Fri	Pick up Good Omens in Italian, walk around Canal Naviglio
6) Sep 9 Sat	Day trip to Como, failed attempt to rent scooters, forge IDL
7) Sep 10 Sun	Train to Bergamo
8) Sep 11 Mon	Città Bassa walk and searching for chocolate
9) Sep 12 Tue	Città Alta walking tour, botanical garden
10) Sep 13 Wed	Hanging out, seeing Circo Aqua
11) Sep 14 Thu	Train to Malcesine
12) Sep 15 Fri	Rent scooters, CCW ride around the lake, ferry ride
13) Sep 16 Sat	Scooters through the mountains East of Garda, braking bad ;-)
14) Sep 17 Sun	Scooters, ferry, CW ride around the lake, and West mountains
15) Sep 18 Mon	Malcesine castle
16) Sep 19 Tue	Walk south to Assenza
17) Sep 20 Wed	Walk north and watch paragliders
18) Sep 21 Thu	Train back to Milan, motorcycle shop
19) Sep 22 Fri	Fly home PDX→ORD→PDX

click a calendar day to see daily details

Note: calendar days are clickable to see each day of the trip

Where we stayed

Othello Bello Grande Milano a superb Hostel with nice facilities and great people
Casa Mario Lupo Città Alta Bergamo a nice apartment with 3 beds and a kitchen in the upper city
Il Ciottolo Apartments Malcesineperfect location in the heart of Malcesine with a great host and comfortable rooms
Hotel Soperga Milano quite a nice hotel with good rates

The original plan

For reference, here's our planning document for this trip.

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