Leaving Italy
Hotel Uno Revisited
We had a leisurely morning as our train back to Milan wasn't until precisely 10.53am and the station was a short walk away. It felt sad leaving because it was the beginning of the journey home, but it was also stifling hot so it wasn't that sad. At the train station, we huddled in a patch of shadow to keep cool. To make matters worse, we had been prepared for the trains being overly airconditioned like last time, except that this one wasn't. There seemed to be some delay on the track - a recurring theme - so the bells would ring for 10 minutes then stop before trains actually arrived.
Our train was going to take us all the way to Milan. Alarmingly, it was train number 666. We reserved seats in a cabin. It sat 6, so for the first half of the trip, a businessman sat next to me. He got off at Genoa and later a nun joined us. We were very quiet on the trip. I remember the nun looking up suddenly as we spoke, maybe due to the accent. Thanks to the delays we arrived around 2pm. We could go straight to the hotel and check-in. We were on the 11th floor with a very spacious room. Around 3pm we went 'out to lunch'. We walked down the small patisserie on our road that we had visited last time. We ordered rather haphazardly with everyone calling out what they wanted at random with the good-looking waiter struggling to keep up. They served pizza bread as we know it in NZ, not thin crust Italian style.
Dad then announced that Lucy wanted to go to Zara home, but we could go back if we didn't want to join. I didn't want to spend my last afternoon in Italy sitting in a hotel, so I agreed to do the awful walk to the Duomo for the third time. Although the official temperature was 29 degrees, the billboard at the end of the train station said 34. That was what it felt like, thick, heavy heat. By the time we got to Zara Home, I had blisters. We continued on to actual Zara, where Hugo and Dad eventually got bored of us and left. That allowed the other to get indecisive - 'proper shopping'. I bought a dress with my last €30 and also some leather shoes for Josh. Lucy found an outfit she loved, 'the pink suit' but didn't buy it. Mum got a variety of things but just wanted a bag we had bought on the first day.
Halfway hobbling home, I realised I could have paid and got them to reimburse me. There we walked all the way to the train station Zara shop, only to find one black bag left and no pink suit in Lucy's size. We got home at 6.35pm exhausted.
Dinner was at 7pm, at the previous restaurant we had liked - Pizza con lemone. Strange name. The food was okay, lacking greens. But thanks to a 15% service tax we didn't get last time, our bill was really expensive. This put a downer on our last night, unfortunately. In our room, we then embarked on a packing spree. We became hypo and starting singing Grease Megamix led by Hugo. It was quite a fun way to end the holiday. Quality sibling time.
We left Hotel Una at a leisurely pace after a nice breakfast from the maitre'd who looked like Mr Bresolin according to Mum. Dad had presumed the Malpensa express to the airport went a couple of times an hour. He was right but we turned up as one left at 9.55am. The next was 10.25am. Relaxing, Dad went to Zara and we got on the train 10 minutes before. Again we hadn't been able to read that there were going to be delays on the track. The 50-minute trip took 1 hour and 40 minutes. We were getting really anxious on the train. As soon as it arrived, we rushed off the platform. An elderly lady got dragged backwards by her bag on the travellator, but we had 5 minutes before check-in closed and we missed the flight. Luckily it was straightforward finding Cathay Pacific's check-in desk and we made it. After leaving our bag, I realised that I had my premium economy seat, but more importantly no lounge access for our 15-hour stopover. This was upsetting in my tired, stressed state. We fussed around going to the first lounge for 10 minutes before boarding. Once we were on the plane it was a relief to finally be on our way.
The flight went on without any notable details. I was in the aisle so I could see an Asian man sitting next to me when I sat forward. I mostly lay flat as possible, knowing I wouldn't be able to once we arrived in Hong Kong. The flight was during the Italian day, so just as the clock passed 11pm and I began to drift to sleep the lights came on and we landed in Hong Kong.
We had a leisurely morning as our train back to Milan wasn't until precisely 10.53am and the station was a short walk away. It felt sad leaving because it was the beginning of the journey home, but it was also stifling hot so it wasn't that sad. At the train station, we huddled in a patch of shadow to keep cool. To make matters worse, we had been prepared for the trains being overly airconditioned like last time, except that this one wasn't. There seemed to be some delay on the track - a recurring theme - so the bells would ring for 10 minutes then stop before trains actually arrived.
Our train was going to take us all the way to Milan. Alarmingly, it was train number 666. We reserved seats in a cabin. It sat 6, so for the first half of the trip, a businessman sat next to me. He got off at Genoa and later a nun joined us. We were very quiet on the trip. I remember the nun looking up suddenly as we spoke, maybe due to the accent. Thanks to the delays we arrived around 2pm. We could go straight to the hotel and check-in. We were on the 11th floor with a very spacious room. Around 3pm we went 'out to lunch'. We walked down the small patisserie on our road that we had visited last time. We ordered rather haphazardly with everyone calling out what they wanted at random with the good-looking waiter struggling to keep up. They served pizza bread as we know it in NZ, not thin crust Italian style.
Dad then announced that Lucy wanted to go to Zara home, but we could go back if we didn't want to join. I didn't want to spend my last afternoon in Italy sitting in a hotel, so I agreed to do the awful walk to the Duomo for the third time. Although the official temperature was 29 degrees, the billboard at the end of the train station said 34. That was what it felt like, thick, heavy heat. By the time we got to Zara Home, I had blisters. We continued on to actual Zara, where Hugo and Dad eventually got bored of us and left. That allowed the other to get indecisive - 'proper shopping'. I bought a dress with my last €30 and also some leather shoes for Josh. Lucy found an outfit she loved, 'the pink suit' but didn't buy it. Mum got a variety of things but just wanted a bag we had bought on the first day.
Halfway hobbling home, I realised I could have paid and got them to reimburse me. There we walked all the way to the train station Zara shop, only to find one black bag left and no pink suit in Lucy's size. We got home at 6.35pm exhausted.
Dinner was at 7pm, at the previous restaurant we had liked - Pizza con lemone. Strange name. The food was okay, lacking greens. But thanks to a 15% service tax we didn't get last time, our bill was really expensive. This put a downer on our last night, unfortunately. In our room, we then embarked on a packing spree. We became hypo and starting singing Grease Megamix led by Hugo. It was quite a fun way to end the holiday. Quality sibling time.
We left Hotel Una at a leisurely pace after a nice breakfast from the maitre'd who looked like Mr Bresolin according to Mum. Dad had presumed the Malpensa express to the airport went a couple of times an hour. He was right but we turned up as one left at 9.55am. The next was 10.25am. Relaxing, Dad went to Zara and we got on the train 10 minutes before. Again we hadn't been able to read that there were going to be delays on the track. The 50-minute trip took 1 hour and 40 minutes. We were getting really anxious on the train. As soon as it arrived, we rushed off the platform. An elderly lady got dragged backwards by her bag on the travellator, but we had 5 minutes before check-in closed and we missed the flight. Luckily it was straightforward finding Cathay Pacific's check-in desk and we made it. After leaving our bag, I realised that I had my premium economy seat, but more importantly no lounge access for our 15-hour stopover. This was upsetting in my tired, stressed state. We fussed around going to the first lounge for 10 minutes before boarding. Once we were on the plane it was a relief to finally be on our way.
The flight went on without any notable details. I was in the aisle so I could see an Asian man sitting next to me when I sat forward. I mostly lay flat as possible, knowing I wouldn't be able to once we arrived in Hong Kong. The flight was during the Italian day, so just as the clock passed 11pm and I began to drift to sleep the lights came on and we landed in Hong Kong.
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