Slept well, comfy bed.
It was a bed and breakfast place but it
charged 6 Euro each for breakfast which seemed a bit of a con. They may
as well had said "The room is 100 Euro, if you want a bed that's 20 Euro
extra each."
Left our bags (no charge) and went out.
Weather was perfect, around 11c but expected to hit 22.
Walked around and took photos, not too many tourists about because it was early.
Went
out of the main part of the city to find somewhere non-touristy for
breakfast and found a great little bakery. I had a pancake with banana,
chocolate and maple syrup, and became diabetic on the spot.
Song had a bagel.
I
also had the best coffee of the trip. Not surprising, this is Italy. So
ordered another. Cost was about $21. The size of the pancake serving
meant I couldn't have an ice cream again.
Carried on walking,
checking off the tourist spots and also checking out all the attractive
and stylish women (me) and men (Song). They are easy to spot among all
the slobby tourists (me).
Some lovely old buildings, with decorative windows and doors.
Now
excuse me for a minute while I get out my soapbox and rant. I
understand that getting a photo of a sight will probably involve having
other people in the shot. Other people have the right to take photos and
I don't have a problem with that. What does annoy me is when selfish
people decide that the best place for them to sit and rest and play with
their phone is on the steps of the sight that others are taking photos
of. It's happened several times so I end up having to try and find a
place where I can eliminate them from the shot and end up missing a
part. I think next time I'll just go up to them and blatantly take their
photo, and tell them that they are far more interesting than the 800
year old church every one else is taking photos of.
Rant over.
Walked
back to the hotel, picked up the bags and onto the train station to get
the train to Bergamo. Another commuter train but we don't mind, we're
on holiday so aren't in a hurry.
Got off the train where we had to change and the train wasn't for 50 minutes so had a coffee.
The
train only took about 30 minutes but was packed, and there were loads
of teenagers around and I guessed it was a university town, and I was
right.
The hotel was very nice and had a bath, so I indulged.
The restaurants didn't open till 19:00 so had some time to relax.
Walked
about 10 minutes to the best seafood restaurant in the place but the
receptionist said they were fully booked. I hoped that was the case and
not that he took one look at me and decided I wasn't fashionable enough.
The first time we couldn't get into a place this trip.
Walked
around looking for somewhere else, but there was a dearth of restaurants
- plenty of ice cream shops and bars, a reflection of the demographic I
suppose.
Eventually found one that looked good but was a bit expensive, but it was either that or an ice cream.
I ordered beef, Song had fish, and we had a pizza to share on the advice of the waiter. I decided against a beer.
The
pizza was a small tomato with basil and came with a separate saucepan
of mozzarella cheese that we added to each slice and it melted into the
pizza. It was really good.
My beef was 2 pieces of steak on pureed
spinach with Roquefort cheese, and was also really good. We got luckily
stumbling upon it. Cost about $80.
Back to the hotel passing all the ice cream shops.
Tomorrow we get the train and a ferry to Bellagio where we stay for 2 nights and potter around Lake Como.
