July 2- Milan

Scott was the first one up this morning, and he jumped out of bed with an “Oh My Gosh!” You see, he had his heart set on seeing the sunrise on the Matterhorn, and it was already light out. Mark Twain had written about he and his roommate’s misadventures while trying to see the sunrise on the Alps in his other travel book, A Tramp Abroad. First they accidentally slept all the way through the day and when the alpenhorns woke them, they actually watched a sunset for several minutes before they realized their mistake. We weren’t that bad, but the clock wasn’t set right. Scott and Julie went up to the terrace on the rooftop in their jammies (actually, the shorts and t-shirts they brought to sleep in) and went out in the cold hard stones in barefeet to see what the situation was. Even though the reds and oranges that are supposed to be there at sunrise were long gone, it was still pleasant to see that the clouds from last night were gone and the peak itself was brilliantly lit in the sunlight. Eventually, we brought Anna up to see it too.

We had breakfast at the hotel, and finally got our Swiss cheese. We went outside and ate our Toblerone chocolate in the square in front of the church, where the Matterhorn peak could be seen. It was still lit beautifully and the peaks and ridges of the surrounding valley were also catching light. We lugged our backpacks through town to the train station, and made the pleasant ride back to our car.

One plan for today was to take the car-train from Switzerland to Italy, but when we finally got to the station, it was going to be about a two-hour wait until the next train. Julie decided that she was up to driving the winding mountain road through the Simplon Pass. As it turns out, the drive was very pleasant. There were lots of scenic views as we drove, and interesting bridges and tunnels. Up near the top, we passed real Swiss cows that were standing so close to the side of the road, that there were two young cow herder girls (cow herdesses?) chasing them back from getting in front of the cars. Naturally, we stopped and took pictures, and Emma had her stuffed cow that she got yesterday to hold. (Watching us, you’d think we had never seen cows before.)

We crossed to Italy with almost no stop at all. The guys that we assumed were the border guards simply said “Buon giorno” and waved us on. In the backseat, the girls were learning to play the game of Auto Bingo that we brought with us.

We descended into northern Italy and followed the signs to Milano (the town that English speakers call Milan). Of course, just as we had figured out the Swiss way of labeling signs, we now had to deal with the Italian way. Worse, we discovered that we didn’t have a good map of the city of Milan. We drove around for a long time trying to find our way to the center of the town and the cathedral there. We used a trick of Rick Steves’s when we asked a passer-by “Dov’è Duomo?” (Doh-vay doo-oh-moe), and then watched her hands to see where they pointed as she gave the answer in Italian. Our progress was also slowed when Emma woke up in the back seat of the car with a bloody nose. She gets those sometimes, but we hadn’t planned for that and couldn’t find a napkin or anything to clean her nose with. Julie sacrificed a pair of her clean underwear for Emma to wipe up with, a fact that has caused the girl to giggle more than a few times today.

We finally parked, though it was farther from the Duomo than we would have liked, and walked quite a few blocks to the building we had come to see. Again, Mark Twain had directed us here. It was one of the sites that he truly admired. He called wrote, “What a wonder it is! So grand, so solemn, so vast! And yet so delicate, so airy, so graceful! …It was a vision! --a miracle! --an anthem sung in stone, a poem wrought in marble! However you look at the great cathedral it is noble, it is beautiful …They say the Cathedral of Milan is second only to St. Peter’s at Rome. I cannot understand how it can be second to anything made by human hands.”

The inside of the building was quite, quite large, but also surprisingly dark. Enormous dark stone pillars stretched to a very high roof. While there are stained glass windows, they don’t bring in nearly enough light to make the church a cheery place. The image that came to mind first was the image from the Lord of the Rings when the mines of Moria provide a similar view. We strolled through and around the cathedral, without trying the audio tours.

After seeing the inside of the building, Scott somehow convinced the others to pay the small fee to climb the steps to see the roof of the cathedral. That was certainly the best part of the building, though we were all hot and sweaty when we had finished climbing the stairs. From the roof, you get an up close look at the spires and statues that the building has in abundance. The girls laid on the large marble slabs of the first level of the roof and Scott continued up to the second level.

The sun was bright and the temperature was very warm. After our climb, we were all sweaty, tired and hungry. It was 3:30 and we were lucky no one was sick. We were very ready for the Burger King nearby. Then we walked the long way back to the car and tried to find our way out of Milan. That was harder than finding our way in, and the area that was originally so hard for us to find, now seemed to be something that we couldn’t get away from. We found our way out of the city to the south, instead of the east, like we were trying to do. We fought through traffic jams and accidents, through what must have been Milan’s rush hour traffic, and kept a shocked but watchful eye on the crazy motorcyclists that were darting between cars. Traffic laws seem optional for most Italian motorists, but completely irrelevant to motorcycles. It seems incredible that you don’t see more of them splattered around the pavement. How do they ever get insurance?

After too long of a drive, we finally got to the resort town of Garda. Though small, it was even a challenge to find our hotel here, and Anna was very disappointed that the pool was closed for the night. We checked in and went out for a late dinner at an outdoor table at a nearby restaurant. The girls split an order of spaghetti with meat sauce. Julie had a real Italian pizza with cheese and onions. Since Scott is too much of a chicken when it comes to the possibility of finding tomatoes in his food, he ordered spaghetti with garlic and oil. Everyone enjoyed their meal, and had fun watching Emma learn to twirl her noodles on to her fork instead of using her fingers. We all giggled when one slapped her in the eye. The breeze was cool and the night was beautiful. When we finally returned to the hotel, it was after ten.

All in all, the verdict is that we spent too much time in the car today. While there were certainly good spots, the traffic hurt our overall experience. That’s partly our fault for trying to cram so much in, but the traffic and signs of Milan didn’t help matters.