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| Postcard - Milano |
We hitchhiked to the auto route and got a lift 15 km down the road to Aigle. We hitched for about an hour without luck, then headed for a cafe to cure the coldness. Eventually we decided to catch the train south to Milano, and arrived late in the afternoon.
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| Postcard - Il Duomo, Milano |
The morning? Frozen stiff! Coldest night we've spent except for Crystal Palace in London, only it was a bit drier. We were given two tickets by a really nice guy and caught a bus into town. We wandered around the city centre a bit, saw il Duomo and then headed back to the station to catch a train further south.
We decided to go to Genoa on the Mediterranean coast and try to get warm again. The train was really crowded so we had to stand all the way which was a bit of a drag after very little sleep the night before. People were everywhere, sitting on their suitcases in the corridors and on the toilets. They'd have to vacate if someone wanted to use it. This was a very different experience to Switzerland where they only sold tickets for the available number of seats. Also, no compunction about throwing rubbish out the windows or smoking anywhere.
Anyway, after travelling through fog almost all the way we arrived in Genoa to comparative warmth, a nice atmosphere and SUNSHINE.We wandered around a bit, and then caught a bus out to the Youth Hostel on the banks of the Mediterranean. We thought we arrived in paradise.
Wondered around the (very) old part of Genoa, with everything crumbling, lots of small streets and shops in the old town. It had very cheap transport compared to what we were used to in Switzerland, only 70L or seven cents for one and a half hours travel.
We both had bad headaches, probably through lack of sleep, and were glad to get back to the hostel. We bought a local type of panettone (Italian Christmas cake) , with lots of fruit and nuts in it and had some after dinner of fresh bread, ricotta and olives, very nice!
We were surprised to get gettone (telephone tokens), stamps and bus tickets in our change when we spent money. I found that in the 70's the metal used in Italian small coins was worth more than the coin's face value. This led to a coin shortage, as opportunists melted down the coins to sell as scrap. This forced the circulation of the gettone, stamps and bus tickets to pay for small transactions, part exchanges of a larger payment, or given as change.
The hostel was right on the coast just along from Genoa and on a hill. It was very old and looked like a castle. The next morning we saw the best Dawn yet, from the classic type Mediterranean balcony, although it was crumbling a bit.
We started hitching west but it wasn't much good. We found that hitchhiking was a much more northern European activity, and near the Mediterranean hitchhikers were viewed with some suspicion. Form this point on, we decided to catch buses or trains.
We decided to catch a train to Nice, and found that we could get a ticket to Barcelona valid for two months which enabled us to stop wherever we liked. So we took the train to Ventimiglia near the Italian-France border where we stopped to have lunch and use up our remaining gettone, stamps and bus tickets.
Ventimiglia place was pretty crowded and we saw a parachuting exhibition which was quite good. The parachutists who missed the beach either ended up in the Mediterranean or in the park full of trees. Danielle also had her first taste of the Italian delicacy, Parmagiano crust, there.
We both had bad headaches, probably through lack of sleep, and were glad to get back to the hostel. We bought a local type of panettone (Italian Christmas cake) , with lots of fruit and nuts in it and had some after dinner of fresh bread, ricotta and olives, very nice!
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| Gettone (telephone tokens) |
The hostel was right on the coast just along from Genoa and on a hill. It was very old and looked like a castle. The next morning we saw the best Dawn yet, from the classic type Mediterranean balcony, although it was crumbling a bit.
We started hitching west but it wasn't much good. We found that hitchhiking was a much more northern European activity, and near the Mediterranean hitchhikers were viewed with some suspicion. Form this point on, we decided to catch buses or trains.
We decided to catch a train to Nice, and found that we could get a ticket to Barcelona valid for two months which enabled us to stop wherever we liked. So we took the train to Ventimiglia near the Italian-France border where we stopped to have lunch and use up our remaining gettone, stamps and bus tickets.
Ventimiglia place was pretty crowded and we saw a parachuting exhibition which was quite good. The parachutists who missed the beach either ended up in the Mediterranean or in the park full of trees. Danielle also had her first taste of the Italian delicacy, Parmagiano crust, there.
