The Life of Riley: Honeymoon Part 3: Stresa, Milan & Bergamo

We travelled 1st class again up to Milan, and then just used a machine to get the tickets up to Stresa. I have to say that public transport in Italy does seem pretty straightforward. We had a bit of time to kill before our train, so we went to a horrible canteen thing and had a slice each of pizza with chips on. Yes, the chips were actually on the pizza. And it was cold. And really unpleasant. Still, you have to have at least one horrific meal, right?

We checked into our hotel, the Hotel Villa Mon Toc, which was 5 minutes from the train station. We then went to explore the town and find some food. We decided to have... burgers! It may not have been the most traditional Italian meal, but it was better than pizza with chips on, and actually they were really good. We had noticed in one of the tourist leaflets the hotel had given us that there was a bar called Willy's Cocktail Bar that had live jazz every Thursday, so we went there but it turned out that we were just out of jazz season and there was no music. We stayed for a drink or two and then popped back to the main bit of town for some food. We chose La Botte randomly, and had a really excellent meal with great service. In fact, Mr. Riley said later that he would quite happily go back there every night for the rest of our stay. Praise indeed. To finish off the evening we went to a little bar called Caffe Savoy for a nightcap.

I had a rubbish night's sleep that night so we had a lazy morning. We pottered around a local market and then had some bacon and eggs. Mr. Riley went out to find a boat to play on the lake whilst I had a bit of a sleep, but he came back unsuccessful. After lunch (another burger!) we walked to the Parco della Villa Pallavicino, which is Botanical and Zoological gardens. It was a lovely place, and you actually get in with the animals. Not that they have lions or things that can kill you, but goats and deer and stuff. Walking back to town we stopped for a game of crazy golf, which I won. Of course.

That night we chose one of the many restaurants near the centre and went back to the Caffe Savoy for a drink. As we left we walked past two guys playing old rock 'n' roll tracks on guitars outside a pub, and as we walked past an old guy from the audience had got up and was tap dancing with them. He was ace! I would LOVE to learn how to tap dance. And I would LOVE to have the nerve to get up in front of that many people and just do it. He got a bigger round of applause than the musicians.

More photos and whatnot after the jump...

The next day we walked down to the train station for the Lago Maggiore Express, which is a day trip up to Locarno in Switzerland. As we were waiting for the train, there was an American guy and his wife who had already done the trip telling friends who were about to do the trip (and, because he was loud, everyone else waiting as well) how disappointing he had found it. For 15 minutes he went on and on about how on the train journey up to Locarno all you could see was either tunnels or trees, how Locarno wasn't much and how the ferry back down the lake to Stresa was really overcrowded. His wife summed it up by saying "It's just a really long way to go for an average lunch".

So, brimming with excitement, we got on the train to Domodossola. We had a little bit of time to wait before the panoramic train that would take us up to Locarno so we had a quick coffee. Within 5 minutes of setting off from Domodossola, I was wondering if that American guy had a soul. I overuse the word 'awesome', but the views through the Alps really were. To be fair to the American guy, Locarno really was a bit shit, however the ferry trip back down the lake was totally beautiful, with the sun setting over the mountains.

After a quick shower to freshen up we wandered back into town. There was a gorgeous craft market along the lake front and we got a few presents and souvenirs. We had an amazing meal that night from Taverna del Pappagallo. When we finished eating, one of the waiters pointed out that Gianfranco Zola was just leaving. Being the football fans that Mr. Riley and I are, meant that this meant pretty much nothing to me. Mr. Riley had recognised Zola, but not realised who it actually was. In fact, he thought it might have been a waiter from another restaurant. Oops! We had a quick drink at the local (the Caffe Savoy again) before sauntering home.

The fresh air from the ferry did me the world of good, and I had the best night's sleep I'd had all honeymoon that night, despite my new husband stealing my one pillow from under my sleeping head! Thanks, baby.

The next morning we decided to have a fairly lazy day. We did a bit of souvenir shopping and shared a pizza for lunch. We went back to the hotel to read for a bit, but I'm terrible at doing nothing and just got really bored. That evening we headed out for some food. I was craving salad and green things, so we found a nice little restaurant that had a decent salad section on the menu. Afterwards I asked for an amaretto and instead of the expected liqueur I got a bloody lovely dessert... a kind of creamy custardy amaretto-y thing. For a change, we headed back to the Savoy for a drink. The same two guitar guys were playing outside the pub from a couple of nights before so we stopped to have a listen and a very low-key dance at the back. We got back and packed our stuff ready to start the last bit of our journey (or so we thought!).

The next morning we got the train to Milan, found the hotel and went for a Burger King. No, really. We then got the Metro to the centre. We saw the very impressive cathedral and had a bit of a wander round, including an expensive but delicious ice cream. That night we went for a really good curry as we had both had our fill of pizza/pasta/steak by that point. We were pretty glad we were only in Milan for one night, as, apart from the cathedral, you might as well be in Leeds.

And so we come to our last day. We woke up and had breakfast. Mr. Riley was pretty excited that breakfast included as many boiled eggs as he wanted and I had nutella on toast. We listened to Unbelievable Truth on YouTube until it was time to check out. We then got the bus out to Bergamo airport (Ryanair's version of Milan airport is actually in a city about 40km away). We left the luggage at the airport and got the bus into the city. The old town was really beautiful, and if we had realised we would have tried to stay here instead of Milan. We had lunch in the Piazza Vecchia at the Caffe del Tasso, where Mr. Riley said he had the best pasta of his whole honeymoon. We spent the afternoon pootling around the City. We got the bus back to the airport, picked up our luggage, which weighed EXACTLY the weight allowance. And after dozens of ice creams, gallons of coffee, tons of pasta and pizza, nearly 1600 photos and a lot of fun we headed back to cold and rainy Sheffield.