After getting a takeaway breakfast from Mondo Dolce (it wouldn’t have been takeaway if they had been quicker), Genti gave me a run into Bari to catch my train.
The train was delayed by half an hour but it made up time as it went, and by the time we reached Milan it was back on schedule. I had bought a sandwich in Bari, which was good because although there was a free trolly service in first class, you only got a small sandwich, a biscuit and a bottle of water. I had to ask specially for a coffee, which was tiny and lukewarm, but better than nothing.
The scenery was dull to start with (agriculture is necessary to life but not always interesting to look at), then it was the Italian coastline (lovely!) then back to dull, so no photos of that.
However, after a short pit-stop in baking hot Milano Centrale, It was off to Como, which is much more photo-worthy.
Como sits right at the bottom of the left-hand branch of Lake Como, a lake which is approximately the shape of a pair of discarded tights. It’s a pretty old town, full of restaurants and a lovely place for a romantic holiday – and so it was that my friends Chris and Eilidh were on holiday there! We had noticed before I left that we would be in Como at the same time, so we arranged to have dinner. We went to a place called Pasta Bistrot. The pasta was very nice, if not rave-worthy, but the tiramasu was excellent. My faith in tiramasu is restored!
We went for a wee post-prandial walk round the old town, with its terribly impressive church, and less charmingly, people throwing light-up bits of plastic crap in the air. One nearly landed on Eilidh!
Those of you who have been to my house may have seen my lovely striped blind in the living room. The design is called Como Lago, which means Lake Como! I’d seen the real thing from a train before, but never while standing still, so this made a nice stop. And meant that I didn’t have to stay in Milan, a city I don’t like. Tomorrow I have to go to Brussels, another city I don’t like but which strives to be unavoidable. But before that, there will be more travelling through the beautiful lakes of Italy and Switzerland.
K C Murdarasi 
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