Bellagio

The train from Milan to Como was short but memorable. When we boarded and found our seats, across the aisle were an adult Italian family getting stuck into a whole pizza each, a whole salami, loaf of bread and more! There was something fascinatingly primitive with the way they were undertaking this consumption that was a magnet of interest to all who could see them. We were never able to fully understand why this was such compelling viewing ourselves, but it was quite disturbing in a strange way. The impression remained with us for days!

Chatting in Bellagio

We should have caught the ferry up the lake from Como to Bellagio, but ended up on a bus. Nevertheless the views of the lake on the way were stunning. At one stage the bus driver (who did not have a Masters Degree in customer service) stopped the bus opened the door, said "Arrivederci" to us all and walked off with the bus engine running. I looked around at some other tourists to see if anyone else could drive us the rest of the way, but after a while, another driver appeared and drove us the last five minutes of our journey.

We were delighted to find our apartment, located above a restaurant, just behind the famous Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni. This hotel is a part of the history of the town and has been offering luxury accommodation since long before the turn of last century. You can stay there today for E600 per night. Thankfully our apartment was very reasonable, still located in the historic center of the town and exceeded our expectations. It was lovely and spacious and very well appointed and even had a dishwasher. The bed was sumptuously comfortable, not like many of the "ironing board" feel to many European beds. The outdoor area was also just lovely, provided you had some good insect repellant. Mosquitoes are everywhere around the lake towns.

Shopping, coffee in Bellagio town

Each time you arrive in a new town you can get a feel for its essence. Bellagio was clearly beautiful but full of rich tourists. It is a small place that consists of large hotels and glamourous shops. However, there is amazing beauty all around, including lovely flower gardens, lovely buildings and of course the lake dominates everything. All bars and hotels are built to make the most of the views and Bellagio itself is at the end of a peninsula that splits lake Como in two. For centuries it has been a strategically important piece of real estate to detect hostile travelers on the lake. There were significant Roman structures on the site, but after the fall of the Empire, the next lot hated the Romans so much, they deliberately destroyed all Roman structures in Bellagio. So, most of the buildings here date back to the Middle ages, as over the centuries Bellagio has always been a place of both beauty and strategic importance.

Today, (and for hundreds of years) Bellagio itself is given over wholly to tourism. It's accessibility to other parts of Europe mean there are lots of expensive cars with number plates from other EU neighbours. We found a surprising number of Kiwis and Australians here too. The shops have beautiful things in them and some things were affordable. Believe it or not I actually bought some clothes here.

Villa Serbelloni

Villa Serbelloni looking down over the town of Bellagio

One of the things to do in Bellagio is to go up to the summit of the hill that is at the end of the peninsula (which happens to be right behind our apartment). Unfortunately you can't just stroll up to the top any time you want to. All of this land is within the grounds of the Villa Serbelloni, which is now in the ownership of the Rockefeller Foundation, and the land and buildings were donated in 1959 "for purposes connected with the promotion of international understanding".  Today professors and academics are invited here to study with other world class colleagues, take sabbaticals and attend international conferences.  There are little buildings dotted throughout the property dedicated to various arts such as music, painting etc.  Those in residence don't like being regarded as tourist trophies, so there are strict rules around visiting times and what you can photograph.  A beautiful place, with lots of history.

St Michael's Church, Varenna

St Michael's solitude

One of the things that caught my eye in Bellagio, was a building directly across the lake, that had been constructed mid way up a very high cliff face. It intrigued me.  I was later to find out that this building was a church, (St Michael's actually) and you could walk up to it.  So, after having settled in to Bellagio a little, I got up early, found my way across the lake on the car ferry to a town called Cadenabbia.  After a coffee in a cafe by the ferry terminal, I began the walk up the hill.  I had been warned it was "up" ALL the way, but it really was not as bad as it could have been.  I got slightly dis-oriented part way up and LOVED asking an old Italian lady for directions (in Italian) and it was fantastic to fully understand her response (and it was very helpful!).  Charming.  There is no way she could have communicated with me in English and she was so nice.  My morning was shaping up well! It was great to get my heart rate up after quite a lot of tiring, but slow walking in Milan.  I was the only one on the trail and it was fantastic.  Firstly walking through the outskirts of the old town, through the back yards of houses that had been been there for centuries, with no vehicular access.  It felt like I could have been back in time several hundred years!  The path was steep and roughly cobbled and regularly dotted with "stations of the cross" with fresh flowers at each one.  Someone had been there recently! As I got further and further up, the views of the lake and surrounding country expanded and were stunning. The stillness of the morning, with no wind and the peace of the place was outstanding.  It was so still though, that you could hear the odd vehicle or other activity occurring from across the lake!  Once arriving at the church itself, it was tranquil with outstanding views up and down the lake, back to Bellagio and down into the village houses below (including an amazing villa).  I will always remember the moments of stillness up there.

Villas and Gardens

Villa Monestero gardens, Varenna

The other thing that the area is famous for are the villas and their amazing gardens.  Apart from Villa Serbelloni described above, there are hundreds of villas built hundreds of years ago dotted around the lake that have gardens that are simply astounding in their beauty.  We visited two in particular that took my breath away and I said to myself "I did not know it was possible for man to create such beauty!!"

Location:Lake Como, Italy

Love and Style in Milan

It was simply lovely to arrive in Milan and be greeted by our dear friend Simona. This was to be just a fore taste of our time in Milan, where we enjoyed so much the friendship, laughs and companionship of our friends who showered us with kindness at every opportunity.






One of the reasons I love Milan is that it is a true Italian city, built entirely for local people, not catering for tourists any more than anyone else. Indeed there are few tourists, but many foreign business people. This makes a far better environment, where our experience in some places is that the local people get over dosed on tourists. Here you see local life as it really is.

On the subway, it was common for someone to stand right in front of you, look right past you to their reflection in the window behind, as they adjust their hair or make up. I saw jandals here like you have never seen, adorned with Swarovski crystal, Armani everything! However, I did feel right at home with three days of beard growth. It is all a part of the look.






In the course of doing business in Milan, we met some more charming people, whose love for things authentically Italian matched our own. We developed some great new ideas for our business and are looking forward to seeing how they develop.

Of our entire trip this time we had the richest experience in Milan. Our dear friends in Milan advised us to not make any plans for Sunday - we were in their hands. For lunch, we headed up the autostrada to Lake Varese, where we were due to have lunch at a lakeside restaurant. Sounded fantastic. I was advised to take my camera - very promising! Our hosts had not been there before either and when we arrived at the small lakeside village and parked the car, we strolled down to the lakeside, passing a manger with a distinctly rural odour. As we reached the lakeside, there was no restaurant, just a rickety wooden jetty. As we stood around there wondering what now, we began to soak up this beautiful place. Not a breath of wind, sun, calm lake with an island, lovely villas up on the hill side, villages on the far shore, an old launch chugging across the calm water. That launch headed straight for us and the navigator soon called out a cheery greeting to us before easing the vessel up against the old jetty without tying it up. Our friends all got on board with some trepidation as none had expected a boat ride. High heels on the rickety jetty then required assistance boarding the launch, complete with sun glasses (piu sexy!). The launch returned to the island where the lakeside restaurant was nestled by the shore surrounded by lovely mature trees. What a setting! As we approached we could make out other diners seated outside under a porch, right by the water. Molto tranquillo! As we disembarked and walked up the restaurant jetty, the first thing we noticed was a vessel clearly used in wedding ceremonies. Ok, aspects of that probably top a wedding on the Waitemata Harbour on a schooner.






We then settled in to a lovely Italian five course lunch, frequently gazing around at the amazing setting, watching gliders lazily landing at an airport on the other side of the lake and families lazily cruising around the lake in small craft of all kinds. After lunch we took a "passeggiata" around the island with some time to just enjoy the tranquil setting, before the trip back to the mainland.




Our next destination was what we would call a "camp" or retreat centre not far from the restaurant, that Fabio and Silvana have been supporting for years. It was an amazing place, with acres of land dotted with fruit trees of all kinds and about 6 buildings. We had a very memorable time walking all around the property, seeing all the facilities and enjoying the beautiful views of the lake below. We spent some time picking some beautiful grapes from a very old vine that Fabio and his friends had discovered about a year ago. They had pruned it back hard and the result was a bountiful harvest of grapes. It was such a shame to leave so many lovely bunches still on the vine, but we had to move on. Ferrari had won at Monza that day (just down the road from where we were) so traffic on the autostrada was going to be heavy.





Our next destination was the home of the other friends who had been with us, Anna and Mario. Despite our protestations about just having enjoyed a five course lunch, Anna insisted on us enjoying her fabulous antipasto, pasta and of course some of the lovely grapes we had just picked for 'dolce'.

We had swapped cars from Fabio's fabulous Citroen to Silvana's brand new sporty Citroen. Both great cars and a pleasure to be taken around Milan in them.






We returned to our room that night tired, but having enjoyed our best day in Italy this trip.

Location:Milan, Italy

Verona - history and hysteria

Italy is very mountainous, but the northern provinces of Veneto and Lombardia are flat. Our Eurostar train powered across the plains and in only an hour we were in Verona. I am a fan of Tim Parkes and one of his books is set in Verona, so I almost felt like I knew the place. However, what Tim describes in his books is normal life in suburban Verona and what we discovered there was an eye opening window into an ancient old town.




Firstly, there is Piazza Bra the largest Piazza in Verona, named not after women's underwear but local dialect for "open space". And a lovely open space it is, with vehicles banned from a lovely area where the local Veronese can perfect the art of the "passeggiata" or "social stroll". This is something so special about life in Italy, walking (slowly), smiling, greeting, chatting to all the other people you know who are doing the same. Couples arm in arm, children in strollers, children running around and dogs, well just being dogs.





Adjoining Piazza Bra is the best preserved Roman Arena in the world. As a mini Colosseum it is today a fantastic venue for opera and music concerts in general. Super Tramp were playing there the night we were in town. The acoustics are apparently very good. I explored inside the arena while Kathy went window shopping. The seating inside on the stone seats would be very hard after a while and each step or level is quite high to scale. I bounded up to the top and paid for it dearly with very sore thighs for about three days!

The other surprising thing about Verona was the level of classy sophistication and style everywhere. In the back streets as we explored we found a striking contrast of ancient Roman or Medieval reliefs on the old stone house walls mixed with high fashion boutique stores like Gucci etc. In addition the locals all had "the look" as they call it in Italy. Most of them just look stunning. Verona is a miniature Milan!





Verona has been an important trading town for over 2,000 years and you can tell. It is oozing history at every turn, from the Roman toll gate to the Medieval devotional column in an old market place. All of this leads to an amazing Roman market place in Piazza Erbe. It is still full of market life today, with stalls and umbrellas packed into the piazza, but still surrounded by the same ancient houses, with their fresco finish as they were hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. The thing that is different however, is the throngs of tourists that come to see the fabled balcony of Romeo and Juliet fame just down the road from the piazza. The fact that Romeo and Juliet were fictional characters seems to be completely lost in the frenzied homage paid to this spot. History does indicate that there were feuding families in Verona (as indeed in many medieval towns), but the tradition of touching the left breast of the statue of Juliet to bring love to a loveless life is just too much for me! Romance with no reality! Ok, let's not go any further down that road!





The tombs of the once powerful Medieval families in Verona are impressive. Huge tall marble carved structures, with ornate marble statues and reliefs. The sombre statue of Dante Alighieri also has prominence in a piazza due to the fact that the inventor of the unified Italian language was given refuge here at some stage.

We then wandered on looking for a spot with the right ambience for our evening Campari ritual. We were debating a bar that backed onto the river right next to an ancient Roman bridge when the barman walked through the door with a bottle of Campari! We took it as a sign, and sat down to a nice aperitif with the sound of the river rapids right beside us. The bridge we were looking at was built by the Romans to provide access to a theatre below the castle. During World War II the bridge was bombed and after the war the locals fished the original white marble stones from the river and used these in the reconstructed bridge to the maximum extent they could.






From there we wandered on to the Duomo, which we could not really see as a mass was in progress. The mass seemed to be being played on a tape with the voice of a young woman. For us it was a combination of entrancingly monotonous and somehow melodic, but it clearly had some deep meaning for the locals who were in attendance.

For our evening meal we sought out an enoteca recommended in the Rick Steves guide. We often avoid these places, as they are usually full of tourists clutching Rick Steves guide books. After hiding our guide book carefully, we selected a table and when it came time to order the charming owner of this place pulled up a chair and sat down with us to go through the menu and answer our questions. We were impressed- lovely wine, great food and good feel. We recommend Osteria le Veccete, 32A Via Pellicini. It is a little tricky to find, but well worth the effort.






As we left Verona we were amazed to find a ceramic decoration on the floor of one of the platform waiting rooms made by one of our ceramic suppliers from Vietri sul Mare, a long way south.

We settled in to the train ride to Milan, wondering what the next few days of our trip would bring.

Location:Verona, Italy

Bella Venezia

Once down on the plains below the Alps in the train, the temperature steadily rose, so that by the time we arrived in Verona before traveling on to Venice, we were decidedly warm in 3 layers of clothing. It felt good to hear all the Italian being spoken around us as opposed to largely unintelligible (to us at least) German. We were back in the land of red and yellow trousers! It felt like being home again. I felt great agreeing to an unintelligible request from a stranger to guard his bags at the station with a deferential "si, prego". Ahhh.

Sitting in the train opposite a skinny woman with a miniature dog on her lap, looking like someone directly off the cover of "Vogue". Yep, yep, yep, here we are again. It was a long train ride from Innsbruck (5 hours including the stop over in Verona) but the best I have ever done. When we were greeted by the Grand Canal in Venice, hot, but contented, The first vessel to pass by was not a gondola this time but a boat referring to a very long journey! Va bene.


We were so happy to be back in Venice, for some reason we decided to walk from the St Marks stop on the vaporetto. Lovely romantic notion, but our rose colored memories were of gentle strolls in the evening WITHOUT LUGGAGE! There are SO MANY bridges, each one with steps. Venice is designed for walking, not people negotiating the milling tourist crowds with multiple bags on wheels. What were we thinking!

Once we reached our street, soon the familiar "ciaouww" was ringing out around us in a typical Venetian dialect.

After settling back into our favorite apartment in Venice, we set off in search of one of the back-street restaurants we found on our last trip - "Trattoria Tosi". It was just the same chaotic little spot, overflowing with local Italians, where you had to watch you did not trip over the dog sitting below the counter! However, tonight was "tavola chiusa" and any menu option was available as long as it was pizza. We didn't feel like pizza, so we strolled around the back streets some more and found another place called "Ai Tosi Grandi". We enjoyed pleasant classical Italian fare in a small out door courtyard in just shirt sleeves, soaking up the 'vero italiano' atmosphere again.


Italy is not the quietest place to sleep in. In Venice, at least you don't get the"motorini" zooming around all night, but in the distant background haze of sleep it seems this town never stops! Firstly, some don't leave to go out to dinner until well after 10pm and then return in very good heart, chatting loudly over the complete stillness of the night. We live next door to a fish shop and they seem to start preparing for the day's trade at not long after 3am, followed not long after by the fruiterer with his boat based shop on the canal outside our apartment at about 4am. I later discovered this was because we had left our windows open. Va bene. However, I've got to say I love this place and it's people (you might have guessed this!).

Next morning we went back to our favorite morning coffee haunt, carefully remembering the exact wording to get the cafe latte we love. Dang, the coffee arrives too strong and just not right. We had got one word wrong in the order. Oh well, tomorrow is another coffee day!

Our main event for the day was to visit one of our mask suppliers. It was interesting to see how these people are struggling to maintain viable businesses with the onslaught of cheap copies of their art work from China. Evidence of this is everywhere in the market stalls and our supplier mentioned how he had even discovered his own images on another web site. When an enquiry was made, the response was that "one just like this was available". Our supplier is working with the Italian government to put in place a better framework to manage copyright infringement in the art industry. We really enjoyed catching up in person. Dealing remotely is facilitated immensely by some face time. We returned to our apartment confirmed that this is the best way to manage the relationships with our Italian suppliers.

That evening we sought out our favorite Venetian restaurant (Ai Tosi) and were not disappointed. All the outside tables were taken and the place was bustling with life. Our scallop pasta was the best meal we had enjoyed in Venice.


The next morning we set off for Murano, wondering what the day would bring. After re-engaging with a lovely young small Murano glass seller / manufacturer we decided it was time for a panino. After enjoying a lovely version and being served by a most genial young waiter it was time to leave. The Italian custom is only to pay when you leave and this is always Kathy's department. Her dismayed face said it all.... All our money and vaporetto tickets were safely resting in our apartment. This is where being female and fluent in Italian really helps! After a profusion of apologies the genial waiter agreed to waive the bill on our promise of returning to pay 2 days later. Such a nice young man.

As we boarded the vaporetto, some other passengers bought a ticket from the guy who ties the boat up at each stop. Kathy and I exchanged looks, just waiting to be asked for proof of our tickets, but phew, after a brief enquiring glance at us, he leaves. Heart rate slowly drops. It would have been a tricky one to explain.

The next day, we decided to venture on to Burano. We were blown away by this lovely little island and surprised by it's beauty and charm. The people there seemed less "tourist over-dosed", friendly and helpful. The bright colours of the houses are what it is famous for, but seeing them was even better than I expected. The lace was everywhere and of course now mostly made elsewhere, but a part of the charm.

Gondolier navigating back canal Venice!

We cut our time on Burano short so we could return to Venice for a special annual festival involving gondola racing. This has tradition lasting back centuries and based on another one we chanced upon last visit we were looking forward to it. As we returned, we knew from experience that all vaporetto traffic in the Grand Canal is cancelled during this period from about 3pm until 7:30pm. We could get to within one stop of our apartment, so not much inconvenience for us. However, as we walked along the hot, exasperated, stressed expressions on the faces of those who had trudged over all the bridges and still had ages to go told a story of some people whose memories of their trip to Venice will be somewhat tarnished!

As I walked down to the canal, I did relish the lifestyle of the locals. There was not one person in a hurry. People calling out greetings to one another, smiling, everyone was relaxed, even the dogs! Some sitting in bars having a social drink, others just sitting on park benches. Meanwhile I wandered down to the canal to catch the action. Hmmm. We found out later that we had missed the good bit and what remained was just the racing. The ceremony with the lavishly decorated floats, orchestra and gondoliers in full period costume..... Ah well. I did take some video of one race and the best part of that is the running commentary by a few old men behind me. Rather annoyingly, a Guarda di Finaza police boat was hovering just in front of us on the water, guarding something.

Six man gondola crew warming up for a race

Kathy joined me to watch the distant and somewhat boring spectacle, when all of a sudden there was a loud splash followed by some very excited shouting. One of the old men had fallen in to the canal! He was not flailing around or panicking but he clearly could not swim. The Guarda di Finaza boat drew closer and one the guys threw a bolster to him, but he was not able to use it. So after a moments hesitation, the Guarda di Finaza chap jumped off the boat fully clothed including his Gucci sun glasses. He shepherded the old chap to nearby steps from the canal and they both emerged from the canal with seaweed appropriately draped on their shoes to a full round of applause and shouts of appreciation and adulation for the Guarda di Finanza. The young policeman shrugged off the hero worship and got back to official process of getting on the phone to the base and starting the Italian beauraucratic documentation.

Our next supplier visit was a delight. We have found that with each in person visit, the depth of our relationship extends a further notch. They did not have time to take us for lunch and were very apologetic about this, so instead hosted us at their local bar for a drink. Campari "spritzers" all round, plus some amazing Venetian style bruscetta. We saw the Campari being prepared and had not realized that they prepare it here with sparkling wine, not sparkling water! Then they wanted to go outside so they could smoke. This is normally lovely by the canal, but today there was a strong wind blowing and Kathy was not dressed for it. I positioned myself up wind to provide some shelter. We thoroughly enjoyed this time of informal interaction though. With each sip of the Campari though I could feel it going to my head on an empty stomach. By the time we left, we were very happy and slightly unsteady on our feet before boarding a vaporetto for the ride to Murano. The first stop was to repay our debt and thank the waiter warmly and get some strong coffee into us before another supplier meeting!

Many of our suppliers in Venice are also small family businesses like ours and it was lovely to meet more of the family members and hear more of how they are doing against the fierce tide of copied products saturating the local tourist market.

Campari at Florian Bar, St Marks - fantastic!

For our final night in Venice, Kathy needed to fulfill a "bucket list" item - an evening aperitif at the Florian in St Marks Square. It is such a magical place and we spent some time just drinking in the atmosphere. It seems to draw out the romance and good will in all the tourists there. Everyone seemed in such good spirits, couples holding hands, sharing a romantic kiss and just smiling. The Florian is a very famous bar in the Square and one of three who boast a small instrumental group playing live music. Lord Byron used to come here regularly. We have stood back in the square before and just listened to the orchestras, but this time we needed to move from passive participants to full immersion in this experience! So, we took our seats at a table and when our traditional Campari arrived on a silver tray with a white suited waiter, he carefully laid out the table and added the soda in front of us. Bellissimo! Cost a small fortune, but well worth it!

Sadly, it was now time to head off on the next stage of our trip and as we boarded our vaporetto for the last time this trip, I was not sad it was the "long way" up the Grand Canal stopping everywhere. I managed to get some great shots of the Rialto Bridge.

Location:Venice, Italy

Innsbruck in the Alps

We left Zurich in a very nice non 1st class ticket and travelled for some distance beside Lake Zurich before ascending steeply into the Alps. Even though it was raining and cloudy, there were great sights on both sides of the train. Firstly Lake Zurich with the occasional spectacular water falls plunging down the sheer drop into the lake or green meadows running from the Alpine tree-line right to the Alpine hamlets. I was about to burst forth with "The hills are alive with the sound of MUSIC" but thought I might disturb a fellow passenger opposite who was engrossed in his computer, i-pod ear plugs in, oblivious to the beauty all around him.

We had to change from a Swiss train to an Austrian train on the border at a town called Feldkirch. A lovely Alpine town on the border of Lichtenstein, Austria and Switzerland. While waiting the 5 minutes on the platform though we started to appreciate the likely temperature ahead. It was less than 10 degrees for sure already.




Arriving in Innsbruck, I went for a walk around our hotel. To be honest, I was not impressed. It seemed drab, cold and run down and I started to feel a bit edgy. It seemed it hadn't moved on from the post war period. Not a restaurant to be found for dinner. It proved to me how wrong first impressions are sometimes.

The next day we walked into the old town. We got a bit side tracked on the way and ended up finding ourselves in a clothing store - we were amazed to find very high quality clothes at reasonable prices. Kathy found a beautiful dress coat that you could never buy at home (or at least in the stores we shop at). It was truly a work of art... Sorely tempted. Impressions of Austria were changing.



We continued on to the old town - wow! Oozing character and history it was breath taking with the backdrop of the snow clad Alps. Mozart even stayed here with his father! After a while the whole place livened up with annoying loud tour guides with Italian, Chinese, and German tourists in tow, locals with dogs, locals doing the "still life - statue" thing and the Austrian military band showed up. Awesome. Oompah pah and even some lederhosen to complete the atmosphere. The cloud was lifting to unveil even more of the stunning backdrop of the Alps with a fresh dusting of snow.

After free running for a while we thought it would be good to do a guided tour of the city by bus and found one immediately. There were two highlights for me - seeing the famous ski jump that is visible from the town and also getting an appreciation for the history of the town. It has been an important hub for trade through the Alps for many centuries and passed through many conflicts.

The ski jump was rebuilt for a recent Winter Olympics. I imagined the pants wetting adrenaline rush when preparing for a jump at the top. The view


would be stunning too, but probably not top of mind for the international skiers at that moment! Another thing ticked off my "bucket list"... I couldn't imagine standing on skis at the top of the near vertical drop preparing for lots of air time before landing at a zillion mph on a steep downhill.

We visited two churches and each one shared a similar remarkable feature - the number of gold features in addition to the ornate colored fantastic frescoes. These churches were almost over the top in their amazing adornment, which I imagine had been progressively added to over the centuries, particularly in the good times.

On Kathy's bucket list was a visit to the Swarowski Crystal shop in Innsbruck. This is a famous feature of the town and we spent some time just browsing some of the amazing crystal items, including jewelry and amazing ornaments in colored crystal. What was also surprising was that the prices were not excessive either. In fact, this was a major surprise in Austria and we found some lovely good quality clothes in particular. The people we interacted with were also lovely and a lot of them spoke English.



By the time evening came, we were too tired to venture far and so on both evenings we retired to the hotel bar, as there was no "in-house" restaurant. We noticed a large "mug stand" type of thing on the bar with pretzel like things the size of dinner plates hanging on it and I was not sure if they were wooden or plastic. Turns out that they were real and two glasses of red house wine (pretty good too) plus two dinner plate sized pretzels was dinner for us!

The next morning we set off for the station, suitcases in tow very early for our next leg to Venice from Innsbruck. As Kathy was feeling vulnerable to the unexpectedly cold weather we were experiencing in Innsbruck, we diverted to a shopping mall en route so she could buy some warmer clothes. My protestation that Italy would be much warmer seemed to be irrelevant to the present felt need. Meanwhile I spent some time in a coffee shop, hoping we would get just ONE good cup of coffee before we leave Innsbruck with the impression that they can't make a good cup there. Unfortunately my impressions were only reinforced.




We decided to use the toilet facilities in the mall versus the pay versions in the station. Wow, what a surprise. Very high tech like something you would expect in Korea or Japan. Firstly, virtually all vertical surfaces were mirrors and secondly, the sink units consisted of a flat white bench top with circular slots the size of large dinner plates into which the water from the taps with electronic sensors ran off. When it came time to leave it was like being in the house of mirrors at a fair ground and finding the exit was a test of visual perception.

The train from Innsbruck passes through the Alps via the Brenner Pass and afforded some stunning scenery for the first hour or more before we stopped at Brenner itself and were on Italian soil for the first time. The sight of the Italian flag flying on the Brenner Carabinieri Station was a lovely and welcome sight.

Location:Innsbruck, Ausria

No zzz in Zurich

At the airport in Zurich we were met Elio and his son Paulo and it was great to see some friendly, familiar, welcoming faces. Within minutes my first Italian was in use. In the carpark "e lontana l'auto?". YES! Spoken like a native!

After a trip in Elio's Golf through many tunnels Kathy and I discuss our arrival. Would Rina have a meal waiting for us? Surely not. Remember, we had had brekfast in the hotel, light lunch at the Incheon Airport, two meals on the flight and a snack on the flight from Vienna to Zurich. Our primary need was BED, not food! But our lovely hostess Rina had prepared a lovely welcoming dinner for us, so we chat over a lovely traditional Italian meal before crashing into bed after midnight. We thought we would be sleeping in the spare room but the was no spare room and our lovely hosts had prepared their own bed for us.




Elio had spoken to me as I arrived at their apartment in Italian, and though I had not understood I had laughed and did not want to let on I had no idea what he had said. When Kathy told me later, I realized my reaction was inappropriate. I was moved to find Elio had told me to treat his apartment as my own; meanwhile, he and Rina were staying at his son's place in circumstances we didn't know but suspected were less than perfect.

We awoke only at 9am to find the table already set and a lovely Italian breakfast awaiting us. Ah, the REAL coffee, croissants, mmmmm.





The rest of our time in Zurich was spent catching up with old friends who Kathy knew in her childhood in Southern Italy, who now work in Zurich. Not many jobs in the South. It was a special, rich time of renewing old relationships and catching up on where life had taken each person.

I was so heartened to find I could communicate in Italian and when one of the friends asked if I could speak Italian, I replied modestly "solo un po" (only a little). Elio added "abbastanza" (enough) which I found enormously encouraging.




We also had some time to look around Zurich. The Lake dominates the city, which is also very sophisticated.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day but towards the end I was trying to keep Kathy awake by neck massage before we bade our hosts good bye and slumped into bed!

Location:Zurich, Switzerland

Impressions from Incheon

Korean Air are great. The flight from Auckland on Korean air was long - 11.5 hours. The hostesses were delightful, young and attractive and gave fantastic service the entire journey. When we checked in at Auckland, the Air NZ check in person noticed how tall I was and proactively changed my seat to an exit row! We were so chuffed. The only downside was Kathy was next to this big guy with gold rings on his thumb and fingers etc who did not really acknowledge our existence for 11.5 hours! He was one of those people who over flow their seat and commandeer the arm rest.

The Incheon Airport is also modern and high tech. We had checked our main luggage through to Zurich, so we were through Customs quite quickly and then had to find our hotel (which is allocated only after you arrive in Incheon). After some investigation we found the place for the booking and waited while other passengers arrived. We were then herded onto a bus, which when inside looked more like a bordello than a bus - it was decorated with gaudy purple fabric on all the seats and panels with decorative yellow tassels. It was very hot and humid when we exited the terminal, but the inside of the bus was like a cool store. Just as the bus pulled in to the hotel I figured out that I could stop the icy blast that had caused me to wish I still had my sweat shirt on and do up my top shirt button and hug my camera bag.

Enroute, it was great to exchange emails via Blackberry with Jordan after his day with Stefan traveling up to Whangarei for a funeral. We were so grateful they could represent our family at this very sad event.

The hotel was touted as 5 star. Not really, but about 4 probably. It is new and almost not quite finished.he hotel Internet was the first priority - no wifi here. For 500 Won deposit they gave us a cable. Kathy excitedly logged in successfully and downloaded all emails. However, sending was a problem. Great to keep abreast of DoI stuff though.







Like many things in Korea the toilet was high tech, including a heated seat and functions of bidet and blow drier. As you sat on it, it emitted a high tech whine to indicate it was ready for service. I reckon it was fully networked and all data captured for later analysis. Wish I had that job!

We were very grateful to flop onto the bed, only to find it was like lying on an ironing board. However, even that could not keep us awake.

The next morning we awoke to find another grey, hot humid day in Seoul. Having Internet was fantastic as Kathy was able to contact Jordan who fixed all her email problems. She was also able to contact Hayley on MSN while she was in our showroom and really able to be in touch with what happening in real time at the showroom. Hayley was doing a great job.

After breakfast we went for a quick walk to check out the China town beside the hotel. In the attached photo check out the mix of ancient and modern of the Chinese building adjacent to the huge full colour screen. Up the side road it was great to see the Chinese influence in the few moments we had to explore.











We enjoyed just mooching around, soaking up the feeling of the area. All too soon it was time to leave our hotel with it's heated toilet seat. Back onto the bordello bus and at the airport we found a decent coffee (major coupe in Korea) and settled in to some free wi-fi time at the modern, clean Incheon airport. We also had some time to reconcile ourselves to the fact that our hopes of a direct flight from Seoul to Zurich were fatally wounded and we became reconciled to a 1.5 hour stop over in Vienna. Yes it was in the fine print of the itinerary. Bah! 13.5 hours between us and Zurich.

Location:Incheon, Seoul