the Grand Tour blog

Milan to Cremona

Back to the station to reclaim my case – €5.20 for 6 hours, compared to €4 a day in Germany – and bought a ticket for Cremona in the machine. The train departed ten minutes late, and the driver tried hard to make up time. Or maybe he always drives like that! Much of the journey is on single track, through very pleasant woodland, and we must have been travelling at 60-70mph with the leaves inches from the train. The sun came out as we pulled out of Milan‘s stazione centrale.

Cremona is bigger and looks more commercial than I expected. My hotel in a very narrow and attractive street. Someone down the road playing the violin badly. Went out for a wander round in the late evening sun. The facade of the Duomo in its big square is fabulous. Grabbed some photos in case the weather changes. Had a good meal in the hotel restaurant, and got the recipe. 

[Posted 28 May]

Milan: the Duomo

From La Scala I went back to the Duomo. A few photos inside, but it's very dark, in stark contrast to the highly decorated pinky-white marble exterior, and photography (which is not officially allowed but everyone is doing it) is not helped by ugly bright mercury lights high up at roof level. It's impressive, with its five aisles, but not to me very attractive. It started raining very hard while I was inside, and I sheltered for a while until it eased, then walked the kilometer or so to the church of Santa Maria della Grazie, to see if there was any chance of getting in to see Leonardo's Last Supper, as I had't been able to book. No. And the church itself was closed until 3:00.

Very wet by that time so I found a café near the church for some lunch. When the rain stopped I trekked back to the Duomo and – after much security checking – climbed the 160+ steps to the roof. A wonderful experience. Pattern pictures everywhere, looking down through the intricate tracery of the buttresses, and interesting shots of people on the lower level. Inspiration at last!

La Scala Milan

First to the station to leave my case for the day, and spent about 15 minutes finding the Left Luggage place (it's at the extreme right of the station, in the same corridor as the big street level ticket office). The loos are equally badly signposted, but are at the opposite end, one level up. Bought a couple of Metro tickets, just €1 a time, and set off for the Duomo. 

The weather was very dull, and threatening to rain; in fact they told me in the hotel that rain was forecast for 11:00 until 14:00. So I walked through the splendid Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II to La Scala, to see if any visiting restrictions were posted for today; just as well I did as there is a strike in the opera house this afternoon. Bought a museum ticket and was directed first to the auditorium, into one of the boxes about halfway up the six rows, and opposite the stage. Spent quite a long time enjoying the fabulous interior as my eyes adapted to the very dim light. Then to the museum itself, consisting largely of portraits and busts of the great singers and composers in La Scala's history. Toscanini of course, with the distinctive moustache; Caruso with short hair and a sort of quiff, with his broad shoulders; Sartini's painting of Maria Callas, stunning in black to match her eyes and hair; and many others. Upstairs many prints of stage sets, and an old drawing of the auditorium with no seats, the great and the good promenading.

Late arrival

Just after the train announcement of ten minutes to Milano, we slowed down and came to a stop due, apparently, to a problem at the station. Ended up arriving 25 minutes late, at 10:50. Luckily Hotel Garda is less than five minutes walk, and it took me longer to escape from Mussolini's grand edifice than to find the hotel.

Check list checking

A week of final preparations, adding things to my multiple to-do lists as fast as I check them off. Confirmed all the images have been transferred to the computer from the Nikon D300 and P5000 memory cards, backed them up and deleted everything from the cards. Charged the camera batteries. Finalised the printed backup information and tickets, and taped it all in two envelopes under the lining of the case so it doesn’t get left anywhere.

Fiddled with packing, though some difficulty making final decisions on clothing. And no way I can carry the Epson P2000 [a portable disk for image storage] as backup, so I'm a little concerned in case anything happens to the PowerBook. I guess I’d just have to shoot JPEG only, not RAW+JPG as I normally do, and probably buy more cards.

Phoned the hotel in Milan to say I will be arriving late; the train is due in at 10:30pm, and I’m told that some TGV-Artesia trains can run quite late. Relieved to hear the hotel has my reservation – I’d had a slight fear I would arrive in the middle of the night and they’d know nothing about me!

On Grand Tour 1 I carried the Rough Guides to Germany and Austria, but never referred to them except to look up restaurants a few times. And the books are heavy. So this time I’ve scanned the restaurant pages for Bologna, Florence, Rome, Lucca, Venice and Vicenza; no problem with copyright, I think, as this is strictly for my personal use. Adjusted the scans, saved them as JPGs and also combined them into a PDF for easier 2-up printing (which I almost forgot to do).

Transferred the restaurant JPGs to the Files app on the iPhone, together with a PDF of the Cremona-Busseto-Bologna train timetables from Trenitalia. The timetables now show fares for these regional trains – just €2.80 for Cremona-Busseto. Files was behaving itself, and not causing the Mac Finder to hang as it has ever since I upgraded to the full app; I did quit most other applications on the Mac first, which might (or might not) have made a difference.

Even spent some time relaxing in the sun today, between sorting out paperwork and fettling the suitcase.

Final bookings

Several highlights on my list must be booked in advance. First, Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper (Cenacolo Vinciano), in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. One of the world's great paintings, the 15 x 29 foot mural was completed in 1498. Despite its popularity and the restricted number of visitors, booking doesn't seem to be possible very far in advance, hence my late attempt to do so. But a week ago the website showed it fully booked to the end of June – 8:15 to 18:45, six days a week – with no further dates. Since then they've released July and August (no use to me), and most of July has already gone. In fact I called the reservation line and they did have a slot available on my day in Milan, but it was too late in the day. I may try for a cancellation or no-show when I get there.

After much thought about whether I could get to an 8:30 booking at the Uffizi gallery in Florence, I find they don't have any availability until midday anyway, on my chosen day. Nor on the next day. So I tried booking for 12:15, but then their bank wouldn't accept my currency card. I gave it a while to release the ticket and tried again with another card, which also failed. Eventually I phoned the booking number and quickly got a booking reference for 12:15; collect the ticket and pay the fee when I get there. Easy!

Booked a 12:30 visit to the Giotto Frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, through their website. The frescoes – considered one of the most important masterpieces of Western art – narrate events in the lives of the Virgin Mary and Christ, and cover all the walls of the Chapel. They were commissioned by Enrico degli Scrovegni and completed by Giotto in 1305. Using the booking reference I must collect my ticket from the nearby Eremitani Museum ticket office before 11:30, which should give time for the journey from Venice without rushing; the Chapel and Eremitani are not far from the station. There are a few other things on my list for Padova, of course, mainly exteriors.

Finally, a booking for Basilica San Marco in Venice, not mandatory but it ought to save some queuing. Quite easy to book on the VenetoInside website (linked from the Basilica website), although there was some confusion over booking fees due to their automated system sending the wrong email. Quickly sorted, and I now have the all-important barcode for entry. The silly thing about Basilica San Marco is that the visit is meant to last only ten minutes, hardly enough time to walk from one end to the other. I'm hoping that by loitering in a quiet place I will be able to escape being chased out. 

Final hotel confirmations

Booked Hotel G in Milan through Venere. I've booked Hotel A in Cremona by email, and phoned today with CC details. All hotels are now booked except London, which can wait for next year when Travelodge, etc. should have some offers. The average price is reasonable, comparing well with the first Grand Tour, and I think I’ve done pretty well considering I'm visiting Rome, Florence and Venice.

Set up a Train List, to keep track of the travel planning.

Tracking hotels

Made a Hotel List today to keep track of the bookings, with preferred hotels from the research to date. However some places are still causing problems, but good old Venere.com seems to be helping out:

Bologna: Hotel M, the one that I think might be a student hotel, is not showing any availability on Venere, and I’m reluctant to contact them direct (the website seems so out of date). The B&B I found is not offering singles at all on Venere, but doubles/triples at €90 in the next couple of months; nothing in 2010. I also found some serviced apartments at €39, in the middle of town; downside is a €50 cleaning charge at the end, which rules it out for just two nights, plus it looks from photos as if the bed is actually a sofa bed.

But Venere are offering the Best Western Hotel Maggiore at €49! Includes breakfast (from 6:30) and free Wi-Fi. About 2km out of town, but according to reviews – which are generally good – a good bus route from the station and into town. Sounds like a no-brainer. I’ll arrive late-ish from Cremona and can eat locally, although it would be nice to have a wander round town to get my bearings. If the bus service is really good there will really be no problem getting between the hotel and the city. From the bus website there are loads of buses passing the hotel.

Milan: My first choice shows an absurd price range of €50-€120 and still won’t accept my next year’s dates. But Venere has Hotel G, a 3-star, closer to the station, at €45 without breakfast. They have a dining room and normally serve breakfast, so perhaps I could buy a breakfast when I get there. I’ll be arriving late and checking out first thing, so I just need a decent place to sleep. Venere reviews don’t quite match the 8.2 score, and there are some bad ones on TripAdvisor. Jury still out.

Lucca: Originally looking at Hotel D, not far inside the walls on the station side. But uneasy about the reviews, some of which are good, but others very critical. Most people seem to post about an annexe, which is more expensive. €40-€50 single in the (small) main hotel, without breakfast, €65-€75 in the annexe. Rated #33 on TripAdvisor. One of the moans is that they force you into paying in UKP, to gain on the currency exchange. An alternative from the Rough Guide, Hotel T, is also split over 2 or 3 sites, further north, but it’s a small city and it probably only adds 10 minutes to the walk from the station. This one rated #36 on TA, though the reviews read better than that. Single €50 with bathroom, €35 shared, according to the website.