¯\_(ツ)_/¯
After enjoying a few days in Longview, TX with friends Terry and Lynn, we garaged our trusty steed(-ette?) Pearl in her temporary digs at their place. On the way to a wedding in Dallas Saturday, they then dropped us at a hotel near the Dallas Fort Worth Airport.
Amazing planning by the super planners!
Sunday afternoon we flew to Atlanta to catch a long flight across the ocean all the way to Milano, Italy. The vagabonds are cruising by air! Luckily, we didn’t have anyone next to us on the 9-hour leg. That’s a long way! But arrival was exciting, and customs was a wonderful non-event.
After securing our suitcase (Score! No lost luggage!), we followed the signs to the “Noleggio Auto” in the airport, pulled a number and settled in for a bit of a wait.
Once handed the key to a snazzy blue Renault, we hit the road amongst a plethora of signs, all unreadable to these Americanos. Fortunately, many of the important ones are symbols: Stop, Yield, Merge, Do Not Enter, No Parking, etc. (And at least the Italians drive on the right. Ha!) Through the magic of cellphone navigation (yeah, T-Mobile!), – not to mention, we are so young and cool 😉 – we found a mobile phone store in Milano and picked up a local Tourist SIM card for our spare phone. Poor handsome dude spoke a smattering of “Inglese” to help us now somewhat babbling oldsters.
The next task was even more challenging – find a market and purchase enough food to scrounge up dinner and breakfast at the rental so we could get some much-needed sleep before facing a larger provisioning trip. That first attempt at grocery shopping was certainly entertaining… until our “young cool side” remembered that crazy cellphone. We are now learning how to make the best use of Google Translate. And it’s Fantastico!
As to driving? Nothing like going rapidly from 85+mph (135+ kph) to a crawl (and everything in between) whilst operating a manual stick in a foreign country. Yahoo! Navigating through and around Milano’s larger roads turned out to be good training for things to come when we reached the Como area. Mamma mia!
Can you please toss us one? They’re frisbee-shaped 🙂
About an hour outside of Milan, we were rewarded with our first glimpses of the famous Lake Como!
Another 30-minutes of increasingly narrow, twisting roads and several hairpin turns up the mountain (double mamma mia!), and we found our first home away from home between Como and Belagio.
Wait a second there, Amore Mio, why are your hands empty?
We’ve spent our first few days sleeping, provisioning, sleeping, enjoying the view, sleeping, and getting used to things. We can’t wait to explore and share the adventure. For now, arrivederci, one and all!
Our Travels 
Hey! That view of Lake Como with all the boats looks just like a jigsaw puzzle we put together. How cool that you are seeing it in real life. We love thinking of you both all the sights, sounds, and flavors of Italy. Mangia!
LikeLike
That should read “thinking of you both ENJOYING all the sights, sounds, etc…”
LikeLike
That’s too funny – I thought the same thing about it looking like a jigsaw puzzle picture! These past few rainy days would have been a great time for a puzzle. Alas, I didn’t bring one. Perhaps in March… 🙂
Instead, we’ve been using the rainy time to research and make plans for when the sun comes out, as well as watching the traffic on the lake. The boats and seaplanes run all day, regardless of the weather. Hugs!
LikeLike