Day 59 - To Milan

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati:0

There was another round of goodbyes this morning, but mostly via WhatsApp, before Rachele put me on my train to Milan to begin my journey home. 

I'm not impressed with my train.  It is run by a private company, ItaloTreno, rather than the national Trenitalia company.  I'm in what is supposedly first class but there is nowhere to put suitcases except in the overhead racks.  For a company that only provides long distance trains this seems to be a serious oversight.  Getting my 14 kg suitcase up into the overhead luggage rack was ... let us say, fun.  

Because I was travelling in a fancy carriage I got a paper cup of water and a packet of peanuts as part of my fare.  Fortunately, Rachele wouldn't hear of me leaving without making sure I have plenty of food so I'm at no risk of starvation.  In fact, I suspect I've put on about 10kg based on the way my closthes (don't) fit so I could probably live off my fat reserves for several weeks.

Visiting Italy has been wonderful but I'm glad to be on my way home.   My brain is tired.  I look forward to be able to speak in English without feeling lazy.  I have massive, crazy respect for anyone who immigrates to a country where the local language is different to their own.

It turns out I lied about the luggage situation on the train.  These ItaloTreno carriages do have a place to put luggage.  Oddly enough their cars only have an entrance at one end.  At the other end, there is a little vestibule with a toilet and a luggage storage place.   Odd that you have to walk through the entire car to get to it.  I didn't notice it until well into the journey.  Many others didn't notice it either.  I saw one poor soul nursing his oversized suitcase on his lap for the entire stretch from Naples to Rome as it was too big for the overhead luggage racks.

Speaking of Rome, we sat outside there for a good hour.  The official reason was congestion.  I suspect this was partly right.  I think what really happened is we got to the outskirts of Rome about 10 to 15 minutes late and I think we missed our "landing slot".  Priority seems to be given to Trenitalia over these upstart private companies.  The journey ended up taking around 9 1/2 hours instead of the 8 it should have been.  Practice for tomorrow's journey home to Australia I guess.  However, with train travel you get more space and better views.

I ended up not getting to Milan until 7pm instead of 5:30pm as planned.  I had planned on getting a final drink and a final gelati but it was not to be.  I'm staying at a hotel near the main railway station, so it was easy to get to, but even so by the time I checked in it was a civilised time for dinner by Italian standards.  I randomly picked a nearby pizzeria which turned out to be decent.  The only mark against it was their idea of a good house red wine was a sparkling shiraz.

Now to convince all my belongings they really will fit into my suitcase one last time.