So today started off on a bit on the back foot. Still wasn't feeling well. Headed to our retirement village on wheels and headed to Verona. Letizia wasn't very enthusiastic about the place except for the balcony from Romeo and juliet. We got off the bus and walked through the town a little. Took the obligatory photo of the balcony and the statue of Juliet. Then walked to the piazza where we had free time but we had to have or buy lunch as well. We all kind of wanted to do separate things and eat separate things so kind of wandered around aimlessly. I stumbled upon a pretty fancy pants food court with salad options so I thought that was the go. Found the gal group tried to get a coffee but it seemed today was just one of those days where no one could make a decision and time was ticking. We all ended up cutting our loses and separating, though by the time we were due back I was still in a line for salad, was trying hard to communicate no cheese and bread roll please, had lost Sharyn and desperately needed to pee. Bolted bk to the group to find we had lost Georgia and Kerri too. Grrrrrrrr. I had been warned that you have down days during tours and to just batten down and know that the next day would be better.....nothing really bad or even slightly bad had happened but it was just an off day. Eventually found everyone and boarded back on the bus and headed to Milan.
We were met by another local tour guide who took us on a walking tour around Milan, to this amazing galleria ( similar in style to the one we had seen in Naples.... Gee these old things ) through the square to the Dormo. Inside the Dormo were beautiful ornate glass widows, art but a little disturbing were the to,BS of old saints and popes. We got quite a rude shock when we realised the forms lying in the glass tombs were actually once people. Not to be too graphic but their skin was shrivelled, greenish black, sunken.....really quite grotesque. Gerogia was turning a lovely shade of green so we ended up high tailing it pretty quickly out of there. We got caught in a parade for Remembrance Day and just generally watched the going ons around us. It was then we realised that Sharyn and I had signed up for the waking. Tour of Milan....sigh. By this stage I thi k we both would have been quite happy to sit in a piazza drinking much needed coffee, or gelato.
So once again we walked with deeeevices. Our local tour guide was great very knowledgeable. We headed to La scala one of the most famous opera halls in Italy, well known around the world. It was really like transporting bk in time, red plush seats, heavy rich curtains, lavish decorations, balconies set around the whole theatre. You could almost imagine woman dressed in corseted ball gowns, men in tuxedos, opera glasses on sticks, watching famous operas.....however apparently that idea is somewhat wrong lol. In the past the theatre used to b a meeting place where the wealthy got together to chat, organise business deals, eat. They were forced to begrudgingly be quiet when performers entered the stage.... Gee those pesky singers!!! Lol. We followed our guide through the museum attached. She pointed out busts/ paintings of famous singers and actors, many female which was quite unusual at the time, in terms of women being held in high esteem and in the public eye. I basically knew nothing so listening was interesting, in between trying to strip off the numerous layers while trying not to nock over 300 yr old busts. That would have been a big opps!!!
From here we went to the a big castle, cathedral and museum. Not to sound like I'm taking it all for granted but wow another amazing castle, great artefacts but writing this now I can't for the life of me remember who / what the castle commemorated or who/ when it was built. One thing that I do remember was a statue of a lady that would have been placed outside a brothel. It was of a woman giving herself a bikini wax / shave with a massive knife (no epilady bk then) showing potential customers what she was offering. Imagine posing for that hahaha I remember weird s###. After gng through my photos I also now remember that we saw Michael Angelo's last work... Quite amazing.
After more clutching of handbags and a suspected spotting of a potential soft handed lad we boarded the bus to our hotel in Varese. We arrived at our hotel which was no word of a lie a palace, complete with high ceilings, chandeliers and massive staircases. We had a group dinner downstairs with everyone. Poor Gail keeps being given basically cheese and tomato for every meal .... Not great with vegetarian options. Other than sitting through numerous public toasts from the other trafalgar group (pretty mundane group..our gp was better!!!) nothing of note to report.
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