Alpine Decorah

Tirano reminds me a lot of Decorah. I don't believe there is a college here, but the population is about the same. Both towns are in rural areas, rely to a certain degree on tourism for their economic stability, and seem to attract free thinkers and those with alternative lifestyles.

We met some of those people today on this trip's "Day in the Life" segment. Technically, this family lives in Castello Dell'acqua, a collection of tiny hamlets just southwest of town. But that's like saying someone lives on a farm with a rural address of Spillville.

The land has been in the family for five generations, but the current owners had abandoned it for professions in urban areas. Then they came back, took over from Dad or Grandpa, and turned a subsistence farm into a unique business.

The business is goat cheese and agri-tourism. There are about 60 goats, milked with modern equipment twice a day. There is a cheese production factory. And there is the kitchen and dining room where groups like ours are hosted 2-3 times each week, nine months of the year.

After a tour, we helped place temporary fencing around a new pasture area. Then watch a goat stampede as the herd was allowed into the new area with fresh grass. 

Then we went into the dining room to try our hands at making some goat cheese of our own. It wasn't terrible, but the five varieties of professionally made cheese we enjoyed with lunch (along with salad, bread, pasta, and local wine) were much better.

Because April 25 is celebrated as a national holiday in Italy, commemorating liberation from fascism in 1945 (without mention of the fact that the Italians actually voted the fascists into power a couple decades earlier), our hosts sang us a partisan anthem from the 1940s.

The meal finished with "corrected" coffee. The espresso was "corrected" with a shot of grappa (40% alcohol) in each little cup. Not our favorite flavor, but it did send us all off with smiles on our faces. We returned to the hotel in mid-afternoon.

But a half hour later we were on the go once again. Most of our group accompanied Luca on a hike. The first stop was just a few blocks down the street, where we visited the Basilica of the Madonna of Tirano. 

This 16th century church commemorates the site on which a local farmer had an apparition of the Virgin while picking plums in 1501. It's a beautiful baroque/rococo style church with a grand pipe organ.

From there, we hiked up a very steep hill (more than 400 vertical feet) on switchbacks of gravel and stone stairways to reach the church of San Perpetua, an 11th century church that overlooks the entire town. The town, nestled into its valley, looks even more like Decorah from up here.

The way back to the hotel was less steep, but closer to highway traffic until we were able to turn off onto a narrow residential street. This back street shortcut took us past 200-year-old stone houses, as well as some new construction. We even came across several "lavanderia" fountains where women used to come to wash clothes along with their neighbors.

As we walked through the business district to return to the hotel, it was clear that nearly everything was closed or closed early for "Liberation Day." We decided to close early, as well. Tomorrow will be another big day.

Varenna

Today we spent too long in a village called Varenna along the eastern shore of Lake Como. Billed as a fishing village, it has become a tourist town. It was nice, but we could have walked the entire place in about an hour. Instead, we sauntered, stopped, and stood.

Beginning of the path

Only about 45 minutes from Lecco, we didn't have to start early to get there. So we enjoyed the big breakfast at our hotel before checking out. The weather forecast was for clouds and rain, but the sun was shining brightly through blue skies, even if it was a bit cool and windy.

Luca, our tour leader, took us slowly along a lakefront walkway that he and the tour company booklet called, "the lovers' walk." However, the signs along the path said, "Greenway dei Patriarchy," which would suggest something more like "walk of the city fathers." Not as romantic, but give the politicians credit for voting the funding.

The views of the lake were, indeed, beautiful. Como is at its widest here, where it splits between northern, Lecco, and Como branches. The snow-capped peaks to the north make for contrast between sky and water.

There is one spot on the path that suggests love: A heart attached to the railing creates a photo opportunity for those who wish to have an "Instagram Moment."

The walk ended in the town square, which would have been quaint had it not been so full of tourists.

While most of the group stood in the square, we visited the church of San Giorgio, at the end of the piazza. which dates from the year 1313. Several Medieval frescos are still preserved, including an image of Satan devouring sinners. 

Despite the 14th century architecture, it still has the look and feel of a working parish church.

Next, we visited Il Giardino Botanic del Hotel Villa Cipressi (Botanical Garden of the Cypress Villa Hotel). As the name implies, the hotel is an old villa, the former home of a very wealthy family, surrounded by cypress trees. On the steep hillside between the villa and the lake are switchback gravel paths among hundreds of species of plants. It was very pretty, but again, we stayed much too long.

A high point of the day was lunch at Blanco Restaurant. We had a table outside, under an olive tree, and enjoyed an excellent meal and good wine. Then it was back to the bus to continue on to Tirano, a village just 2 km from the Swiss border in the Alps.

An old hotel across from the rail station will be our home here for the next three nights. Luca took most of us on an orientation walk around the neighborhood.

One stop was a "storico" (or landmark, long-established) butcher shop where we enjoyed a sample taste of a local cold cut meat called Bresaola (very good).

Then several of us landed a very nice restaurant where Mary and I shared a local pasta called Pizzoccheri, which features buckwheat pasta noodles with cheese, cabbage, potatoes, and lots and lots of butter. It was quite good.

There will be more about Tirano in the coming days.

Milan

This was not our first time in Milan. We visited the city on our own some eleven years ago when we were living in the UK. This time, a van took our group into the city that is our tour leader's home town. Luca Angelillo, our leader, grew up in Milan, although he now resides about an hour outside of Venice. He clearly still loves the city of his birth.

Our first stop was church of Santa Maria Delle Graze (St. Mary, Our Lady of Grace) church. We were earlier than our appointed time, so we went to mass. The church was closed to visitors because a service was going on. But it was open to worshipers. We took a place in a pew, crossed ourselves at the proper times, and listened to some great organ music. We didn't understand a word of the prayers.

Leaving church early, we reunited with our group outside with our city guide. With her, we visited the cloister of the monastery adjacent to the church, and heard about some of the architectural features. Then we got our tickets and went into the refectory (dining hall) of the monastery where we saw Da Vinci's Last Supper, which is a fresco painted on the wall there. The original of the famous painting hadn't changed in the last 11 years, but it has certainly changed in the 500 years since it was painted. After multiple attempts at restoration, it is estimated that only about 30 percent of Leonardo's original paint remains.

The van took us to Piazza La Scala, which is essentially the front lawn of the famous opera house La Scala. We had taken a tour of the interior back in 2012, but not this time. On this trip we only saw the exterior and heard about it. Then we walked through the arched shopping street, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. This is the headquarters of various fashion brands, such as Prada and Louis Vitton, and others.

At the other end of the Galleria is the piazza of the Duomo, or Cathedral, of Milan. It is the third largest Roman Catholic church in the world, behind St. Peters in Rome and the cathedral in Seville, Spain. Begun in the 1300s, it was under construction for 600 years and continues under constant renovation. Again, we were inside 11 years ago, but not today.

After a quick luncheon snack and a brief rest in a hotel lobby, we accompanied Luca on a walk to the Castello Sforzesco, the castle that was the home and fortress of Milan's medieval dukes. Today, it is a cultural venue, home to museums and concert halls.

On the way back to Piazza La Scala to rejoin the van and other group members who had used the afternoon for other activities, we stopped at a traditional Italian bar. Unlike and American bar, alcohol is not the only or even primary item on the menu. Bars here specialize in coffees of various kinds (the founder of Starbucks was inspired by Italian coffee bars), pastries, gelato, etc.

On the way out of the city, we got a glimpse of the "vertical forest," an expensive, high-rise apartment building that is covered with vegetation. As an attempt to bring nature into an urban environment, the building has thousands of species of plants, and due to turning leaves, changes colors with the seasons. Instead of window washers, a crane on top of the building lowers gardeners to all levels to tend to the plants and trees.

The van returned us to Lecco, where Mary and I enjoyed sharing a pizza at a restaurant beside the lake and bit of a walk around the town. Tomorrow we move on from here.

Snafu

We were supposed to fly to Milan, Italy on Thursday. The confirmed route was MSP to Paris on Delta, then Paris to Milan on Air France. On Wednesday morning, we received an email from Air France -- band news, "good" news. The bad news, they said, was that our Paris to Milan flight had been canceled. The "good" news ("good" according to this email) was that they had rebooked us on an alternate route: Paris to New York JFK and then back to Milan. Clearly ridiculous!

We called our travel company, OAT, and they were sympathetic. But they told us that Air France had somehow "locked" the reservation, so they were unable to touch it. So I called Air France and waited on hold approximately forever before speaking to a human. She was very polite and understanding, agreed that the trip back to JFK was ridiculous, and changed our route from MSP to ATL (Atlanta) to Milan, all on Delta.

When I checked my Delta app, it still showed MSP to Paris to JFK to Milan, even though I had ticket numbers and everything in an email from Air France. I called the 800 number in the email later in the day, remained on hold for a long time once again, and spoke to a man who assured me that we were confirmed on the new itinerary. OK.

The next day we went to the airport, print-outs of our email from Air France in hand. But when we tried to check in at the Delta desk, they were unable to find anything about the new reservation in their system. Nor were they able to access or change the old reservation because Air France had "locked" them out. So they were unable to issue boarding passes for us. 

Then they told us that all flights to Milan for the day had been canceled due to a transit strike! We stood at the desk for more than an hour, while they called various IT people to try unlocking the booking. Eventually, they booked us on a Delta flight to Amsterdam then next afternoon, with a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Milan. We would start our trip a day late.

We had to Uber back home from the airport, and then Uber back again the next day. So glad that we could support poor, immigrant Uber drivers, but out approximately $40 for a fruitless trip to the airport and back.

When we eventually got to Milan, we discovered that there really was not labor strike, and that all other flights had arrived on time the previous day -- including the flight from Atlanta that we were supposed to have been on, if Air France hadn't done whatever they did in the computer.

Very frustrating, but we finally arrived. A driver picked us up at the airport and drove us to the small city of Lecco on the shore of Lake Como. It's a beautiful place, and the view from our hotel room is stunning!

Although jet-lagged, we had a drink with our tour leader, who filled us in on what little we had missed in the previous day. Then we walked into Lecco for a short, self-guided tour. There was wine-tasting festival, but we only walked through. We didn't think a lot of wine would be a good idea with little sleep and a time zone change. But we did visit the local cathedral and walk the pedestrian street.

Cathedral bell tower

Our group members gathered for a presentation on Italian politics. The presenter was very good, but we could not keep our eyes open during the lecture.

The group had its welcome dinner in the evening, and we managed to stay awake for the meal. But we crashed immediately after, and slept very well the entire night.

Cartagena

This was our day to see the less touristic parts of Cartagena -- the places that the cruise ship passengers don't get to during their seven hours in port.

First stop was inside the old city walls, in the neighborhood of "Getsemaní" (Spanish for the Garden of Gethsemane in the New Testament). This was a very low class neighborhood, known for poverty, drugs, prostitution, and violence during the period of civil unrest and drug cartels.

Now that peace and tourism are coming back to Colombia, these old, Colonial homes are selling for huge prices and are being restored as hotels and other attractions. This gentrification of the neighborhood is a two edged sword. On the one hand, the neighborhood is now safe, much cleaner, and getting fixed up with colorful murals and other decor.

On the other hand, property values are now high that poor residents can't afford to keep living in their own homes. Renovation costs and taxes are running them out. 

As an exercise, our local guide, Vicki, took us into an old traditional tienda (we'd probably call it a convenience store or old-time neighborhood grocery) and gave us a set amount of money to buy lunch for a family of four. Even limiting the menu to rice and plantains, plus a couple of eggs, we went over budget.

In a very narrow street we encountered an old fruit seller, pushing his cart. Vicki stopped him for an interview in Spanish, and provided translation for us. He's been selling fruit, six days a week, in this neighborhood for 57 years. He makes a pretty good living, but there's no retirement plan, so he'll probably have to keep doing it until death.

Getsemani is becoming something of an art community. Several artists have galleries here, with art displays spilling out into the streets.

Our walk ended in a very nice park, where another man was making a living by locating all of the animals living in the park, and then pointing them out to tour guides and/or to people who wanted to feed them. Today he had found three small monkeys and a couple of sloths.

The monkeys were anxious to be fed. The sloths couldn't be bothered.

From the park we boarded a "chicken bus." These are trucks with benches bolted to their beds, usually with some sort of roof overhead. We saw them all over Central America a few years ago, being used as public transportation.

Here, they are no longer used for that purpose, but rent out as party buses. Three old guys were on board our bus as our party band, and Vicki was singing along. At one stoplight, a woman began dancing to the music beside the bus as she was waiting to cross the street. Some people waved and smiled. Most just looked at us like we were idiot tourists. If the shoe fits....

The party went on for a while, as we were transported out of the city toward the town known as La Boquella (lah boy-KAY-jah). When slavery was ended in Colombia (it happened gradually from the 1850s to the 1880s), former slaves were given marshland along the seashore that no one else wanted. Here they created a town, which now has more than 18,000 residents, almost all of African descent.

The first residents made their living primarily from fishing, but now many commute to work in the city. There is a stark contrast between the modern high rise apartments and tourist hotels that stand adjacent to the shacks of the descendants of enslaved people.

There is now an effort to reclaim and preserve the African cultural heritage of La Boquella. One organization doing this is Tambours de Cabildo, a center for traditional music, drumming, and dancing. Three elegant and obviously very talented dancers greeted us at the entry to a thatched roofed, dirt floor building near the beach.

Inside, we met musicians and drummers who explained their instruments, which have both indigenous and African origins. Then it was our turn. They tried to teach us both some basic drumming and the most often seen traditional dance, the Cumbia. Almost everyone in the group took part, but we were all pretty awful.

They must have thought we worked hard enough in the heat to need refreshment, so they passed out bottles or water and local beer. We took the beer, of course. Then the three real dancers, after a costume change, came out to show us all up. They were quite good.

We had a few minutes on the beach to see fishing activity and some folks enjoying a horseback ride. Then it was back onto the bus for return to the hotel. Lunch was "on our own" today, but we weren't particularly hungry.

We walked several blocks to an area that housed a craft market. It's all supposed to be genuine, Colombian-made crafts. We looked in several of the shops, but found mostly the same junk we see in all of the tourist shops.

We walked a couple more blocks to the former bullfighting ring of Cartagena. Bullfighting is no longer practiced here, but the ring has been turned into a modern, high-end shopping mall. However, the main bull ring has been preserved, and is sometimes used as a theater in the round.

We bought ice cream. It was our lunch, and it was delicious.

After some down time back at the hotel, including dangling our feet in the hotel pool for a bit to cool off, we met for our end-of-tour briefing. Alejo, our tour director, put together a nice, quick & dirty video of some highlights of our time in Colombia. Find it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzKYCP1pm3o

Then we were put onto horse carriages for a ride to our farewell dinner. It was a very nice place, with live music, and the meal was good.

On the way back to the hotel we got to see some of the nightlife of the city. It's a hot Friday night in Cartagena! And it seems like we can hear it all in our hotel room.

Tomorrow, after a late breakfast, we head for the airport. We have a tight connection in Miami, so we hope we make it home on time.