FLASHBACK #64A: Italy - Helsinki, Milan, Como, Milan, Genoa, Levanto

Day 1 – 1 July – Helsinki to Milan - 27ºC

After an early breakfast at 6am of unfinished Arnold's donuts from the day before, we took the 30-minute taxi ride to Helsinki airport. We got there about 7.30am and there was just one hour until our Blue1 flight would depart for Stockholm. We boarded the small turboprop plane on time, but it didn't leave until 8.45am. The onboard magazine didn't make much sense in English nor did its advertising – Blue1, a subsidiary of Scandinavian Airlines, quite clearly didn't fork out dosh for someone to proof-read its English texts.

After arriving in sunny Stockholm, we looked around the terminal while we waited for our onward SAS flight to Milan. The hour went by quickly and, before long, we were up in the air again; by this time, we were both so tired from the early start that we fell asleep before the plane even took off! When we woke, the food trolley came by and we laughed at the sandwiches you could buy; we both had one and they left a lot to be desired!

I read the lonelyplanet guide and, after a while, I looked out of the window to my left and instinctively grabbed Bree's arm to get his attention – he followed my gaze to outside the window, where we could see what remained of the Swiss Alps. Shortly afterwards, we saw some huge lakes before landing at Milan's Linate Airport at 12.30pm.

As the doors opened, the heat filled the cabin and the humidity engulfed us as we stepped out of the aircraft and into the brightness. We walked across the tarmac and boarded the bus that would take us to the small terminal building. The first things that struck me about the airport was how small it actually was, then how old it looked. We collected our luggage and picked up our Smart hire car. And smart it was!

We left the airport and headed towards Milan. Within an hour, and after considerable difficulty with navigation, we checked into Hotel Dei Cavelieri in Piazza della Missori. By 2pm, we were back in the car, checking out the vast city. We passed Piazza del Duomo, Milan’s social, geographical and pigeon centre since medieval times and home to the impressive cathedral, El Duomo.

Commissioned in 1386, the Duomo can house a congregation of 40,000. Gothic in style, the roof features 135 spires and 3,200 statues.

We then drove to Castello Sforzesco to the north of the centre – originally a Visconti fortress, it was remodelled by Francesco Sforza in the 15th Century and Leonardi Da Vinci helped design the defences. Nowadays, it houses many excellent museums.

We parked nearby and walked through the castle, entering via the Piazza Castello. We didn't visit any of the museums choosing, instead, to be outside enjoying the sunshine. Once we reached the far side of the impressive structure, we had reached Parco Sempione, a 47 hectare park featuring a neo-classical arch and a neglected arena inaugurated by Napoleon in 1806.

We walked through the park. For a while, we sat down – shirts off, ice cream in hand – taking in the intense sunshine. After a while, we walked back through the castle and back onto Piazza Castello, where we had left our car. We headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap.

We rose again at 7pm, showered and headed out for dinner in the city's lively Naviglio area. We had been advised to go there by an Italian colleague of mine from work and the receptionist at our hotel also recommended it so we began the 40 minute walk to Ripa Di Porta Ticinese where we had dinner on a boat moored on a stretch of canal. I drank a Bacardi Superior with Coca Cola and ordered Prawn Cocktail, followed by Seafood Spaghetti (which I shared with Bree), followed by ice cream drowned in liqeur. Yummy!

After dinner and feeling a bit woozy, we went for a wonder around the local area which, by now, was starting to fill up. We headed back to the hotel and turned in – it was already after midnight and it had been a long day!

Day 2 – 2 July – Milan to Como to Milan - 30ºC

The morning started off with a sumptuous breakfast, before taking in Piazza Del Duomo. Again, we tried to see the Last Supper only to be told that it was fully booked for the week ahead. We headed to the Piazza on foot and decided to scale the 165 steps to the top of the Cathedral and enjoy the views across Milan. We could see the impressive Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II, one of the first buildings in Europe to employ iron and glass as structural elements. Virtually destroyed during WWII, the building takes the form of a crucifix and currently houses upmarket boutiques and trendy cafes.

From the heights of El Duomo, we could see the swiss alps, a building which I liked to called the 'Star Wars' building and the sprawling piazza below. People rushed across the square and pigeons gathered, eager to be fed by kind passers-by. When we reached terra firm, we went inside the Cathedral and enjoyed its impressed interior.

We left the Cathedral and walked through Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II and came to the statue of Leonardo da Vinci, situated at the far end in Piazza de Scala. In the same square, you could see Milan's opera house, La Scala. Seeing Leonardo da Vinci's statue was very topical since I had just finished reading Dan Brown's bestseller 'Da Vinci Code' which Bree is currently reading.

We walked via Piazza de la Duomo on our way back to the hotel. By mid-day, we had picked up our car and discovered that we had received a €35 fine overnight which I suppose was our own fault since we had park on a main street, Via Zebedia, the very night before.

Our plan was to head to an Outlet Centre where we could get real Italian bargains. The place was 50km from Milan so we headed for the Autostrade and picked up route A9 towards Como. The highway was what it was – flat, industrial in some areas, but to the north you could see the towering alps.

We fed a CD into the stereo and sang away to the specially prepared CD containing some of our favourite songs. Eventually, we saw signs for Chirasso which, unbeknownst to us, was actually in Switzerland. As we headed towards Chirasso, we saw Lago di Como down below, a splendid densely populated area amid a mass of azure blue.

The traffic started to slow and we were in a queue for what appeared to be a border check. Can you belive that we were charged SFr 40 / €30 / £20 to enter Switzerland? Our car was pulled over and we were told to go to the cashier station and pay. The guard gave us this instruction so casually, not even realising perhaps how preposterous the system was.

We paid the fee and headed to Mendrisio, just 2kms away. We pulled into the underground car park of the Fox Outlet Centre. To cut a long story short, the visit was a disappointment – everything was bloody expensive and the fashion of the goods itself left a lot to be desired. We stayed there about 2 hours and Bree bought two pairs of underpants. That was the extent of our great day out shopping! We headed for Lago di Como. By this time, the heat of the day had subsided somewhat although it was still stifling and the sun still intense.

We drove round the picturesque town of Como and found a small stone beach where we took the sun for a while. There was a pool area, but it was reserved for private members so we settled for the small, seaweed strewn stone beach. We were surprised by how few swimming areas there were for tourists. By 6pm, we were in a lake-side restaurant. I had prawn cocktail, my first sampling of genuine Italian pizza (Lovely with a capital 'L'!) and strawberries with cream! Mmmm! Feeling dehydrated, I drank only water with the meal.

We left the lake about 8pm, taking the cross country route back to Milan. Getting to the outskirts of Milan, just 50km away, proved to be no problem. However, once we had entered Milan itself, we got lost more than 10 times trying to find our way back to Piazza della Missori. We finally got back after 10pm and parked the car in a back street in order to avoid detection! When we got in the hotel, we got some ice from the bar. After having a bathtub bath, we both drank Bacardi and Coke which went down nicely. In bed just after 11pm!

Day 3 – 3 July – Milan to Genoa to Levanto - 31ºC

I woke up at 8am and headed straight for the shower – the shower woke Bree up and we were already at breakfast and out of the hotel, car loaded and all, by 10am. We head to the Cenacolo Vinciano, 2km west of the hotel. The museum is in the refectory adjoining the Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie. The purpose of our visit was to see if we could squeeze our way into a viewing of the Last Supper, painted by none of than Leonardi da Vinci himself. To begin with, we actually visited the church and could hear a service being conducted in the distance. A nearby sign said that the Last Supper could be viewed around the corner.

We found the museum and Bree pleaded a little, but the insistent little madam at the desk said that there was no space and that we were fully booked for the next week. We left and, between us, I joked how Leonardo would roll in his grave if he knew what a money-maker his painting had become nearly 500 years after his death!

We decided to check out La Scala, the opera house which just the day before we had managed to ignore; it was in the same square as Leonardo's statue. Once again, we got lost and I lost my rag, threw the map on the floor in the car and said that I wanted out of Milan. Oooh, I had another tantrum indeed! One good thing was that the traffic on this Sunday morning was much less than the traffic of the last two previous days.

After seeing La Scala, but not being able to go inside because of some function, we headed to the Autostrade once again and onto the A7 which would take us to Genoa. To the East, we saw rolling hills and mountains while, in the foreground all around us, were very flat, but rich fields of green. We stopped at a service area for ice cream. It was more than 30 degrees and the cold ice cream went down nicely.

We reached Genoa, birthplace of Christopher Columbus, by 2pm and our consensus of the place was that it was a bit naff. It was a hive of activity, largely industrial with cars parked everywhere and, for more than 10kms along the seafront, there was not one parking space to be seen. Just like my Italian colleague in Helsinki had warned me, there wasn't much to stop for anyhow so we just carried on.

We hooked up to the A12 and headed down what's known as the Riviera de Levante. We turned off at a place called Sori because there was a well sign-posted opportunity to swim there. What greeted us was a densely populated beach full of Italians who clearly wanted to enjoy the weather as much as we did. We eventually found a parking space under a towering railway bridge, quite close to the beach. We grabbed our trunks and towels and toddled off in the direction of the beach.

We spent maybe an hour or so there, swimming in the sea twice during that time, before continuing with the sightseeing. This time, we took in Camogli (Population 5,740), 25km due south of Genoa on the coast. Not famous for any particular reason other than the colourful buildings and the popular beach, this beach did prove popular on this particular day. We strolled along the seaside and downed breschetta with water before continuing the walk towards the church near the harbour. On our way back to the car park, we bought grande ice creams and, by this time, I was starting to feel the draining heat.

We got back to the car, yanked up the air conditioning and continued driving. We passed San Fruttuoso, famous for its abbey which was built as a final resting place for Bishop St Fructuosus of Tarragona in the year 259. We continued driving and reached the exclusive town of Portofino (Population 556), 38km due south of genoa on the coast. Apparently, this is where Europe’s movers and shakers come to 'wheel, deal, play and pose', whatever that is!

From Portofino, we decided to make up time by rejoining the A12 highway and turning off at Deiva Marina. Our final call for the night would be Levanto, nestling at the top of the Cinque Terre, the 'five lands'. As soon as we turned off the highway, the route went into a treacherous, downward dip all the way to to the small town of Levanto. At times, the bends proved too much and I felt like putting a towel over my head! We arrived in Levanto, a well organised town of boulevards, just after 6pm. We went straight to the tourist office and they told us that Hotel Primavera had spare rooms so we gave them a call.

We ended up staying there. It cost a steep €95 for the room; it included breakfast, but no air conditioning or parking. Since time was getting on, we concluded that, because the town was quite isolated, the costs of accommodation were probably overall quite higher that usual anyway.

After checking in, however, it was funny to note how this hotel ranked itself as a 3 star hotel. The interior was very basic and, when we first arrived, the room was humid as hell; we opened the balcony doors, closed the curtains to block out the suns rays, turned on the fan, took showers, changed our clothes and then headed out for dinner.

There wasn't that many places to dine, but when we found somewhere, there was mix up over the wines. Apparently, red wine in Italian is Vini Rossi and we got this mixed up with Rosé wine. We ordered the wrong thing, but eventually settled for a bottle of locally produced Levanto white – light, but fruity.

After a dinner of Prawn Cocktail, Fried Seafood and Tiramisu, we joined what must have been the rest of the Italian community in a walk along the seaside. It was gone 10pm and the number of locals awake at this time on a Sunday night in an isolated resort was surprising. We walked up to the top of the seaside hill, then returned to our hotel room.

We returned to our room which was still a bit warm so we repositioned the fan near the cooler balcony and it worked – quite quickly, our bedroom was much more habitable and we drank Bacardi on the balcony while reviewing the photos from the last three days on my laptop. Tired, we in bed before midnight.