Where for Art Thou Romeo?

Despite the airport being next door and the planes pouring in all morning the kilometres trodden the day before conjured up a 9.30 sleep in. The weather turned gloomy upon taking to the road for Verona. After an hour we were in Verona and despite trouble decoding street signs and navigating the city centre we found some parking nearby the gates to the old town and took back to the feet again.

We immediately stumbled across a huge roman arena that is still used today. Other sights included Juliet’s house and balcony immortalized by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The rather maekshift tourist attraction was a mecca to American tourists and despite its tackiness I couldn't help but rattle of a couple of Shakespeare's lines.

The drive between Bergamo and Como contained one of the best lightning displays I have seen in all my life and dsepite our best attempts to catch it on film we came up empty. Upon sight of Lake Como I was reminded of NZ's southern lakes, however finding a campground wasn’t as fruitful and after an hour of scouring the township dotting the lakefront we found one of the outskirts. The night was easy going with a hearty meal and some cards.

A lazy morning was spent over breakfast and exploring the waterfront of Lake Como. The local kids were having a fun fair and enjoying the splendid day playing a tournament of 5-a-side basketball. At 1pm we drove into Milan to Linate airport to pick up James Coates, a workmate of Jimmy’s. After greetings were formalised we headed to the center of Milan that was a contrast to the rest of Italy.

The buildings here were more modern and commercial, although it was one of the more historic sights that was paramount for us visiting the city. The Duomo sits in the main square and unbelievably (well not really) half of the structure was covered in scaffolding. We enjoyed what we could but disappointedly trotted off to see the Castle before letting James Coates satisfy his girlfriend’s request for expensive fashion accessories. One look at the flagship Prada store soon changed his mind and we headed to a Scottish tavern to satisfy our desire for a highly overpriced drink.

The prices of Milan drove us back to Como for dinner. Restaurants like campgrounds weren't overly abundant but perseverance led us to a quaint little Italian place serving traditional pasta and pizza. A late end meant a quick retreat to the tents where James was given a quick initiation into the rigours of camping by having to get ready in pitch black. Unfortunately this wasn't the worst it could get as the whole night was destroyed by pummelling pile drivers laying new tracks on the nearby railroad.