When we went to Milan recently we decided to have a little day trip to Lake Como as we’d heard it was a must-see for anyone visiting the area. There were plenty of organised trips that we could have booked but we decided to save money and make our own way there on the train.
Our hotel shuttle bus dropped us off at Milan Central Station and as we didn’t really have a clue where we were going or what we were doing, we headed to the ticket office to buy our tickets and find out where to get the train we needed. The only problem was, when we got there the queue was HUGE! We decided to be brave and we left the queue and headed to the ticket machines to buy our tickets instead!
I could be wrong but looking at the tickets now, I think we may have only bought one way tickets!
I was just checking the train times on the Italian version of the Trainline so I could give you an idea of how frequent they are and it looks as though the one way price is 4.8o Euros per adult and that’s all we paid! Also, the child price is 2.40 Euros but the child age is 11, not like here where it’s 14 so we got that wrong too!
No wonder we thought it was a bargain when we paid just short of 15 Euros for us all to travel! We should have paid adult price for all of us and bought a return too. ;-(
The moral of that part of the story is that you really should just wait in the queue instead of trying to use an Italian self service ticket machine when you don’t speak Italian!
Anyway, dodgy train tickets aside, we managed to get ourselves on the train and get seats (no mean feat considering how busy it was) and what followed was the sweatiest and most uncomfortable hour I can remember.Not only was it 30 degrees outside with what felt like no air at all on the train, it was also super busy with so many people standing that even seated, you could barely move. To be fair though, it’s a good job it was so busy both ways as I suspect that’s why our tickets weren’t checked!
I’m not painting a pretty picture so far am I?
Don’t worry though, we got there and stepped off the train and almost instantly felt better.
I say almost because we all needed a wee so we stopped off at the toilets right in front of the station but there was an old man ‘guarding’ them and we had to pay 1 Euro each for a quick wee. Which wouldn’t be too bad if the men’s toilet was more than the hole in the floor that it was – poor Master Frugal was mortified that he was just weeing into a hole in the floor!
We crossed over the road from the toilets and the good stuff started!
Just look at the amazing views that greeted us….
It was so hot that we ended up finding a little street cafe where we sat at a table looking over the lake and had a quite reasonably priced coke each….
After that we headed into town to look around the shops although we didn’t last long before the heat drove us to the ice cream shop….
I’m sorry for all the photos but it really is the most beautiful place to visit and I definitely recommend it if you ever have the chance.
Just don’t forget to ask for help when you buy your tickets!
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