An Unforgettable Journey to Argegno

17.04.2008 - 17.04.2008

After a quick yummy breakfast of coffee, sour dough bread with creamy butter from the mountain and freshly made strawberry & banana juice, we donned our backpacks, kissed Anna Maria goodbye and headed to the Santa Maria Stazione 10 minutes walk from Le Mansarde. We boarded the train but not before the last minute drama of Bikram stressing cos he forgot where he put our keys. He thought he kept them in the our backpacks (which was locked!). He raced back to Le Mansarde to look for them, came back empty-handed. Then he attempted to pick the lock with the swiss knife to no avail. Next he tried my suggestion (the nail cutter, very lady-like). It worked, Hooray! We found the keys tucked safely in the camera bag which was inside his locked backpack. sigh...

3 hours later we arrived in Milano Centrale which was buzzing. We dropped our luggage in Left Luggage section then we took the Metro heading towards the city where the Duomo is. It was the grandest thing I have ever seen. It was white marble and majestic, etc, etc, etc. Similar to the Basilica San Marco of Venezia only grander and more gothic like. One thing that annoyed me the most was how persistent and in-your-face the bird seed sellers were. At one point, Bikram nearly shouted at one of them. We made a quick getaway to the left of the Duomo on to be met by the most beautiful mall ever. Inside there were your usual big Haute Couture names, but there was also McDonalds, which made Bikram very happy. The design of the building was so OTT, it was cheesy that it was fab.

n658641226..93_3895.jpg

We continued walking thru the mall, Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II (this guy is everywhere!). It was a lovely day, no raindrops or clouds in sight. It was lunch time so we headed down to Brek (LOL!) at the northern end of the Golden Quad. The Golden Quad is the complex where all the big designers setup their shops. We checked it out after lunch. Some of the window display are so chic. Its worth it to check them out. I wonder if there are any award you can win for your creativity in window display? I took loads of pics of them as well as the fashionable beautiful Milanese who were strolling around the similarly chic street. We were so immersed we lost track of time. It was 4 PM and our train to Como leaves at 4.25. Eeeeek!

Next thing we knew we were frantically searching our way back to Milano Centrale. Hopped on the Metro, got off at the wrong end of the exit at the Centrale stop. 4.10. Crossed the road frantically, Bikram raced to pick up our luggages while I searched for our platform. Found the platform, no. 17 to Zurich. 4.24. For sure we'll miss it. I sort of gave up and walked back to find Bikram. I saw him struggling with our bags so I waved frantically and yelling at him to run towards platform 17 (bear in mind we were at the other end of the platform, the Left Luggage office was near platform 1!). He started running, bless him. While he was running, I looked around for the validation machine. Found it! The I raced to the train. We kept on running for our lives. Felt like we were in Amazing Race. Made it to the door, the guy in the Trenitalia uniform sort of shoved us into the first carriage that we could reached. As soon as our feet was inside the train, it started moving. PPHHHIUUUHH! Never again.

Stressed and out of breath, we plonked our bums in our seats.

40 minutes later we arrived at a small train station Como San Giovanni. We bought bus tickets at the the Tabacchi. It was freezing when we got there. Bikram could not bear the thought of another minute waiting around and suggested that we took a taxi instead. But there was no taxi in sight anyway. So we waited to his dismay. The bus came about 15 minutes later. The instruction we received from Paul (the English artist we were staying with) was to buy tickets to Schignano, get on bus no.10 or 20. We caught bus no. 20 and the bus driver told us to change bus later on to Schignano from Argegno. When I asked him for more info (i.e what bus no we should catch from Argegno to get to Schignano), he didn't understand. God help us. It was getting dark and we were dog-tired and cold and the instruction was as clear as mud. Bikram looked positively peeved by now, that's not a good sign. I had no choice but to get on the bus and hope for the best.

The drive from Como was very hilly. Como is a little town a the base of Lake Como surrounded by the Swiss Alps. We saw lots of restaurants, hotels, Piazzas. So I thougth, hey this is alright, but then the further we went, the less commercial it became. The road was really narrow. You really dont want to be a bus driver in Como. Every now and again you see a little Tratorria, Hotel, etc. I was getting really worried at this stage. We had been in the bus for nearly 30 minutes now. And then we saw heaven as we were leaving Como...

The lake, the mountain, the sky, they are like one continuous line of picturesque beauty. It was breathtaking. I could not possibly describe what I saw due to my stupid limited vocab. All I can think of was, no wonder George Clooney bought a villa here!! Hehehe, me and my shallow thoughts. The water was so still, the clouds were low covering half of the mountains making it more mystical. There was no sun but the view were still visible, colouful rooftops perched along the lands surrounding the lake. Every now and again, we'd see a house on top of some hill and you wonder how on earth it got there? The road was winding and narrow. The drive was long. The bus driver would stop to let other cars from the other direction go thru. He tooted regularly to warn the others (you cant see the bus from the opposite direction as the road was windy).

Much to my dismay, we arrived at the center of the tiny village Argegno 45 mins later. Thank God we didn't take a taxi. The driver pointed to where we should catch the next bus that would take us to Schignano. I was still not sure whether we were supposed to there or not. The nice lady who sat next to me in the bus sort of took us under her wings and motion to us to follow her as she was going the same way. There were about 10 people waiting for the bus to Schignano. They knew one another. The The Nice Lady (NL) started chatting to another Old Lady (OL) and an Old Guy (OG).

I plucked up enough courage and went up to the small group and showed them Paul's address. I was worried that they were going to be snobby (as most Romans and Venezian were when they know you're a tourist)., and we always stuck up like a sore thumb. Boy, was I wrong. When I asked them if they know where that address was, they started trying to figure out where the house is. The OL asked me "Come Si Chiama?". Why on earth she wants to know my name for? But then I thought, this is a little village, everybody knows everybody, so I think she was asking the name of the people we were staying with. Bingo! I was right. As soon as I mentioned Paul's name, the penny dropped. They were ooh-aahing among themselves and started talking as if I understood. With the combination of our broken Italian and gut instincts between the 2 of us, we managed to get the jist of the conversation:

(OG): "The house is only 200 meters away and we could reached there on foot"
(OL): "No! Dont be stupid, you cant possible walk up there with our backpacks. Plus its raining!"
(NL): "Dont worry we can take bus with her to the house because the bus driver is here! (pointing to OG)
(OG): "Yeah, I will take you there, no problem. We just have to wait for bloody bus cos its late!"

Yeehaaa! Thank Goodness for friendly village people. I'm in love with this place already. Finally the bus arrived, OG took over the bus, we boarded the bus and sat behind OL & NL. As the bus started moving, everybody started singing a song in unison. aaaahhhh, village life, how lovely.... Cliche, but lovely.

The bus went to the direction where we came from. Then about 5 minutes after, it took a sharp right turn onto a steep road upwards. Then it stopped and then OG, OL, and NL pointed at the huge white house directly above us. Thats it, that's Paul's house. After tutti Grazies and Ciaos, we hopped off the bus, crossed the road, and started climbing the many many stairs upwards and buzzed in. Paul came down and greeted us from 3 flight of stairs above us. I have never been so happy in my life, because, one: we are here, and two: he's English! Yay yay yah! I mean I love Italian and their language, but at this point I would die for someone else to understand the things that came out of my mouth.

He lead us to our apartment, it was huge and cosy, with a well-stocked kitchen. He answered my first question straight away, Yes, George Clooney lived 2 miles from here. He has taken the liberty to put beer in the fridge (Aussies = drunken souls). Bless him. He then walked over and open the balcony door. My heart stopped beating for a second. We had the view of the lake and the mountain. Misty and Romantic. I dont think the thousand of pics that I took would speak better that if you see it with your own eyes. It was breathtakingly more than beautiful...

That night we slept with our windows open so we could see the view when we wake the next day