Day 1 - Lugano - May 10

We made it! I wasn't sure we were going to, but alas, we made it. It was a crazy long 10 hour flight into Milan and then a train and then...actually, let me back up a bit. 

Our flight out of Seatac was on time and that made me happy. We both tested negative for Covid so the trip was a go. We got to the airport annoyingly early - but thank heavens we did. The security line was one of what I call "Disney" lines. You think you're almost there, but you are not. Took us 55 minutes to get through security! 

We grabbed lunch and headed to our gate. Boarded and got comfy for the LONG flight into Frankfurt. 

We got to Frankfurt and had about 3 hours to kill. Oddly, all the gates were full so they put us on a bus and we drove to the terminal. 

We thought we'd have to go through customs of some sort, but only had to stand in line for passport control. And the line was long. I was hoping this wasn't going to be a trend for this trip. Long lines and I don't get along too well. 

We grabbed a snack and coffee after we got into the terminal and began our 2 hour wait. 

Then they put us on a bus and sent us back out to our next plane to Milan. It's always weird to me to get on the plane out on the tarmac, let alone get on the plane in the rear of the plane. Loading was rather amusing really. They call you by group to board. But since we all got on a bus to get to the plane it seemed rather dumb to me. Then when you get there it's basically every man for themselves to get into the plane. You have assigned seats and all, but some loaded from the front with seats in the back and visa versa. It was mayhem. 

When we got to Milan we were both so sleepy we could barely tell which way was up. We got to baggage claim, and I swear we waited 45 minutes for our bags. My first thought was, "Oh yes. Italy time." Both our bags arrived (thankfully) and we were off to find a train from Milan airport to Lugano. A very nice, and handsome, gentleman pointed us in the right direction. We bought our tickets, found our train and were off. 2 hours to Lugano. It' seemed too easy. Something had to go wrong at some point. 

View from the train ride

We got off the train and the Lugano train station looked different. Little did I know they've made some upgrades over the last 35 years. We walked down the ramp to what appeared to be an ally. Looked one way, looked the other. Huh. No taxis. Well, now what? 

We were tired. It was hot and we couldn't find a taxi to save our soul. How the hell were we going to get to our hotel in Montagnola 3 miles away...Up hill? I certainly wasn't going to drag my 37lb suitcase uphill. 

Janet sat with the luggage and I ran into a hotel near by. The guy there was kind enough to point and say something about a bus to Agra. Oh yah. Agra. I have nightmares about running to Agra for gym class one time. Agra is uphill from TASIS. 

Anyhow, we lugged our suitcases over to the bus stop and was trying to figure out where to buy tickets when I noticed these two girls standing next to us. Both had on TASIS uniforms. AH HAH! These are my peeps. 

I engaged in a conversation with them and asked if they could help. The bus was almost there and we had no time to buy a ticket. The one student said they rarely ask for tickets, but if you do get caught without one, it's 100 Swiss francs. I looked at Janet and basically said, I'm willing to risk it.

We got on the bus with these two and then chatted all the way up the hill to TASIS. They asked me about life back then and were stunned to hear just how free we were. Meanwhile I was stunned to hear just how locked down the students are now. They have breathalyzers they have to take on the weekends! We never had that. We tried to chew as much gum as possible and stopped drinking a couple hours before check in. 

The girls got off the bus and told us which stop for us to take. The bus winded it's way up the hill some more and voila there we were, literally dropped off in front of our hotel. 

We got our key, headed upstairs and immediately went downstairs for dinner. 

We are staying at the Bellavista Montagnola. It's up the hill quite a bit from downtown Lugano. I chose this hotel because that's were we stayed after graduation in 1987. I thought it'd be fun to stay there again. They were reasonably priced, had breakfast and was enough off the beaten path to be calm and serene. We thought. 

In the middle of the night I woke up to the sound of what I thought was a cuckoo clock. But it couldn't be because it only went off every now and then and not on the hour. We could not figure it out. We asked the front desk and she looked at us like we were cuckoo. We chalked it up to sleep deprivation and didn't think much more about it. Until the next night. We kept hearing it early morning and dusk. I finally decided it must be a bird. That was the only explanation we had. I sure wish my bird friends were with us to help us figure it out. 

We went down to dinner almost immediately upon arrival. We both ordered beer and pizza. Gosh I love Italian pizza! Thin crust, tomato sauce instead of marinara, and delicious spicy salami on it. MMMM. 

After dinner, we went up to our room and did everything we could to stay awake until at least 9pm. We didn't make it. We were out by 8am.  

Total steps: 6524