Sunday, July 9th

Sunday morning I slept in and then lingered a little longer than normal having my breakfast on the beautiful patio at my hotel.

I was too tired to pack Saturday night and so I had to get it all done Sunday morning and be out of my room by noon. I figured that would be pretty easy to do but in the end, it took longer than normal because I decided to pack for the plane ride home instead of just throwing things haphazardly in my bags. This way, I would not have to re-pack again while watching the Italy-France World Cup final. I got down to the desk to pay the bill about 11:50 am with 10 minutes to spare.

The hotel let me leave my bags there for a few hours after checking out. I had about 2 1/2 hours to kill before heading to the train station to catch my train. I decided to spend my last couple of hours at the Cinema Museum.

I saw this cool car while walking to la Mole. It was painted like the Italian flag. The excitement for the World Cup final was everywhere!

I really loved the Cinema Museum. I lost track of time wandering around and watching clips from different movies. I ate lunch there as well. I had a great pesto pasta for lunch. I was surprised. I didn’t expect such good food at a museum café. *click on any photo below to see larger version

At one point, I realized that I only had 30 minutes to catch my train! I did some speed walking back to my hotel, grabbed my bags and then continued speed walking to the train station. I made it with five minutes to spare. I arrived at the train station out of breath. Even though my train was 10 minutes late, I was still glad I purchased my train ticket the day before.

I stamped my ticket in one of the yellow boxes and headed to my train. I saw this guy saying goodbye to his girlfriend or wife at one of the first class entrances onto the train. I played the helpless girl act hoping that he would offer to lift my bag on board. I usually don’t do this but my bag was much heavier than usual with all the little gifts I purchased while in Torino and I was still out of breath. He didn’t get the act at first but the girl did and told him to help me.

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Heading to the airport 🚎 🚆 Ⓜ️
I found three options (using public transportation) to get the airport from Torino:

Option 1: 🚎 Bus from Torino directly to the airport – A two hour ride departing at 7 am, 9 am or 3 pm. This was the recommended choice. However, reservations were not possible & I was worried the bus could be sold out or could be affected by the taxi strike. I also really did not want to spend two hours on a packed bus. Looking back on my journey, it probably would have been my best choice. 

Option 2: 🚆 Take the train to Milan (1 hour 50 mins) and then the 50 min 🚎 bus to the airport from the Milan train station. Advantages, roomier seats on the train, being able to walk around, a bathroom on the train with a much shorter bus ride. This was the option I chose.

Option 3: 🚆 Take the train to Milan, the Ⓜ️ metro (subway) to a second train station in Milan, and then the 🚆 Malpensa Express train directly to the airport. Advantages, no bus rides, bathrooms on both trains, more room on trains. This was my Plan B.

My train ride from Torino to Milan was very pleasant. When we arrived in Milan, I immediately had to go to the bathroom AFTER getting OFF the train. BIG MISTAKE! One of the main reasons I chose the train was to have access to a bathroom. What was I thinking? I grew up always being told to go even if I didn’t have to whenever traveling. This was one of those times I should have listened to my parents’ advice.

I thought about hopping back on the train but you are not supposed to use the toilets while the train is stopped. I also thought about asking someone where the bathrooms were but remembered that it is usually pretty impossible to use train bathrooms with luggage when traveling alone and Milan is not a place where I would want to leave a bag outside a bathroom stall. 

This is when I changed from Option 2 🚆 🚎 to Option 3 🚆 Ⓜ️ 🚆.

I thought if I took the metro to the second train station, it would get me faster access to a bathroom on the Malpensa Express train instead of being on a bus for almost an hour without a bathroom. Little did I know the adventure I was about to take…

I found the Metro sign and followed the arrows as well as a crowd of people. I soon found myself at the Metro station. That’s when I realized I had no idea where I was going… which Metro line to take and which way I was heading!

Meanwhile, tons of people were arriving in Milan for the final game of the World Cup. People were running through the subway station wrapped in Italian flags, blaring their horns, singing and chanting. I noticed that the older security men were working at the Metro station were getting irritated at all the commotion. This was not good. I needed to find a friendly security guy to help me with directions.

I asked two different security guys and both quickly pointed towards a flight of stairs while rapidly speaking Italian. The problem – there were two different flights of stairs right next to each other. One flight was for the train headed to one end of the line and the second was for the train headed the opposite way.

I still was not sure which way to go but decided to trust the two men and lugged my bag down the closest steep flight of stairs, hoping that I would not then have to lug my bag back up the flight of stairs and then down a second flight of stairs. Thank goodness this was the last time I had to lug that extra weight around. Once arriving at the bottom of the stairs, I saw a huge crowd of people waiting for the next train to arrive. I asked someone if this train went to the Cadorna Train station and was very relieved to find out that I was on the correct side of the tracks. 

My next concern was how I was going to make it onto the train with my bags and this huge crowd of people. My eyes met another girl also waiting with a roll-on suitcase. I felt like kindred spirits with her. The train arrived after about five minutes. I could see through the windows that the train was already full! We both pushed our way onto the train and staked out spots by the poles and hung on.

The train was packed and HOT! I still had not gone to the bathroom and was now squashed, sweating and barely able to breathe. The thought of pickpockets entered my mind. I held on to all of my things with a death grip as the train took off. I counted the 5 stops until we reached the Cadorna stop. It probably only took 5-10 minutes but felt like it took at least 30. I maneuvered my way off the train.

Where to go next? The signs were not great at first but eventually they appeared and I found the Cadorna Train station. After buying my ticket and getting on the train, I sat patiently until the train took off and then immediately headed for the toilet!

Besides one large obnoxious group of people, the train ride was fine. One of the people in the group rudely picked up my luggage neatly placed on a rack. The person threw it on top of some other bags so that he could fit his bags onto the rack.

The cost of my journey (two train rides and a metro ride) cost €1 more than it would have cost if I took the bus from Torino and about €8 more than it would have cost to take the train to Milan and then the bus to the Airport. It also ended up taking at least an extra hour to arrive at the airport.

Airport hotel ~ Hotel Villa Malpensa

I was very happy to finally be at the airport. I stopped in the little food store at the airport to pick up some water and yogurt and then called the hotel for my shuttle ride. I headed towards the pick up spot and only had to wait a couple of minutes until my shuttle arrived.

The shuttle ride to my hotel was quick. I checked in, asked about dinner at the restaurant and then went up to my room to take a very long shower. Then, I went back down to the restaurant for an early dinner. I wanted to finish dinner before the World Cup began.

My dinner was VERY expensive. Unless you have a car, you are pretty much a captive audience with no other restaurant choices. I understand that the food at airport hotels is usually more expensive but I thought dinner at this hotel restaurant was pretty pricey. The food was just okay. Nothing special, but also nothing to complain about. My only complaint was the waiter immediately pouring me some water out of one of those tiny bottles of water before I even had a chance to ask for a large bottle. I was so thirsty that I also ordered a large bottle, paying €5 alone for the water.

Being at an airport hotel was probably the most unexciting place to be for the World Cup final. The enthusiasm was not very evident at the hotel. Even so, I was still in Italy. My quiet hotel room still brought me excitement as I watched Italy win. It was fun seeing the team celebrate on my TV with celebrations happening on all the Italian news stations. Katia and I sent each other a few SMS messages during the final. About an hour after Italy won, Katia called me screaming into the phone with exhilaration. She had me listen to the crowds of people in her town screaming and blaring their horns. I was so happy for everyone in Italy!

Forza Italia!! 🇮🇹 Auguri!! 🎉 🏆 🎉

My room was quite comfortable, I slept well and breakfast was filling. After paying my bill, I took the shuttle back to the airport.

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Monday, July 10th ✈️

My flight home...

All the Italian workers at the airport looked pretty tired after a very long night of celebration. I congratulated the passport control guy about the big win and he smiled. I also congratulated the girl at the Continental ticket counter and she smiled. My bag weighed 19 kilograms, which is about 41 pounds. She congratulated me for the weight of my bag.

Malpensa to Newark ✈️

My plane took off on time. One of the flight attendants was wearing this cute Italian scarf/hat. He had us all sing the Italian chant that was sung at all the games. I am not sure if he was Italian or American but he was definitely pretty excited about the win.

On the first leg of my trip, I sat next to a woman returning from a visit with her son and his new Italian wife. She talked constantly and started to make a few racial comments, which made me feel very uncomfortable. I kept my headphones on most of the flight, trying to watch the movies and ignore her. We landed on time in Newark.

Newark to Honolulu ✈️

Everything went smoothly for my next connection. During my final flight to Honolulu, I sat next to a woman going to visit her son, stationed in Hawaii. She did not speak much English. She was very nice. I think she was from a country near Croatia.

There was a malfunction with the air blowers. There was a stream of cold air blowing on our necks for the entire flight. We both froze. The flight attendant assigned to our section was not very friendly. She told us that we should have chosen seats in the middle row of the plane if we didn’t want cold air blowing on us. Now I have sat in both of those exact seats on previous trips and knew that it was not the seat choice as the reason for the cold air. I sat with my fleece jacket wrapped around my neck and a thin airplane blanket tightly bundled around me until we arrived in Honolulu.

We arrived on time. I was so happy to get off that plane but already missing Italy.

Final trip thoughts:

My trip was magnificent. Grateful for more wonderful memories to cherish!

Bergamo is a perfect place to spend a couple of days to deal with jet lag

Venice is amazing! I can’t wait to return again!

Lerici is a beautiful little Ligurian town.

With the crowds of tourists, the charm is gone in Cinque Terre – I have no plans for a return.

Piemonte is an amazing place. I hope that it never gets “too discovered”. One of the things I loved about Piemonte was the lack of tourists.

Torino is a fabulous city! It’s another city that I hope never gets “too discovered”.

I have been blessed with wonderful friends from both Coccaglio & Empoli.