I took a day off from this blog yesterday since all I did was head from Iceland to Milan on an early morning flight, check into my hotel, have dinner, and try and sleep. Try was the key work. i just couldn't sleep for some reason, and had to be up and out of the hotel by 5:15 today.
After a shuttle and train ride, I was finally ready to take the tour I'd had my eye on since last summer. It was a tour that took us to St. Moritz, Switzerland, home of two Olympics and evidently a really posh area since the storefronts matched those of Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills.
We took the bus the three hours directly to St. Moritz, riding little roads up the side of the Alps, only inches from disaster at times. My hat's off to the driver. He has nerves of steel. I thought driving the Amalfi was a challenge, and it was, he accomplished this in a giant bus.
When we got all the way to St. Moritz, we were given about 2 and a half hours to walk around and have lunch. I didn't feel like a sit down meal, so I picked up a soft pretzel at a street market, and went for a nice long walk around the beautiful lake. I visited an outdoor hockey arena, watch boaters and paddle surfers, and sat by the lake taking in its wonder while eating the pretzel. I also picked up a small gruyere cheese sandwich, which was simple and delicious. Gruyere is a type of Swiss cheese.
After lunch, we boarded the Bernina train from St. Moritz, Switzerland, to Tirano, Italy. The train, which is the only Swiss train to cross the Alps, can climb as well as decent and we did, for more than 2 hours. Along the way, we saw Swiss chalets in the woods, hikers along the trails, waterfalls, the Morteratsch glacier, and some of the most breathtaking views I've ever seen. There is a reason UNESCO awarded this train World Heritage status in 2008.
Tomorrow I have an afternoon into evening train to head from Milan to Termoli, where I will get a taxi to my house. Thankfully the gardener has already been there, so it is a little neater than it was a week ago.
