Adventures in Milan and the start of my "vacation"

Well, I've officially kicked off my Italian vacation and it has gotten off to a bit of a rocky start. My 6 a.m. train ride to the airport to meet my Italian group turned into getting my purse stolen right from under my arm, in an absolutely deserted train station as I tried to load my bags onto the train... so, after recovering from the shock, I tried to explain in my stellar Italian, to the local polizie what had happened - and apparently at that time of morning and me being a single traveller with luggage, I was a prime target. I am definitely careful about this kind of thing and I literally did not even see anyone near me.. anyway, definitely a new experience and NOT a good one... not to mention that I'm sure everyone in the train station thought I was a homeless person rifling through all the garbage cans looking for my bag!

However, the timing was not too bad, because I met my group at the airport anyway, and proceeded to head to northern Italy to Bolzano - in Trentino-Alto Adige - in the Dolomites region and have been wined and dined for two days already. So, for someone with no money, no credit and no passport, I'm actually surviving quite well!
(new bank card and visa are en route as of today and I'm sorting out the immigration stuff, so all in all, it's a hassle, but not the end of the world) And the thief only ended up with about 40 Euros after all that - the purse was worth more!

Anyway, onto more interesting topics than my adventures in petty crime. We are staying in this lovely hotel in the city square in Bolzano - my window views out over the square and it's gorgeous and hot (about 29 degrees) and there is a huge cathedral where the bells chime in the morning. This region is very Austrian and German more than Italian and all the signage is in both languages and most people speak German. They also speak a third language, that is only spoken and not written, called Ladino, which is a Latin language and sort of a combo of Portugese, German and Italian.

Today we went to a couple of old churches and looked at some amazing old frescos that were painted thousands of years ago (1232) and drove way up into the Alps to view the Dolomites (kind of look like the hoodoos in Drumheller actually. We did an amazing walk into the mountains - the landscapes are incredible.

We also went to this interesting museum in Bolzano (and I'm not really crazed about museums)but this was really good, where we visited the "Ice Man" - remember that ancient man they found buried in the glacier in 1991 - they call him Otzi here and he is perfectly preserved and dated to 5300 years ago - even his skin is mostly intact - and his eyes and fingernails were even preserved in the ice. He's not exactly human looking, but definitely interesting. They keep him in a freezer to preserve him and it's really quite amazing that they found him way up here..

After that we visited these two wonderful little ski villas (think Heidi - I'm sure she lives there) way up in the mountains, one called Bressonone and the other Ortesi - they were seriously like a picture out of the Sound of Music or something... almost as scenic as Midland, really.... ha

Anyway, we've got another full day tomorrow, so I'm outta here, but be sure to tune in for more soon.. I'm well on my way to sampling every flavour of Italian gelato produced and it's a very worthwhile experiment!

Ciao amici!

KellyGirl - by the way, there is a woman on the trip who is your body double - she is 6'2" and older than you, towers over her husband and hates to shop... she could be you! Still lots to do for the anti-shopping person over here, believe me!