And Outside The Rain Fell...

A long, long day of travel. Due south, from almost the tip of Eastern Europe to Italy.

Our Trains journeys so far have been rather legendary. Comfortable, racing through scenic country sides, with beautiful trains that offered us just enough rest to go on backpacking the next day.

This one was all of that, except for one small detail. The Authorities. Being knocked at our cabin at all hours of the day, all hours of the night was not funny. First, the German Police. Then the French ones come along. And then, even the Italian ones. Sigh. Although uneventful, just the arduous task of waking up from a tired sleep to show passports and visas and passes can get often annoying.

Nevertheless, our train reached Milano early morning. Pacing the station for a short while, we knew we wouldn't be staying in Milan for too long. It was a great cosmopolitan town, but had terribly little to offer budget tourists like us. Except for a few, many luxury branded stores. The heart of World fashion. The Armani's were everywhere. We did however take a tram ride through the city.
Relics of I-do-not-what-era trams, these actually had old lanterns hanging from the ceilings, were bone-jarring rickety and super fun. Riding through the city, passing through swerving Vespa's and narrow lanes, Italy was immediately enchanting. And uniquely non-European. It was chaos, charming and beautiful. The weather perfectly Indian. Out went our jackets. We actually were enjoying the sun this way after long. And the girls here...

En route, we actually got down to see the Piazza del Duomo, one of the world's largest gothic cathedrals, with a seating capacity of 40,000 people. Flanked by tall spires, gargoyles and bishop statuettes, this occupied pride of place in the heart of the city.

Late, we now caught the metro back to Central Station, and sipping on our lavazza's, boarded the next train of ours to Firenze, or as we know it, Florence. A bread-cheese-spread breakfast later, we were nearing Florence around 2ish, and almost immediately took off for Pisa.

The train journeys were already getting long, and reaching Pisa at 5 meant that we would see the sun setting at the tower. I was initially hardly enthusiastic about travelling 2 hours one way to see just this one tower, for the city had nothing else to offer.

However, the actually tower easily made the journey worth it. Inclined alarmingly steeply, this seven storey tower was beautiful. And along with the cathedral flanking it, easily stood out in the landscape.

PritS and I both concluded that not just the tower but the nearby cathedral and the cupola seemed funnily inclined. Maybe it was just distortion. Maybe they are.

A lot many "sugar" poses later, with many amongst us saving the day by comically "holding Pisa up", we were back again. To the train. To Florence. Late night, there was little chance of us going out. So, feeding on Pizzas and Milkshake, we sat about chatting till late, and at 11.30 took another train to a subway of Florence. Our next train was at 1.48! I got out my pillow, draped myself in the jacket and comfortably wore off to sleep, to be awoken only by, and again, the polizei checking our passports.
Sleeping in the stations too came was like second nature now.

Occupying cabins in the train now came easy. And when morning came, I found a bag missing. Poor thief though, he found absolutely nothing in the bag except bread and gloves, and left it discarded in the toilet.

I had never realized the threat of theft in Italy was this real, but experiencing it first hand, from a closed cabin in a train, I was almost surreal. Need to be more cautious. But heck, it's a beautiful country and well worth it.