Sunday 3/20: Arrivederci, Milano! (5/5)

I woke up Sunday morning still feeling nervous about my choice of parking lot the night before. When I came downstairs I found the only hotel employee during the four days of my stay that could, using a liberal definition, some generosity, and a great deal of despair be labelled "English speaking". I explained my predicament, and went almost pale when she started tut-tutting, but when it dawned on her that I had parked the car last night, she shook her head and grinned. "No problem! Is Sunday! No one is up this early!" I thanked her, paid my bill and went outside to locate the car. It was standing where I'd left it, and the other car was still parked in front. As I sat in my car trying to decide the best route to drive to the Central Station, a bus pulled up beside me to take on a couple of passengers, and there was no honking or shaking of fists, so I gather parking on bus stops wasn't an uncommon occurrence after all.

I drove to the girls' hotel and made another perfect parallel parking outside. We then went downtown to find a place to fill the tank and locate the open AVIS office. After the compulsory detour, this time caused not by me taking the wrong turn, but a street that suddenly became a one-way affair, we came to a gas station just a couple of blocks from the AVIS office. The station was an automated self-service thingy, with possibly the least rational electronic pay arrangement I've yet to encounter. Next to the pumps was an electronic pay terminal (only language: Italian) where you either prepaid by coins and bills OR by a prepaid gas card. You then went and pumped gas for the correct amount. If you should happen to pay for more gas than your tank could hold, you didn't get a cent back.

I put 25 Euros worth of diesel on the car, and the last couple of Euros the pump almost wouldn't work at all, so I figured I was topping it off something horribly. However, when I got in the car again, it still showed the tank to be only about 90% full. Since the only money I had left was a 20-bill I just cursed the gas station and drove off.

We located the AVIS office quite easily, but we had some trouble finding a parking lot. In addition, the street we were on was a narrow one-way street, and every time I tried to back up to park (illegally) in the only open space along it, some car would come in the opposite direction and block us. Finally, I pulled up in front of a gate and parked the car, sweating and cursing profusely.

Once inside we again encountered impeccable service from the AVIS staff. I explained that the car probably was not fully tanked up, but explained the problems I had encountered with the pump. The man behind the counter accepted this without question, and even cut about 20 Euro off the price we'd been quoted Friday evening. He winked at the girls and said "special price for you", and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he meant it. As we stood there, an American woman from San Francisco came in and she started a conversation with my two shopaholic friends about possible outlets and cheap stores in the area. At one point the AVIS guy made some comments about how to get to a certain outlet, and explained "you can't miss it, there's always a long line of cars there", to which I replied "and all of them with female drivers". This got me a hearty laugh from him, and a killing stare from the others.

Finally, we walked a couple of blocks to the Central Station, where we had breakfast at a noisy cafe. I tried to order at the counter, but the staff would have none of this, and I was shooed over to a table. I had my doubts, since I couldn't see a single waiter anywhere in the room, but I sat down all the same. The ladies soon joined me, and by now, there was a waiter on the scene, a bald Chinese-looking guy. Fortunately, he was both efficient and English speaking and we soon had our sandwiches and croissants.

After breakfast we got in some last photos, hugged, and said our goodbyes. The bus ride to the airport, the flight home and the drive back to my house in a still wintry Norway were all rather uneventful, so I won't bore you, dear reader, any further by detailing it. I will, however tell you that I was feeling very sad to go, as I'd had a damn good time and would have liked nothing more than to just spend the rest of my Easter driving around Italy. For its numerous shortcomings, it is a nice country to travel in, with so much to offer in terms of culture, cuisine, history, nature and people.

Last, but not least, I was also sad to leave behind my American partners in crime, with whom I had shared so much fun and laughter over the last couple of days. This trip had not only provided me with summer temperatures, good food and lots of fun, it had also allowed me to renew my friendship with Ms K, and to gain a new friend in Ms S. So to sum it up in the modern way:
Return ticket to Milan: 102 Euro
Hotel: 175 Euro
Having fun with friends: Priceless.