Milan is basically the exact opposite of Naples. And by that, I mean it’s clean, reasonably priced and does not smell like corpses. It’s hard to remember much about Milan, mostly because the unexpected squalor of Naples is so indelibly fused into my hippocampi. The big thing that happened was that we got ripped off on a rental car. The story’s not that entertaining but the epilogue is sweet – we couldn’t sort anything out with the rental company so we took a hit for 60 bucks and just got a ride back to the airport. So then Shef’s adventurous spirit kicked into high gear. That’s something great about Shefali – she isn’t willing to admit defeat by staying another night and making a plan. She has to move forward. So instead we looked at the departures and, like the books we loved as kids, chose our own adventure. There was a cheap flight about to close on the board – we rushed and booked two seats literally as they closed the ticket window. By the time we cleared security the plane was already boarding. We raced full speed literally to the last gate… and crashed into the huge line of people waiting to board. For whatever reason they said it was boarding but no one was on the damn plane. Whatever, at least we made it. It was exciting, and not just because of the run-for-your-life fear that we were going to lose more money and be stuck back where we started – now we were on our way to somewhere unexpected. It was as if someone knew we liked adventure and placed us on a trip within a trip, so we could travel while we travel.
Vijay