I arrived in Milan from Turino very late in the day with only 2,500 Lire. At 11:30 P.M. I started looking for a place to stay for the night. I couldn’t help noticing the many Italian couples “sparking” near the hotels, in the shadows, and just about everywhere else. It looked like five minutes before curfew at the women’s dorms at Harding College. Italian men have no problem with catcalls, whistling, and public displays of affection. I never noticed the love making in any other country like I saw in Italy. If you were a beautiful woman, you had it made.
I left the station as the gypsy kids were begging outside. As I started down the massive steps, I noticed an old woman who was struggling to carry a refrigerator tied to her back. Of all the Italian men who passed her not one would help. I’d never witnessed such a scene. I got up alongside and told her that I would carry it for her. She refused at first, but almost cried when I heaved it on my back. She was so grateful when I got it to the bottom of the train station steps that she burst into tears; a foreigner was helping her while Italian men gave her no thought. That incident told me a lot about Italy.
Some Italians do have a sense of humor. As I traipsed and probed into the night looking for a room I stumbled upon the Grand Hotel. I approached the desk clerk with my head still spinning from the sight of the palatial surroundings and asked him if there was a vacancy and how much it was. With a sympathetic smile and look at my backpack he said, “16,000 Lire.” We had a good laugh before I retreated to the streets. The next hotel wanted 8,000 Lire and so on. “All full Signore.” Finally, I discovered the Boston Hotel which probably had a negative star rating, but at least the desk clerk heard me out. “How much for a room for one night?” said I. Just like the dishonest mechanic Clark Griswold encountered in National Lampoon's Vacation movie, he said, “How mucha you gotta?” There went my 2,500 Lire, but I was lucky to find a room overlooking their fine utility entrances and, as a bonus, I was serenaded by two tom cats that fought it out all night.
My stay in Italy was short and if I had it to do over, I would have gone to Rome, but backpacking has its drawbacks – you get so fatigued you need a vacation from your vacation. I would have loved to get out of the cold and rainy Po region for the warmer and brighter environs of Rome, the Eternal City. Trafalgar, Globus, and AAA Travel have escorted land and sea tours that take the stress out of travel. A clean bed, good food, and modern air conditioned buses are incentives that may draw me back to Europe and Italy, but for the moment I knew little about any other way of traveling in my station in life as did hundreds of thousands of Baby Boomers who were on their European tours. My consolation then was the anticipation of what I would see tomorrow and that meant the lake region, Como, the Lepontine Alps, the St. Gotthard Pass, and Zurich where I met another interesting fellow.
