The final day — we hope — of our rail journey is underway, after what amounted to little more than a technical stop in Milan.
The route we took from Salzburg to Milan yesterday brought us through the Brenner Pass and gave us some stunning views of Alpine villages on both sides of the border.
When we changed from an Austrian train to an Italian one at Brenner, we took advantage of a relatively long connection to have a meal. The restaurant was technically in Italy, although everyone seemed to be speaking German. The service was unmistakably Italian, and we started to think we were going to have to choose between lunch and our next train. However, we did get our food with just enough time to eat it without rushing. We even had a few extra minutes to walk to a nearby waterfall and take some photos.
Descending from Brenner on the Italian side, we passed through vineyards and mostly small villages until we reached the shore of Lake Garda. After that, the scenery of northern Italy became much more industrial.
In addition to the scenery, the ambiance on the train also changed dramatically going from Austria to Italy. The latter felt like a Third World country; all that was missing were the chickens and goats. It seemed like everyone had a phone, but no one had earphones, so that shitty music could be enjoyed by all.
Eventually, after one more change of trains in Verona, we arrived in Milan.
Like Salzburg, this was not a headline destination for us, and we had even less time to spend, but we wanted to make it count. We had three objectives: a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant, a good night’s sleep, and fulfillment of our Sunday obligation. With roughly 14 hours from arrival to departure, we had time to do all of it, but not much else.
We checked in at a hotel a few steps from the Milano Centrale train station where we arrived — a hotel I’d reserved only a few hours earlier. We then had dinner just around the corner at a restaurant that got great reviews online. After dinner, we walked back to the train station to take photos of its beautiful façade, and then it was right back to the hotel to call it a night.
We got up this morning at 5:15, finished packing, and were out of the room at 6:00. We had coffee in the lobby, checked out, and took the metro to the Duomo, with our bags.
The cathedral had Mass at 7 am, and we arrived at 6:40, so we took a few photos of the outside before we went searching for the side entrance for worshippers. Kathryn and I looked like a couple of vagabonds with our backpacks, so the person attending the door sternly asked us if we were there for Mass and even more sternly told us there would be no photos or videos.
Mass at the cathedral is in the Ambrosian Rite, so that was a first for us. There were noticeable differences from the Roman Rite, but the elements were similar enough that I wasn’t profoundly confused by what was going on, except, of course, that I don’t understand Italian.
We were a little concerned that we’d have to leave Mass early due to our train. We needn’t have been. At 38 minutes, it was the second shortest Sunday Mass I’ve ever attended, coming in a minute over my all-time record of 37. Our departure was from the Milano Porta Garibaldi station at 9 am, and after a metro ride and an urban rail connection, we were still early enough to have coffee and buy sandwiches before boarding.
