Awake at four am for an hour again, so very uninterested in rising and shining when Simon’s alarm went off at 8:30.
There’s a very upmarket Illy coffee machine in the apartment, it comes with coffee pods so competing with Nespresso I suppose. The problem was, it’s completely incomprehensible. I managed to make a small espresso, and then managed to froth some milk, but that was the end of any useful activity. I spent half an hour pressing various buttons and laughing in incredulity at the bizarre things it did. Again, product engineers who should be taken aside and given a stern talking to. For all Nespresso’s faults, it’s extremely user friendly.
It was late morning by the time we set off to explore the town centre, armed with an audio guide we downloaded. Trento is a city in very good health, the Silicon Valley of Northern Italy, we were told. It’s always been an important trade route because of its location in a narrow valley that connects Italy and the rest of Europe further north. There are more churches and castles around here than you can shake a stick at.
I forgot to mention how stylish everyone was in Milan. Even the delinquents, mooching around together, trying to appear cool and unconcerned, look like they’ve stepped out of a fashion magazine. In contrast, there’s a heavy German influence here in Trento. It’s not that much colder than Milan but everyone is dressed for winter. The women are all in trousers, and everyone is wearing jackets.
We tried to get a coffee and a sandwich at a nice looking cafe but after being ignored for 20 minutes we went and bought lunch at a supermarket instead and ate at the apartment.
After lunch we liberated the car from the parking building and headed out for a Sunday drive to see a local castle/fortress that I’d spotted on the drive in yesterday. It was Beneso Castle, dating back to the Middle Ages.
Simon has managed to get his phone to talk to the car so that we’re being guided entirely by Google. It’s like Apple is a fungus that has taken over the Citroën’s brain. Whatever the ethics, it makes decisions easier and we only had a couple of wrong turns today.
When we got back from our outing, and Simon was parking the car, he started complaining about tummy pain. Several minutes later as we were letting ourselves into the apartment, he was quite distressed. You won’t need the fine details, and luckily it resolved very quickly, but we were both quite anxious for a while there. Possibly a gallstone? Hopefully it will never happen again. Happily, after a short nap he was well enough to go and try some local craft beer, and we then went on to taste some of the local specialties at a nearby restaurant.
I managed to say that we didn’t have a reservation but we’d like a table for two for dinner, all in Italian, which I was quite pleased about until we looked at the menu the waitress had given us, and it was all in Italian. It seemed my attempt at appearing fluent had backfired. But no, when Simon went back to ask for the menu in English, they said they didn’t have one, and suggested we use our phones to translate. Google to the rescue once again!
Tomorrow we are moving on to a mountain resort where the temperatures are expected to be considerably lower. I know I said that when we were leaving Milan but I had been given false information which I had passed on unverified. Apparently it’s got loads of expensive shops so if I find myself uncomfortably cold I will have the means to remedy it with my credit card. I found a puffer jacket in my suitcase today which was farsighted of me so we shall see.