31st July

Treviso to Milan

We were up too early – breakfast wasn’t even ready.  The hotel seemed full of men, I was the only woman.  We packed some pastries into our bags from the buffet and settled the bill.  Tris had spoken to the proprietor about Breast Quest and he was very interested.  He said in his broken English that it was a good thing we were doing and I must be very strong.  I shook my head and told him I was just a nutter.  He kindly let us off paying some of the drinks and gave us a lovely book full of images of Treviso which he stamped with the hotel details for us.  We decided not to visit Treviso, (we had the book anyway), and head straight for Milan.

More hairy driving followed along the Autostrades.  The heat made us drip with sweat again.  We’d had to apply some topical cream to bad cases of nappy rash that developed since wearing our shorts wet from the sea under our motorbike clothing.  We thought it might keep us cool but it turned out to be quite painful!  We made Milan by 1pm in good time and found the hotel after being cut up by crazy drivers.  We received the best welcome yet at the Hilton Milano.  Petra welcomed us with big smiles and thanked us for coming!  She took some photos of us looking sweaty and knackered in the marble floored reception and told us they had upgraded us to executive suites.  Needless to say, we were grinning from ear to ear when we inspected our suites – we have large beautifully decorated rooms with double wardrobes and balconies.  I have my own dressing room space whilst the same area has been sacrificed in Tris’s suite to create a 2 sided balcony on the corner of the building.

We finally peeled off our sweaty, smelly motorbike gear and used our Crabtree and Evelyn freebies to scrub up.  Later, Tris’s brother, Alex, arrived with his travelling companion, Imi.  They are travelling around Europe in style in a red and white transit van.  It was good to have female company and even better – she brought hair straighteners!!  Nor did she fart, belch, smell or stick my head in her laundry bag and laugh about it.  We discovered we had access to the executive lounge so we all enjoyed a lovely cup of Italian coffee and mini cakes on the terrace.  It was wonderful.  Later we visited Milan a little, took the metro, swapped sweaty travelling stories, ate a lovely buffet meal beside a canal and drank Mojitos whilst people watching.  We are in buffet heaven and our pockets are always full!

(Tris is now having a hissy fit – he says he wants it known that I belch too – I am sure he will redress the balance when he tells his own story for the book.)

We have covered some 2,000 miles on our travels and I already feel a little sad thinking we have only 1,000 miles to go until we arrive home.