So when Albatross Tours decided to be dicks about covid and forced into a situation we didn't want to be in, we said screw you and decided to do our own Oberammergau and Italy tour. I haven't added up the costs yet, but I think we got a much better tour, saw many more of the things we wanted to see, and it was probably cheaper, even after the thousands of dollars we lost to Albatross (yet another company I would NEVER deal with again).
Anyway, one of things we wanted to do was visit all the streets of Como, Sydney. They were named after towns in Italy, so what better way to see off-the-beaten-path areas of Italy we wouldn't normally have seen if we'd just stuck to the tourist trail. The only one we missed out on getting to was Tivoli. And that was because when I looked at public transport options it was just going to be too painful and time consuming. I would rather spend that half a day in Rome actually seeing Rome (and we had a lovely afternoon riding one of the hop-on-hop-off buses). But as a bonus we did get to Lugano. In Sydney Lugarno is just across the Georges River from Como. In Europe Lugano is just across the border from Como in Switzerland.
Como! The suburb I lived in for twenty seven and a half years, and Mum for forty two years. We spent a couple of full days here.
Cremona. We did this as an afternoon trip from Milan. We didn't do much here, just walked down to the cathedral and main square. There was a street market along one of the old town streets that was quite nice on a Saturday afternoon.
Novara. A morning trip from Milan. We had quite a long walk around town and saw quite a lot.
Pavia. After Novara in the morning we went to Pavia in the afternoon. Again we had quite a long walk around town and saw quite a bit.
Genoa (Genova). I quite liked Genoa (well except for the metro and difficulty finding somewhere to get a takeaway beer). It had a pretty chilled vibe to it, and is one place I wouldn't mind going back to one day if the sweetie wanted to go there. We really only had an afternoon there, but we saw quite a lot.
Ortona. Ortona was quite a long way out of the way, and we had to get a bus and a train all the way across the country to get there. There's not a whole lot there, but it was actually a cute little seaside town.
Verona. Fair Verona. We crammed a lot into the day we had there. There's heaps to see and we quite enjoyed it.
Lugano. Bonus town. Not a street in Como, but another suburb of Sydney. We did it as an afternoon trip from Como.
Sylvia Johnson
I've never seen myself in so many selfies before.
Good summary of our Italian Mission.