Now I am in my flight to Italy...... (reaching the venue)

The cabin crew all were above the age of 40’s had a wonderful way of speaking to the passengers. It seemed they were also enjoying the trip to Milano. The flight flew at a low height adding excitement to see Europe through a bird’s eye. Numerous number of buildings, everything looks very symmetrical, and long highways. Canals and rivers give a blue shade to the canvas of the earth’s surface, whereas the the patches of hills and trees paint green. 

Slowly I switched to sleepy mode where my eyes were blurred for some time. When I woke up after 20-30 minutes, I could make that now we were above the Alps. Peaks after peaks, some have snow cover which looks like the melted ice cream on a small mount. Slowly a beautiful lake appeared in my view among the mountain peaks. The crystal blue lake appeared like a gem in the necklace of the hills. The view slowly moved in to rivers and small towns. The announcement of the pilot came in between as we have crossed French Alps and moving in to the borders of Swiss to Milano in a couple of minutes.

The landing was quite easy and while was walking to the arrival area, everything appeared very ordinary. No grandeur which we found like in IGI T3. While moved out of the terminal I was doubtful that my passport may need entry as I am now in Italy. The information officer helped me to solve the matter and told that the entry at Amsterdam is good enough.

Stepped out of the terminal I found a huge billboard which indicates an Indian snake charmer with his snake and something in Italian. I could make out from the name of the company mentioned below as easy jet which might offer a promotional package to the visitors. I had to catch my flight from Linate to Malpensa and my eager wit continued till a bus arrived. I moved towards the bus and show my ticket to the driver. He told me that it will start at the given time only and I had to wait another hour.

Mean time I was so hungry and thought to have something from airport, but the prices really shocked me. Rather than the prices I was confused about the taste of the stuff. I preferred a Small Fruit bag which cost around 4.70 euro. It contained hardly 75 grams of sliced fruits. While I was having the fruit lunch, one young man came and asked me something in Italian. I told him to speak in English. He told me by toughing his stomach like this. Hungry….No money… I had no change coins and had a five euro note. I gave him sympathetically as I was listening to the news about the stories of the migrants. He was really surprised to see I gave him this five euro, but very happily grabbed the money.

When I stepped outside after the fruits, I saw this gentle man was smoking outside while looking at another prey. I could easily make out that he is like any other tout whom we see in India.

When I boarded there were only few passengers, though the bus had a capacity of 30 plus seats. The bus went to first some stations, then moved to Malpensa Airport. After arrival at the bus station again I was under dilemma that where I can find my bus to Arona. With courage I moved inside the airport and wandered here and there. With hesitation I asked some security men inside about where I can find the bus as mentioned in the ticket. He advised me to get the lift, move towards exit gate no. 2. As advised I moved to the exit gate and continued my eager wait.

My patience started losing as the time get closer and there is no sigh of the bus to Arona as there were lot of bus moving to other part of the city. At the given time 1.40 pm I found a small bus appearing near the entry point and soon three other passengers ran towards the bus. A lady asked the driver is the same bus goes to Arona. The driver told yes. We happily shifted the baggage to the bus. The driver opened his tab and checked my reservations and collected the money on board. The lady whom I mentioned above asked a question which awake me from sleep that we were attending the Summer school. Oh god finally I found a companion. Another lady gracefully said yes. Here I met my first friends of Summer school. It was Bisi Mengo from Kenya who asked me the question, and next was Catherine from Hungary. 

The bus passed through amazing landscapes at a speed of 100 km per hour or so. It reached Arona as we found a huge lake and lot of tourists around. I was so happy that finally we reached. But it was sad to hear from Mengo that we have to travel another few minutes. We were in search of Ms. Elisa, who is expected there to receive us. But we could not find any one and I moved towards the tourist information centre to ask the location of railway station. The receptionist answered that it is just other side of the road. When we reached the station we found a gentleman of around 45 years came with a wonderful smile and asked us whether we are the participants. We happily told yes. Then he took the bags and kept in the car. The car was Audi A3, which shake my  as we are given a royal reception by the organising team by sending an Audi.

While we were moving ahead, the driver introduced himself as Peter who confessed that he can’t speak good English in high Italian accent. who cares English. You just need to communicate (my own philosophy)  I was bit surprised to see that even Italian people don’t know English!. (see more about Peter in the forthcoming series).

By around 6 we reached the location of the summer school Casa Dei Padri a three floor building on the slope of the hills overlooking the valleys and horizon. A lady (I guess Elisa) came with a beautiful smile and guided us to the room allotted to us. (Here I wish to mention the smile and hospitality of the hosts were outstanding).