Start: Verona Train Station
Finish: Corrubbio
Distance: 6 miles
Total: 994
It’s back on the road again for Part 2 of the walk across Europe. Today was a very long day. But I’ve made it back to Northern Italy and have picked the walk back up where it ended in March.
The day started with a 5:30 AM wake up, Monday morning, Texas time. Wyn, Karla and I were on the road at 6:30 for a drive to Austin to catch my flight. Of course, my family can not drive past a Buc-ee’s without stopping so we made it to New Braunfels before our enroute stop. After some sniffles and a hurried “let’s get it over with” goodbye at the airport curb, I caught my flight from Austin to Miami right on time. Unfortunately, the Miami-Milan flight was delayed 2.5 hours, so I had six hours to waste in the Miami airport. Luckily the crew made up a half hour enroute so my arrival into Milan was only two hours late. So after the nine hour flight, it was onto the express train for the 50 mile ride from the Milan airport to the central Milan train station. We were one stop from the main station when the train broke. No one knew how long it would take to fix, and since I had a reservation on the next train to my destination of Verona, I decided to follow the lead of most of the other passengers and made a mad dash for the subway station to try and make it to the central train station before I missed my train. After taking the subway and running through Milan Central train station, hoping I was going in the right direction for my platform, I made it to my Verona-bound train with one minute to spare.
The 1 1/2 hour train ride from Milan to Verona was relaxing and gave me a chance to catch my breath and get my plan in order when I reached Verona. When I stepped off the train it was a steam bath. The weather was hot and very muggy. So off I went walking through the city of Verona; first stop, the Vodafone Store to get my cell phone re-activated with the Italian SIM card I had bought back in January. It only took five minutes to switch out the cards and 10 Euros later I was back in business.
So now that I could navigate my way around, I headed out of Verona on some backroads for about six miles to a little hotel I had picked out near the town of Corrubbio. By walking a little ways today, it makes tomorrow a more manageable 19 miles. I got to the hotel around 5:00. It’s an OK place with a pizzeria.
Tonight I’ve got to catch up on the night of sleep I lost flying over here. Then tomorrow I start a gradual but steady climb into the Italian Alps. If the haze will clear out maybe the scenery will be nice. I’ll post some pictures. Thanks for reading.
P.S. I posted a new video today. Watch it by clicking Videos on the website or go to YouTube and search The Walking Aggie.
