Nightmare in Milan

We came to Milan with the expectation that the train station might be a bit dangerous...and we weren't disappointed.

Upon disembarking the bus, we were approached by a 'taxi' drive who offered us a ride. I accepted but after retrieving our bags (under the bus free for all) Margi wisely rejected the offer and we went inside to see if we could get a refund (albeit only 20 Euros) for the train tix we didn't use for a Monday Paris-Milan 9 hour trip.

Once inside, I was approached by a seemingly nice fellow who asked if I spoke English. When I said 'yes' he said "You have shit on your jacket." Sure enough, when I looked at my shoulder it sure looked like a bird had bulls-eyed me. I thanked him and Margi (mostly) and I had a good laugh about it.

Minutes later as she had pulled a paper towel from a bag the fellow appeared with his own paper towel looking all the world like a good samaritan asking if he could help. I had my jacket off and over one of the luggage handles and was cleaning it off. He boldly offered to clean what didn't really seem so much like bird crap as a load of crap from this guy as he attempted to lift the jacket to clean it. We insisted we were fine and as he attempted to pick up the jacket to clean it, Margi stepped in and very firmly said "Thank you, I'll take care of it!"

Since all our valuables were in our wastebands, well hidden away from anyone, it was clear to this guy there was no wallet or other personl item in the jacket. His subsequent disappearance was as relief as we were tired and just wanted to get to our hotel room.

But the guy appeared again as we were searching out the part of the station that offered refunds and he gladly offered to help us as he pointed us to the (as it turns out) incorrect ticket office for the refund. He then left and we finally found the correct office.

The lady behind the counter said she couldn't do anything about giving us a refund but we did purchase our Milan-Como tickets without further ado.

Finally out of the station, we were again approached by a very persistent 'private' taxi operator but we insisted in getting in the 'public taxi' line where we finally got a ride to our hotel.

Couldn't get out of Milan and back to the train station for our trip to Como fast enough. In fact, we were misdirected to the wrong platform until just minutes before we concluded we were in the wrong place and I found a conductor who pointed us in the right direction.

Oh, man. No comparison between the inter-city trains and the 1st class trains! Once seated, we breathed a big sigh of relief as the grunginess of Milan faded in the distance.