Visit Busto Arsizio

This time I want to talk about a town I feel emotionally close to: Busto Arsizio 


Busto Arsizio is a medieval origin town near the airport of Malpensa and just about 35 km from Milan. It is easily to reach by train such as local transport or Malpensa Express from several train stations from Milan and other surrounding cities. 

As the period of plague made several victims, Busto Arsizio was nearly totally burned and very little of this medieval period was left over. 
Busto means breast and Arsizio means burned. 

The old church of San Michele is still as a testimony from the ancient city: The bell tower was built in the 11th century. 
It is the habit of Lombardians to destroy everything old and not functioning and build something new. So you may see barely nothing at all even from the period of renaissance. 
During the French occupation Busto Arsizio and surrounding areas added several words from french language to their dialect. Just to mention one; they don't call lira as the old monetary unit but frank, as the old french monetary unit, although they are talking about the Italian lira. Also the dialect of this city has probably gaelic or German/Austrian back ground: using dots on the top of some vocals is really common. 

Busto Arsizio was until the 80's an important town for manufacturing and assembling of bedlinen and table clothes.

Some people in this city have become incredible wealthy by textile production and it is not unusual to see cars like Ferrari, Jaguar, Lamborghini or Porsche in the street picture.  
Most of these items were in earlier period also coloured in this town, but the environmental regulations forbid using chemical colouring so that most of those factories were closed and workmanshift moved to third world countries, such as China, India and Pakistan, just to name few. 
You may want to visit the local museum of textile, stone drop from the down town surrounded by a beautiful park. 

Arriving to Busto Arsizio, independent of the train station you may arrive, there are plenty of signs to invite you to take a walking tour to admire these Liberty stylsihed Villa's. As I walk a lot, I can't but admire all those beautiful buildings still visible in the city. 
I took this tour together with my friend Anne who visited me from the Netherlands on purpose to anticipate what you may see while visiting Busto Arsizio. 

After leaving either Busto Arsizio Central train station or the North Train Station, the itinerary leads you for a 5 km walk lasting nearly 3 hours if you like to shoot photos as I do. This tour will surprise you with the quantity of true pearls of architecture.  
And while walking around, there is plenty to pit stop for an ice cream, lunch or a coffee, aperitif and diner. As I am often here, I have gotten the priviledge to try many of those, and suggest you to do so. Busto Arsizio offers only one "local food" restaurant and it is truly interesting place to visit. Besides of the local food also the menu is written in bilingual; in Italian and in local dialect

Although Italy helps hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the mediterranean sea, Busto Arsizio still has very little of them: This city has a strong culture of right wing political party. You might have heard of Lega Lombarda, and Umberto Bossi during the period of Silvio Berlusconi. Umberto Bossi comes from a town near by and Busto Arsizio has probably the largest amount of Lega Lombardia supporters in this area. Lega Lombarda or Lega Nord has a political view that do not allow "wild immigration" and it is difficult to get a working permit, or house to rent at Busto Arsizio. In the 60's even those from Sicily were seen as immigrants and not wanted. You may find several southern men outside of local bars as it belongs to their culture to get out of the house, while wife cleans or cooks supper.  

When I first visited Busto Arsizio, I thought about this city as a dormitory for the people who work in Milan or at the Malpensa Airport due to the leak of restaurants, parks for children to play or open air sport fields. Only few restaurants and mainly pizzerias. Today the Chinese population has made their way with "all-you-can-eat" sushi restaurants, next to Moroccan shwarma sandwiches. But also Italians have decided to invest in this small 100.000 inhabitants town. More and more medium price restaurants such as Piadeneria; a typical Emiglia Romanian flat bread, or Italian style gourmet hamburger restaurants have opened their doors. There is nowadays plenty to choose from.

Ever since the period of the economical regression of 2008, Busto Arsizio saw many of the shops closing and no new entry was willing to get in. Nowadays new shops have opened their doors and many people from near by towns, such as Olgiate Olona, Castellanza and Gallarate find their way for shopping at Busto Arsizio. It is enjoyable to walk in the city, have an ice cream and sit down for an aperitif with a good company. 

It might be surpricing to find out several small breweries in this area. And due to it, new beer houses have found their way in this city. If you love beer, you may want to try some of the local ones. 

This area of Lombardia has very little of wine production; some of it in the hills of Varese, just recently restarted, and merely from the hills of Pavia, in the border of Emiglia Romagna and in the Garda Lake due to it's mite temperature. 

Busto Arsizio appears to be a safe city to live in, although there is always some trouble with minor criminality. Merely people are left in peace and only time to time some fighting takes place out of pubs and bars where alcohol is served. Italians are not heavy drinkers as we Scandinavians are, and they are not used to get really drunk. So when they do, they get totally out of control. Usually this happens among young people. And these fights are about a girl, who gave a look to another boy. 

Shakespeare had it right about the Italian temperament. 

If you decide to stay at Busto Arsizio, what is exactly that you may visit while staying here? Besides this town, nearby cities offer plenty to visit:

A day trip to Milan and Lake Maggiore, or Varese  and Saronno are interesting towns to visit, and just about 10-30 minutes by train. Also Novara forms an interesting town to visit due to it's history from the medieval and renessaince period and easy to reach by local train. As Lake como might seem far away, I assure that with local pubblic transport it is possible to visit it within one day. 

In case you hire a car, near Gallarate at Arsago Seprio are still ancient roman cavings and one of the best restaurants in the area, not to mention Olgiate Olona's 1 star Michelin restaurant. 

For kids during the summer time, Busto Arsizio offers out door swimming pools, recreation areas and play grounds in the public parks. Unfortunately dogs are still left a side, with one only separate dog park far from city centre. But dogs are treated pretty well: nearly every bar and restaurant allow dogs, and some shops too. 

In March Busto Arsizio holds a film festival called BAFF, with some interesting guest;  mainly famous Italian actors. 

Busto Arsizio is also well know by it's fencing club, and it's swimming pool. Each year both clubs hold international tournaments.  Also the local volleyball team plays in group A as the Italian female volleyball league. 

One of the most famous Italian violinist, Uto Ughi, is from Busto Arsizio and "a local guy" Gianluca Genoni, born in Galliate Novara, has won several competitions of diving without a mask, last one in 2012 down to 160 meters. 
The local football team Pro Patria is not equally good,as the sports teams mentioned above, but they have many local supporters.  

In the summer time Busto Arsizio among neighbouring towns offer night shopping. From Wednesday until Friday different cities keep their shops open until 11 pm with street music or fashion shows. 

Also many festivals take places in the summer season and Sagra's; local churches that organise happenings with food court, play ground, orchestra's and games. 

Now there is no reason why not visit or stay at Busto Arsizio. It is a valid option to some hotels in Milan far from Down Town. 
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Photos from the Liberty walking tour. Please ask permission to copy and and paste elsewhere

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Santorini Greece 2017

I live in the most beautiful country in the world: In Italy
But Greece comes as a fairly good number two.
Greek people are gentile and honest as far as it comes to normal local inhabitants.

view at Santorini

In my past I have visited the island of Skiathos, Skopelos, Crete and in mainland Athens and Thessaloniki.
This summer I chose to visit Santorini.
My travel buddies are the same as in South Africa and I was pleased to get the invitation to join them.
I booked for 14 days, but my opinion is that 10 days would do perfectly well; the three first days are necessary to figure out where I am and what to do. The other 7 days to discover the island.
We stayed in Kamari, that is close to the airport. This town is excellent for night life and an easy access to many places visitable by car. 
The airport  of Santorini is small and it is request at least 2 hours travelling with a luggage.

One of the many churches

I had just a trolley and it was more than enough. All I needed was swimming suit, something to wear for the diner and few pair of shoes among washing and make up stuff. Shampoo and other items not suitable to trolley are to find at the many local mini markets.

Our choice to book a hotel or rent a house turned out to a lovely hotel, just 10 minutes from the beach by foot, 5 minutes by car and only 10 minutes by car from the Airport.  Most of the cases we used the car to visit places and other beaches.

the sun and the sea

As Santorini is a volcanic island, beaches are covered by black sand. At Kamari the beach is rocky and special shoes helps to get to swim easier. While in the southern part the beach is finer black sand and access to the sea is easy by bare feet.

Georgios Beach

My advice is to take snorkelling mask from home or buy one in loco; I bought one for €15.
Most beach beds are free of charge if using the beach restaurant services. But in high season (July and August) the price might be €10 for each umbrella and two sun beds.
Best restaurants are out of town, such as Cretan Restaurant near the city of Pyrgos, or a local Taverna just out of the city of Mesaria. 
But I can't complain eating out in towns as Fira, Kamari and Oia.

Me at Fira

Besides visiting beaches and towns, what else you may do at Santorini?
Enjoy the Greek life with it's food, music and the romantic sunset best seen from Oia, or in one of the catamaran trips organised from several companies.
Most of these companies do pick up service from hotel.
I noticed that car is useful in this island. But the local bus services are equally good and with fare prices. 


We europeans like sun bathing; at least I do. Every day we headed to our favourite beach at the southern part of the Island and enjoyed the luxurious service our waiter Georgios offered.  But most of the overseas travellers seemed to stay away from beaches as a waist of time and money for the value of their trip.
In that case 5 days would do perfectly to visit Santorini. the island itself is pretty small and in just one day one cultural site and a local village is visited. 

View over the bay from the lighthouse

During the high touristic season several cultural events take place at Santorini and many villages offer local party offering food and beverage, either free of charge or with small fee. We visited the Kamari festival and got soup, bread and wine for free. Plus a local band playing typical Greek music. 

Our free meal

Due to the climate and volcanic soil, besides grapes, pomegranate, spiny figs, figs, tomatoes and white eggplant, in the island barely no other fruits and vegetables grows. And due to the dry summer there is very little water in the island. Most of the food is coming from the mainland.

Zatziki

To use the toilet, the toilet paper is not allowed to flush, but set in the waist bin.
This rule is the same in Caribbean Islands. It might feel a bit strange in the beginning, but now I'm so used to it that I feel awkward to throw the toilet paper in the closed.

The best period to visit Santorini is April, May, June, September and October. The most busy months are July and August, when Europeans have their school vacations.
A special precaution is to be taken in the streets that are narrow, stairs often steep. To get an ambulance in Fira or in Oia could take some time, and as we saw someone got hurt, the medical appliances aren't the easiest to carry up or down. 

Oia

Although Greek may seem to drive like crazy, I never noticed anything out of order. But streets are not in their best shape and after a glass or two too many, driving might turn out dangerous.

As I mentioned earlier, the island itself is pretty small, there is plenty to see, and each person need to plan their itinerary as they wish.
I was in need of relax and good food; we enjoyed the sun, the sea, and plenty of food in many of those Tavernas Santorini can offer.

My lunch

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View from Phyrgos

Sunset seen from Fira 

The symbol of Venice Republic

Sunset seen from Oia; Photo of Natasa Popovic

Sunset drink at Fira

My Greek friend

Olives 

Akra Skaros

Typical view at Santorini

Garda lake, Italy

Sirmione and Lake Garda area

When I was younger I thought that living near the sea side would fill fill all my needs; sea, sun and fun.
But growing up, and growing out of disco's, night life and busy streets, I start to value the cozy atmosphere of the lake side.
Garda Lake has always been one of my favourites, and if I would be able to buy a house in a lake side in the northern Italy, I don't think I'd hesitate too long to think of Sirmione.
The location for this city is just perfect.
From Verona airport it takes only 30 to 45 minutes by car to reach anywhere at Sirmione. Same time to Verona and Brescia down town. It takes two hours by car to drive to Milan, to Bologna and to Venice.
And if I like to visit mountains within 1,5 hours I am at Trento.
Sirmione has a mite climate; wine, lemon and olive grows there.
As it is in the south of the lake, the summertime last a bit longer than in the northern part, at Riva del Garda.
I once flew over Sirmione by helicopter and I couldn't believe my eyes as the lake shore has similar colours as the mediterranean sea; turquoise and blue.

The view from our hotel

I visited Sirmione and Garda Lake on June 2017 with two of my old colleagues from The Netherlands. One is my best friend from Serbia, my travel buddy as I would like to call him and the other one a Finnish lady I used to work in one of those diamond "factories" in Amsterdam nearly 25 years ago.

First of all we had an excellent hotel, between Sirmione old town and Colombare, that is the district just before the old town. From our hotel we got a lake view to both sides of the lake. Hotel itself was clean and cozy. Although it was fully booked we never had the feeling that it was noisy or uncomfortable.  It had all the services one would need in a week; swimming pool, private lake side beach, free use of bicycles, umbrellas, canoe, water bikes, beach beds and private parking.
It was easy to leave my car at the parking lot and take bikes to go out for diner.

The day of the arrival we enjoyed the lakeside and the swimming pool.
In the evening we headed to old town for diner.
The next day we had planned a trip to Verona. As we had a plan to enjoy our diner in a fancy restaurant and we wanted to go dressed up, we left later on in the afternoon. Verona down town is not really huge, so walking in the main streets takes only few hours. We visited the famous balcony of Juliet from the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, the riverside and Arena of Verona from ancient Roman empire period.
To eat well at Verona I suggest to go a bit further from the main squares and main streets. But I do totally understand if you feel like sitting in the Arena Square and have the view if you don't mind of the quality of the food. We enjoyed our diner in a small street just behind the Arona Square that offered mainly local farmer products.

At Verona

As one of the most famous and expensive wines in Italy grows in the hills of Valpolicella just north west from Verona, I suggest you to taste it here, in this region. And if your wallet allows, by some of it as a souvenir or to offer to friends when they join you to see your holiday photos.

the river Adige

The day three we wanted to visit first the local market at the area of Lugana in Sirmione and then head to have some lunch at the town near by; Peschiera del Garda. I kind of have feeling with this small town and wanted to show it to my friends. There is a fortress to visit to those that are interested in history and many lovely restaurants next to the canals. We even saw a guy giving gondola tours, just like in Venice.
Peschiera has several amusement parks, such as Gardaland, sea world and many more and offers cheap accommodation with their many campings. And these campings are really good; with swimming pools and supermarkets. I have my favourite hotel near downtown, but unfortunately it is so favourite that I hardly never manage to book a room.
After a lovely lunch we got back in our hotel and enjoyed the sun and the sunset, before heading for a diner to the Old Town of Sirmione.
At this period even thought it was the weekend of public holiday, we had no problems of getting seated in a restaurant.

sunset seen from our hotel beach

At the day four we wanted to visit Salo, that is in the Lombardic side of the lake. Driving there wasn't a good idea; it took nearly two hours to get there. There is ferry service from Sirmione faster than a car. This small town is totally hidden in the bay. Salo is historically important town in northern Italy: During the Mussolini's fascism period Salo became an independent republic.

Salo

15 years ago Salo got hit by an earthquake that is not common in this part of Italy. Not much harm, and no human lives were lost. But I remember it. I woke up in the middle of the night when my bed was shaking; 35 km north of Milan, nearly 200 km away from Salo.
On our way back, after a lovely lunch we stopped in one of those local wineries to fill our "cantina".
In the evening we had diner in a restaurant specialised of food from Puglia, a southern region of Italy. It was the night when Juventus played against Real Madrid and unfortunately lost.
If you think Italians are hooligans and fanatic about soccer, you might be right with the second option. Even thought people who aren't supporters of Juventus, wanted to see this match of such importance. We got lucky by being seated in the restaurant with no advance reservation.

roman ruins

On day 5 we just enjoyed the relaxed morning in the beach and each one of us did what they wanted. My female collegeau headed to visit Sirmione in the morning, while me and my Serbian friend did the same tour in the afternoon. Our hotel offers a really a good breakfast until 10 am and we were not hungry. Besides it was far too warm to eat anything, except ice cream. Italy is famous for it's ice cream; nearly every ice cream bar has it's own laboratory producing their own ice cream. And the variety of different taste is huge.
After a main portion of ice cream that has same amount of calories as a plate of pasta, we visited the old Roman palace at Sirmione.
And because we liked the restaurant of the day before, we had our diner there.

On day 6 we decided to go and visit Venice. On our way we took a drive along the river side of Padova that still has several beautiful old palaces from the period of renaissance.
Once at Venice, we left our car near the railway station and decided to walk instead of taking water bus. This walk needs good shoes and excellent legs and love for walking. We walked nearly 15 km in just 6 hours.
Venice is famous of it´s canals and bridges and it is not possible to drive a car, bike or anything like Harley Davidson out there. My suggestion is to visit Venice once, like we did, just for a day, to get the picture and then come back for 5 days at least to visit museums and art galleries. Unless you are in one of those "once in the life time tour": Take time to visit Venice properly. 

Every second year Venice holds Biennale, an art exhibition that last 6 months. And every year Venice holds a film festival. Famous actors such as George Clooney and Brad Pitt are regular guests at the film festival.
It would be interesting to visit Venice during the carnival period; all dressed up with their typical masks.
Talking about the masks; if you are up to a local hand made mask, a real artisan art work, be ready to pay over €150 each. You may also find cheap "made in china" imitations in every souvenir shop.
Near the Rialto bridge a new luxury shopping centre has risen; one of our ex colleagues work there and we payed a visit to her. This shopping centre is located in an old mansion with a court yard nowadays covered. I found it really interesting that they have left it as much original as possible.
To eat in Venice might turn out frustrating and not necessary as delicate as many tourist might think.
Most restaurants have turned out as "tourist traps" offering low quality, high price and bad service. The main rule is again to avoid main squares and streets; nearly impossible.
Visit to the San Marco Square is always so emotional; How in heavens name such a city have survived so long and with all the difficulties in the past history?

San Marco Square

Once we drove my Serbian friend to the Venice airport from where he headed to an other location, me and my female colleague drove back to hotel. On our way back we had pizza in the area of Lugana, in Sirmione, and went bed early after such an interesting day.

As the day 7 was a rainy day, and it wasn't a good idea to visit cities near by for touristic reason, we visited Desenzano, just 8 km from Sirmione, because it's extended market. When women are travelling be prepared to spend at least one day for shopping only. And this market really offers everything.
With some money I could have bought anything from shoes to household items.
In the afternoon we kept on hoping sunshine and sat under the umbrellas in the beach, but it was only the day after that the sun showed up while we needed to leave back home to Milan. But as women are travelling, we stopped by in an Outlet Village near Lake Iseo. And since we were so close to that lake we had lunch and aperitif there before getting back home for diner.

Aperol Spritz vs Campari Spritz

I wouldn't mind having a small flat at Sirmione. It truly offers just about everything; busy weekends if I'm looking for it and relaxed weekdays. Even in the high touristic season. The temperature is so mite that it is easy to enjoy dining out from late March until early November.
Several shore areas are also dog friendly.
And due to it's bicycle paths, I think I'd just love it out there. 

If you are planning a vacation at Sirmione, feel free to contact me, 
to be your personal host.

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Tour around Tuscany

Each year at this period, the 3rd week of October, me and my ex colleague take a week off and travel around Italy. This year it was time to visit Tuscany.
(last year the same period we toured in Sardinia)

sun set in the valley

Our trip started from the airport of Bologna, that provides a good base to visit many places.
To drive to our first point, to Colle val d'Elsa, it took less than 2 hours. Pretty central place; almost all the Tuscany is to be visited in 2 hours by car/bus from this valley.
We booked a nice hotel, with the view and were satisfied in all ways: even the restaurant at our hotel appeared to be excellent. Unfortunately we didn't enjoy other services such as heated pool, jacuzzi and Sauna. Nor did we use the services of the beauty saloon. 
We kept ourselves busy visiting places of interest, such as: San Giminiano, Siena, and Arezzo. And by request of my ex colleague; Perugia and Orvieto.

San Gimiano

After our 3 night stay in the area of Brunello di Montalcino, one of the most exclusive Italian red wine, we decided to head towards to the Maremma coast, precisely to Piombino. Piombino is an old industrial city that is yet not quite organised for tourism: few nice hotels, some fairly good restaurants, and very little night life. 
Most restaurants close their kitchen at 10 pm after witch, not even a dog is to find in the streets.
The day after our arrival, we took a ferry and visited the Island of Elba; once a residence of Napoleon.
We used the  local public transport, starting from Portoferraio. Portoferraio has plenty to offer. A beautiful old town with it's harbour and cultural interest; most areas by feet to be reached.

the harbour at Elba

We had our lunch in one of the many bays, at Porto Azzurro, heading towards mountains for the coffee and back to where busses leave, waiting our ferry to get us back to Piombino.

idyllic house at Torre del Lago

On our way back to the central part of Tuscany, we first visited Torre del Lago; Puccini's hometown with his museum. After witch we had luch at Viareggio, famous for it's Carnival  and then we drew to Pisa. 

Babtistery of Pisa

Our last town to stay at was Pistoia, where we took a hotel room. We both thought that the choice for the hotel was excellent, not just due to the room we had, but also for the peace Pistoia offers. 
Pistoia turned out to be very interesting small medieval town and people were really nice and helpful. Not to forget to mention of many restaurants just around our hotel. 

Capture of the doors at Pistoia

First we visited Florence arriving downtown by car, because we wanted to drive around and admire the view too, but due to the maintence works it took too long to arrive to find a parking lot and we nearly arrived too late to our appointment to visit the Art Academy and see the Statue of David.
The organisation of the ticketing system of this particular site is really confusional.

David is everywhere

The day after we took a train from Pistoia, and in 35 minutes arrived at the main rail way station of Florence.
My Finnish-Italian friend waited us and leaded us through Florence's history and main attractions, pointing us to a quiet square to enjoy our lunch.

The view from the Old Bridge of Florence

Back to Pistoia and to our enjoyable meal with the local T-bone steak in one of the best rated restaurant
At the day of the departure we catched the local market and took some Funghi Porcini mushrooms back home as souvenir among the typical local pasta, Pici Toscani. What a way to end up our vacation.

Funghi Porcini

If you are looking for a week trip to visit Tuscany, you might loose a lots of time with 
"do it yourself" vacation. An inexpert traveller would need a triple of our time to be able to see the whole Tuscany in a way we just did in one week.
Book me, and save some time and money.

More photos of Tuscany

San Giminiano

Perugia

Arezzo

Arezzo

Siena

Siena

Siena

Florence

Pistoia

Florence

Florence

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Feel free to comment your Tuscany experience below.