October 4, 2026

October 4, 2026

Sunday –

Torino, Piemonte, Italia > Malpensa Airport, Ferno, Lombardia, Italia

É il Aeroporto di Milano

Feeling much better today. Unfortunately woke up very early just after it had gone 04:00. Managed to stay in bed until 06:00. Showered, shaved and dressed and downstairs in the breakfast room by 07:00. Back up in the room at 07:20, and off to the laundromat at 07:25.

Got to the laundromat at 07:50. The door electronically unlocked at 07:55. The laundry was in the washer by 08:00. Why? Well, for the next sixteen days are on the road touring. We have just sufficient clothing to manage that. It looks like the next opportunity to do laundry will be Porto, Portugal on the 20th.

I finished the laundry just after it had gone 09:10. Walked over to The Place to meet Mary, Serra, Pietro, Luisa and Amadea. We enjoyed a cappuccino and brioche with them, said good-bye and headed back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel about 10:15. I took an hour-and-half nap. Got up and packed my clothing. We tested the weight on our suitcases to make sure we will comply with RyanAir’s draconian baggage policy. Then we went down to the hotel bar to grab a toast and some water before calling a taxi.

We used the new, to us, BTaxi, app to call a taxi. It was there in a few minutes. We were a little concerned that since today is a national holiday getting a taxi may be difficult. It isn’t. The difficultly lied in driving through the old part of town where people were just walking the streets. Yes, today is the Festa di San Francesco d’Assisi (the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi). It was recently reinstated as a national public holiday in Italy.

Saint Francis of Assisi became a saint on July 12, 1228, just two years after his death. Italy became a country in 1865. Italy began celebrating Saint Francis of Assisi as their patron saint on June 18, 1939, when Pope Pius XII officially proclaimed him (alongside Saint Catherine of Siena) as the joint primary patron saint of Italy. Since then, it has been celebrated as a public national holiday or at least was until 1977.

In 1977 in an effort to cut labor costs, reduce absenteeism, and boost economic productivity due a severe financial crisis, the Italian government scrapped October 4 (along with several other religious holidays) as national holidays. A push led by far-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and cultural figures reinstated the national holiday aspect of the day to time it with the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis (who died in 1226).

All sounds a lot like bull-shit. More Trumpism, even though they hate him here. Far-right Brothers of Italy party championed the move as a vital way to honor Italy's patron saint, reinforce traditional Christian values, and promote messages of peace and environmental stewardship. That really sounds like a load of bull. They are mostly afraid of Italy becoming anything other than a Catholic country.

Anyway, back to our travels today. The taxi dropped us off at Autostazione Corso Bolzano just after it had gone 13:30. Our tickets are for the 14:00 bus. We walked right over to the only bus in the queue, asked if he was the 14:00 bus to Malpensa.. He said yes and led us to the baggage hold where we loaded our bags. Showed him our tickets on the Omio App, and boarded.

Now last time we did this we had a communication issue with the driver. I showed him the tickets on the app and kept saying, at least what sounded like, luce. Luce means light. We finally figured out that his device couldn’t read the small QR code, and what he wanted was to make it bigger. So, this time we expanded the code before showing it him and it worked just fine.

We got on, took the front seats and settled in for our two-hour ride to Malpensa Terminal 1. Being a national holiday the traffic was light. We actually made it to Malpensa about ten minutes early. We got off the bus and headed straight to the Sheraton. There were just a couple people in line but getting through the check-in process as a piece of cake. We had checked-in online anyway.

They upgraded is to a junior suite. Which is really just a little larger room with a sitting area. We also got free breakfast and cocktail hour from 17:00 to 19:00. We made reservations at Il Canneto Restaurant here at the hotel. We have eaten here many times and although they do not offer at colletta alla Milanese, the food choices are good.

We talked with Harry V and made his reservations to go to Prague with Ali at 17:00. He was on his way out to do interviews for the business club. After we finished the call, we went to the Sheraton Lounge for our cocktail hour. The lounge was more impressive a decade ago, but not bad for free. At 18:30 we headed to the restaurant across the hallway for dinner.

Mary had the osso buco alla Milanese, just meaning it comes with risotto alla Milanese. I went with just the plain risotto alla Milanese. In truth we should have just gotten one, neither of us finished more than half our meals. We keep remembering that after we have started eating. Really have to get better at sharing a meal. It isn’t a cost issue, it is a waste of food issue.

After dinner we went back to the room, I took a nice warm bath in the very nice big bathtub. Then we called it a night.

Buonanotte e Ciao,

Enrico e Maria