My 50th Birthday Trip

This small hotel is located quite off the beaten path, outside of Milan. While this meant a very quiet stay for us, it also meant having a farily long ride to get into town - taking both bus and metro. However, the hotel is clean, bright, nicely decorated and the staff are lovely and helpful.

With only two floors, I believe there are only about 20 rooms in total. The rooms themselves weren't overly large but there was enough space to move about and the bed was comfortable, but not amazingly so. More importantly, the rooms were completely spotless and everything was freshened up wonderfully. We didn't need to use the air conditioning or need heat, so I can't really comment on that. The television worked fine, but we couldn't get much in the way of English channels, except for BBC, which was more than enough for us. While we didn't have a bathtub in our room, the shower was great with wonderful water pressure and just enough room for all our toiletries.

Since this hotel had been newly renovated, everything was in perfect condition. The lounge/dining area had lots of large tables and the bar was fully stocked - not that we needed it. There's also a sitting area with a TV, all incorporated in the entrance way. What we really liked about this hotel was that the staff were marvelous. They were able to give us accurate directions and information for everything, and even sold us bus and metro tickets so we didn't have to look for those and break our teeth in our terrible Italian. Since we arrived late that first night, and they don't have a kitchen, we were a bit worried about getting something for dinner. Thankfully, this is again where this hotel came up trumps.

They do have some microwave dinners you can buy from them, which they'll heat up for you, but these looked less than appetizing. However, when we refused that option, they kept us from starving by calling the local pizzeria for us with our order, and then called us down from the room when it arrived. Mind you, it wasn't the best pizza I'd ever had, but without their help, we wouldn't have had anything. As far as that's concerned, this hotel couldn't have been better.

As mentioned, they only serve breakfast here, and what was available was a typical continental buffet with breads, cheeses, meats, spreads, cereals, juices and yoghurts. While this is usually enough for us, don't expect a cooked meal at these prices. I was particularly pleased to see that they offered not just plain orange juice but had some blood orange juice as well. They have a bar (which doesn't seem very busy since we only saw about one customer there the whole visit) which looks very well stocked. Again, the best part of this hotel was the service and the staff took care of us with truly loving hands.

Now here's the biggest problem with this hotel. In order to get into town, you have to take a bus and then transfer to the metro. While that may not seem so horrid, the busses don't run all that often and when we arrived we ended up being very frustrated in not being able to find our way and took a taxi from the metro. The hotel is located in a mostly industrial area on the outskirts of Milan, so there are almost no restaurants, bars, or anything to do, go or see within walking distance of the hotel. This is why we had to order for pizza to be delivered on our first night and even that place apparently wasn't close enough for us to go there by foot. This does mean that we weren't disturbed by any noise, despite being close to a major road into Milan and not that far from some train tracks. At one point we thought we might be able to take that train into town, but it seems that line (or at least that station) is no longer in service - but at least we didn't have any trains waking us up at night either.

All in all, while the hotel is nicely decorated, clean, comfortable and with excellent staff, if you want to stay here, we strongly suggest that you have a car at your service and if you don't want to drive into town, at least take it as far as the metro station and back to the hotel. Mind you, parking around the hotel is at a bare minimum (they have two spaces of their own) and we didn't see any other lots available. I should mention, however, that there is a very large discount shoe shop nearby as well as a huge shoe fashion market (the latter of which we never got to go into, for fear the prices would blow us away), so this might be a well located hotel if you need a good deal of Italian footware!

There is something very special about attending an opera at La Scalla that only a die hard opera lover can appreciate. It isn't that this is the most modern or fancy opera house in the world, but could be considered the most famous. La Scalla is, to put it simply, the HOME of opera.

I was lucky enough to see one amazing production of Leonard Bernstein's "Candide" and beforehand, spent most of the day in their museum and gift shop, which are no less fascinating than seeing the opera itself.

If you like opera, this is THE place to go see it. And even if you can't afford the really good seats, the ones on the sides aren't all that bad, even if they are somewhat uncomfortable.

So why the title? Well, we all know that it isn't over until the fat lady sings, and I hope it is never over for Alla Scalla!

La Scalla is located right in the heart of Milan and there's practically no way you can miss it - and even if you do, just stopping anyone on the street and asking will get you there, since everyone in Milan knows where this is. I should also mention that it is very near a covered shopping area that's very fancy but has a McDonald's - which seems to get filled with fancy dressed people before the showtime (I guess if you pay for tickets to see something at La Scalla you don't always have funds left over for a fancy dinner beforehand!).

Again, this is a "must see" for anyone who loves opera, but they also have classical concerts and ballet performances as well - depending on the time of year. If you can't find something you want to see (or just can afford the tickets), do try at least to visit the museum during the day (where they also take you inside the theater, if no rehersals are on at the time). The museum has costumes, instruments, photographs, flyers, paintings, posters and much more from throughout the theater's history. I'd say even those just interested in theater would find most of this interesting. And at the end of the visit, you can spend hours and hours in their giftshop that has one of the best collections of classical CD and DVDs as well as sheet music and no small amount of fun gifts.

While the entrance to the museum will give you a discount at the shop, this isn't a place to find bargains, and tickets for the theater are never cheap, but if you're willing to splurge, it is well worth the expense, as it is an experience you'll never forget.

I was a bit surprised that the house itself wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be from the outside - all the pictures I'd seen make it look very big, and yet it isn't tall at all. On the other hand, it has the Tardis-effect in that when you're inside it seems absolutely huge. Mind you, since the last renovations, getting upstairs to the upper levels of seats is a long and drawn out business and the elevators are small and slow, and there are no stairway options. But once you're seated the internal design is beautiful. I also found the individual folding translation screens to be a nice touch and while most of the opera we saw was in English, some of the dialogue was done in Italian and we did need these screens to keep up with what was going on during those bits. That's how operas are these days - they've been brought right in line with the 21st century.

La Scalla puts on not just operas, but also ballet and other types of concerts, but I'm afraid those looking for plays or rock music are out of luck - thankfully for me!

By the way, I should mention that their orchestra is marvelous and the cast we saw doing "Candide" were amazing. I only wish I could get that performance on CD or DVD! Would I go back again? In a heartbeat, and hang the cost. It was a whole day of just one enjoyment after another. Bellissima!

Our only reason for going to Milan was finally to get to witness an opera at the famous Teatro alla Scala. We were fortunate enough for my 50th birthday to coincide with an opera that I'd been aching to see for quite some time – "Candide" by Leonard Bernstein. But we recommend you make a whole day out of la Scala.

We started out our day by arriving at the Teatro alla Scala museum. This museum has several floors of opera memorabilia, including photos, paintings, instruments, original musical scores, letters, posters and even costumes and pieces of furniture and props used in their productions. There's so much to look at, you could spend hours – and we certainly did just that. When you finish wandering around that, if there's no rehearsal going on, you can get inside the theater to see what its like. There's a special section of the gallery cordoned off for just this, and you can get the full effect of the whole opera house from there.

Once you've finished your tour, you can go downstairs to the gift shop (and get a discount on any purchase with your ticket to the museum). This gift shop primarily sells CDs and DVDs of operas and classical music. The lower level has books, sheet music and opera scores as well as la Scala gifts (the usual things like coffee cups, umbrellas, notepaper, posters, and the like). Unfortunately, even with your discount from the museum, the prices aren't that cheap, but browsing is almost as fun.

By the time you've finished with the museum and gift shop, you'll probably be tired. We found a nice café for lunch nearby and then made our way back to our (distant) hotel for a well-deserved rest. Of course, we knew we'd not only need that rest, but also time to dress for the opera. La Scala has a strict dress code, and woe is anyone who shows up in casual dress there.

Of course, operas aren't short, and we figured (much like everyone else) that we'd be starving if we ate dinner after the performance, so we went to find somewhere for an early dinner. Now, just as you walk from the main piazza towards the theater, there's a partially covered shopping area. While the shops are all fancy designer clothes, they do have – of all things – a McDonald's! Well, it is food, and fast, so in we went. Imagine our surprise to find that we weren't the only customers there wearing suits and ties and in floor length gowns! Yes, apparently part of the whole la Scala experience is to eat at the McDonald's before the performance.

Afterwards, you're only steps away from the theater and ready to enjoy the rest of the evening – which is usually followed by making your way back to your hotel and going to sleep, basking in the glory of one of the most famous opera houses in the world.

So if you're an opera fan like we are, this is our tip for a visit to Milan.

The Bellavista hotel on Lake Como is a lovely hotel that's located right on the northern shores of the lake. While only really reachable by car, the view from the front rooms is amazing and when we were there in 2007, was newly opened. With large comfortable rooms, good breakfasts and an extremely friendly staff I can easily recommend this hotel.

The hotel only boasts about 45 rooms and half of these face the lake. Since this hotel was newly opened, it was no surprise at how clean and tidy everything was. When we were there, they didn't have a pool open yet but I believe they've got one open now.

The rooms themselves are just huge with an enormous king sized bed that's almost swallowed up inside them. The bathrooms are a touch on the small side but have lovely Italian tiles and ours only had a shower and no bathtub, but that didn't bother us. Still, the bathroom was large enough to move around in and everything in excellent working condition (and I'm sure they've put some shelves up in them since we were there - like we suggested to them).

The problems with the room were that there are no tea/coffee facilities here and the fridge didn't work in our room. It would also have been nice to have air conditioning but when we suggested this to them they didn't seem inclined towards that, as they say it isn't really needed in that part of the country. We then said that a ceiling fan would be a nice idea and they seemed open to that idea, and I hope they took us up on that.

The absolute best part of this hotel are the views from the front rooms - they look out over the lake and you can see mountains and the city across the way and everything is just amazing - both day and night. For nothing else, this place is ideal for lovers (or even old married couples like us who still have some romance left).

Since this hotel was fairly new, of course it was in very good condition and especially the brand new elevator which seemed a touch out of place being so modern while the rest of the hotel seemed slighly contrified. The people working the desk were apparently a family and everyone we talked to were very friendly and helpful. They especially appreciated our suggestions and ideas and seemed to really want this to work for them.

We particularly liked the breakfast room which was spacious, clean, bright and sunny and looked out over the lake. The food was very nice and they had all the basics so we certainly didn't go hungry. Served buffet style, they had mostly cold things and some more hot things would have been nice, but not totally necessary. Considering the price we paid was so reasonable, I can do without a cooked breakfast.

The problem with this hotel is that it is a bit off the beaten track. While their webpage says you can get a bus to them, I never saw one along the tiny road that leads to them, and perhaps they were speaking more of the bus that stops about 800 meters from their road. If you don't have a car, you aren't going to find getting here easy, and even if you have one, you might get lost trying to find it. See, you have to get to this traffic circle where one exit is into a tunnel and you have to veer just to the right of that tunnel to get to their road. We missed it a couple of times but once you find it, there's basically no way to get lost again.

Since this is outside of town quite a bit, and on a tiny road that goes along the lake, there's not a whole lot going on right there. They do have a couple of restaurants along that road and on the other roads leading away from that traffic circle there are more eating places (including an ice cream shop), so you can find places to eat, but we were unable to find any grocery stores and needed to get directions to find one (we like to make picnic lunches for ourselves).

As for quiet, one would think this would be a very quiet location, but here's the problem. On the first night we were there, across the lake there was some wedding or something going on and the music was terribly loud and carried into our room until the wee hours. We complained about this and they said they are trying to get this to stop but haven't had much success yet. Thankfully the next night nothing was on. Still, there's a small boat dock outside and sometimes your sleep will be disturbed by boats creaking against the docks. A bit of a shame, this, since we needed to keep our window open to get some air into the room and couldn't close ourselves up to deaden the noise. A good set of earplugs would be an important accessory to take with you to this hotel.

But you know what - with that view and the lovely size and conditions of the room and hotel in general, and the good price, I think we got very good value for the money and we'd go back there in an instant.