"Now this is far more civilised." said Julie as we set off at 8am.

This was actually our fourth trip in a row where we've flown from either Manchester or Liverpool with a departure time late enough in the day that we didn't need to stay overnight. It felt great to leave home at a sensible time. It was certainly the way forward.

After parking up at the long stay car park and catching the shuttle bus to Manchester's Terminal 1 we breezed through check-in and the security gates, and were sipping a Peroni and a prosecco to get us into the "Bellagio" mood.  

Our flight to Milan was two and a half hours away which gave us plenty of time to relax. With the champagne and tolberone already in the bag Julie headed to the Jo Malone looking to find a perfume and perhaps starting a new pre-flight tradition.

We then had lunch. There wasn't an Italian eatery to continune the Dolce Vita theme so I had to make do with a Huevos Rancheros and Julie had Halloumi skewers at the Giraffe restaurant. It served its purpose and filled us up.

The gate number came up and we made our way towards it. Julie's fear of flying was filling her every thought with doom but she was managing to control her reactions. She boarded calmly battling her instinct to flee.

We took off, sat in our favourite seats, row 18, not only because my birthday is on the 18th (August) but also we got married on the 18th (October).

This holiday was to celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary, which is traditionally a Pearl Anniversary. When we were deciding where to go we decided we couldn't afford "diving for pearls" in Bahrain and chose to visit the "Pearl of Lake Como" instead.

 So to celebrate (and to top up the Dutch courage), we shared a half-bottle of Champagne.

Somewhere over  the Alps we experience some turbulence. The plane shook as a storm rumbled around us. Julie shut her eyes, retreating into her shell in an attempt to block everything out. The pilot took us down from 37,000 feet to 32,000 to avoid the worst of it and it actually helped. 

Half an hour later we descended into a grey and cold Milan airport.

We landed in Terminal 2 but the "DaVinci express" into the city centre left from Terminal 1. So we had the inconvenience of having to catch a shuttle bus.

I had pre-booked the 6:15pm train but we were an hour early. The lady at the ticket office said it would be fine to use the ealier train. We were unsure whether to trust her. We've been fined on a train in Italy before! But we decided to go for it. We rushed downstairs to platform 2 and got onto the first carriage, as suggested by the ticket office for some reason?

It was going all very smoothly .... too smoothly!

Thankfully no one checked our tickets but when we reached the station of Garibaldi there was an anouncement that the train would go no further. A lot of confused people all got off the train at once. I eavesdropped on a conversation between an Italian family. I quickly realised my knowledge of the Italian language was still extremely basic, however, I did guess they were going to take the metro from Garibaldi to Milano Centrale.

 As soon as we got to Centrale, the main train station, we checked the departures board and our 7:20pm train to Varenna wasn't even up yet. It was still showing trains from an hour ago. It seemed as if the whole rail network was in chaos.

With the benefit of catching the train an hour earlier we were quite relaxed in the knowledge we at least had time on our side.

We decided to find a cafe to grab something quick to eat. Julie had a slice of pizza and I had a "focaccia vegetariano".  With a beer and a wine it felt like good value at €14.50, despite the terrible pound to euro exchange rate.

Since the UK voted to leave the EU the pound has weakened almost to the point of paritywith the euro. Before the turkeys voted for christmas the rate was €1.32 to the pound. It's now about €1.06. At the airport it was actually sold at €1 to £1!

I'm still so angry at everyone who voted for Brexit. I don't think I'll ever forgive them.

Anyway, we enjoyed our food and especially the drink. The beer was from a brewery I had not heard of before, called Menabrea. Originally from Biella, an hour West of Milan. It was really nice and smooth. 

The departures board was still showing delayed trains and ours still wasn't listed. With half an hour to go we went to the information desk. Due to all the problems there was a huge queue. Fortunately all of them wanted the Trenitalia desk, where as we were wanting the Trenord desk.

The guy said the trains should be running, but it may be delayed.

Then at 7:10pm the train to Tirano (which stopped in Varenna) appeared on the departures board, platform 2. The main entrance to the platforms was near 14. We made a dash for it, through the crowded station, reaching the end and platform 4. Platforms 1-3 were a further distance away.

It was all very congested. We walked as fast as we could possibly do without breaking into a run.

We reached platform 2, validated our tickets, got on the train, hoping it was the right one. We found some seats, sat down and seconds later the doors closed and we set off.

When the first stop was announced as Monza, we both sighed with enormous relief. We were on the right train, albeit a slow train. We were already 10 minutes late arriving in Monza, then 20 minutes late pulling into Lecco. By the time we reached Varenna we were 30 minutes later than scheduled but it did not matter. We had arrived.

The ferry from Varenna over to Bellagio didn't sail in the dark so we had to stay overnight. We already knew this and had booked accomodation at Hotel Beretta, a short walk from the train station.

It didn't feel like a hotel when we walked in. It was a bar with half a dozen old men watching tv.

"Hotel Beretta?" I asked the young girl behind the bar.

"Si" she replied and moved from behind the bar to behind the makeshift hotel reception desk in the corner. She introduced herself as Laura and was extremely friendly.

She handed over our room key with an enormous key fob. We weren't going to lose that! Then she gave us a tourist information map and recommended Al Prato or the Victoria Grill if we wanted somewhere to eat.

With check-in formalities done we headed to our room to drop off our luggage. Our suitcase filled the elevator, so Julie took the stairs.  The lift took forever as if there was someone hand cranking it up. When the doors opened a concerned Julie was waiting for me. "What took you so long?" she asked.

The bedroom was very basic and the bed spread was a garish pink but it sheets were clean. That's all we needed for the night.

We headed out to unwind. It was raining quite heavily now, and cold, like an October evening in North Wales!  A torrent of rainwater flowed down the hill as we made our way to the pretty little square of Piazza San Giorgio. It was a good ten minute walk from the hotel.

On it was the austere Church of Santa Marta, also the Hotel Royal Victoria. When the well-to-do English Victorians were doing their Grand Tour, Varenna was a popular stop on the way down to Florence and beyond.

The recommended Victoria Grill was part of this hotel.

We decided to pop inside their atrium, a free standing glass box set out in the square, and sat down. At first we only wanted a drink but it had the feel of a fancy restaurant so we thought we best order something to eat at least.

There was a dish of battered vegetables which sounded acceptable as a token nibble. It came with an interesting orange mayo. We also shared a tomato and mozzarella salad better known as a caprese. 

The beer once again was a Menabrea, and was once more a very fine beer. I really enjoyed its smoothness.

Satisfied and tired we left the hotel with the royal name back to that with the name of a lethal weapon.

  Beretta will always be associated with firearms.  The Beretta company, the oldest existing firearm manufacturer in the world, began during the middle ages in the Val Trompia, just North of Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy. The Beretta M9 was the standard issue sidearm for he US military for 30 years.

The rain had stopped which was a bonus. Back at the hotel, we took the stairs up to our room. The moment our heads hit the pillow we fell fast asleep.