Back to the city

My times in the mountains of Italy is officially over. As I write this I am sitting high above the ice of the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena in Milan, just a few minutes from my hotel. It was a bit of a chore to get here today, but it went much smoother than the trip to the mountains less than two weeks ago,

The trip back was easier because I had an idea of what it entailed. I knew which bus I needed to get on, when I needed to get on it, where the games connection desk was in the Venice train station so I could leave my luggage while I got something to eat before the train came, where the train let off in Milano Centrale Station and how to get to the train to my hotel. All those things are things I did not know when I went the other way, so today went much smoother on my end.

I caught the local bus from Santa Maddalena at 7:45 a.m. and then caught the bus to Venice in the Monguelfo, the village at the bottom of the valley where my hotel was, at about 8:40 a.m. We made it to the Venice train station just after noon and after I grabbed a quick bite to eat, it was on to the train from Venice to Milan, arriving in Milano Centrale Station at 3:15 p.m. From there, I walked down the street a bit and caught the train that took me right to the station near my hotel. 

Once I checked in, I walked over to the supermarket just down the road and bought some dinner and a few bottles of Zero Sugar Pepsi. For the record, I prefer Diet Pepsi over Zero Sugar Pepsi, but it's not available here and Zero Sugar Pepsi is superior to the Zero Sugar Coke that is all over the Olympic venues (they are a sponsor, it makes sense). I then hopped the bus for a short ride to the hockey arena to catch a little of the bronze medal game in the men's tournament.

I also got an e-mail saying I have a ticket to the men's hockey gold medal game tomorrow afternoon in the same arena. It will be a quick turn around to make it from the hockey arena to Verona for the closing ceremony. I'll check in with the transportation people tomorrow to see if it's possible and go from there.

The Olympic journey is coming to a close soon, but tomorrow's another day... and it's a big one.


The Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena is located fairly close to my hotel in Milan.

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