Vacanze Italiano 2006 - part 3

To our chagrin, it started raining from dawn on day 4 of our trip. Luckily, we are each prepared with umbrellas. Off we went at 8am to the Como train station – we are crossing the Swiss border today to Mendrisio via Chiasso for some retail therapy at FoxTown factory outlet. Breakfast was slices of pizza we bought at a supermarket near our hotel, eaten at the train station while waiting for our ride to Chiasso.

Passports are checked at Chiasso but not stamped. People like me with many empty passport pages would’ve preferred a stamp, since it’ll feel like a waste when the passport expires next year. We missed the train departing to Mendrisio within 10 minutes from our arrival at Chiasso, no thanks to misinformation on the train’s platform from the English speaking ticket counter lady. It left a bad taste on our mouths as this was the 2nd incident in 3 days where we missed trains due to errors involving ticketing personnel. Thankfully, everything else went smoothly the rest of the day.

FoxTown looks just like your average shopping mall. Size-wise, think it’s comparable with Subang Parade in home country. What is different in FoxTown is that you get premium brands like Gucci, D&G, LaCoste, Armani at discounted prices. The few hours of retail therapy brought cheerful smiles to the faces of my mates (what radiant sight). Me? Got myself some stuff I thought were real bargains. Here, the only limiting factor is the credit limit of your plastic or the amount of CHF or EUR that 1 is carrying. :D

Back in Como, we took a furnicolare ride up to Brunate to enjoy a bird eye’s view of Como, not to mention the various private summer residences up there (still no sight of Clooney). The ride up was uneventful. However, during the ride down from Brunate, the furnicolare suddenly sped beyond control & we were left clinging for dear life before I was told to quit clowning around. Hehe, actually…. Nothing happened.

After dinner at Halal Turkish Restaurant again (can’t get enough of the Turkish Pizza), we spent the rest of the evening unpacking our FoxTown bounty before retiring to bed.

To be concluded…

Till later, live long & prosper.