Quick Check-in from Verbania

Today I arrived in Verbania, on the shores of Lago Maggiore. After flying into Milano Malpensa, I traveled by train, boat and car to get here. Despite what that may sound like, it wasn't too bad. The more you travel somewhere, the easier it seems to get around without any stress. I think I have the Italian train system down by now and unbelievably, all the trains ran on time today. Even the apartment manager who picked me up from the ferry was on time. Unreal!

Without going too far into the triviality of my day, I basically just settled in, hit up the grocery store for some supplies, forgot to get half of them of course, then caught up on a little sleep before dinner. Dinner was alright... actually it wasn't bad at all, I just have very high standards for food in Italy. But I can make Trofie with Pesto better than I ate tonight. Anyway, I have to do a little more research and find some good places to eat here. It's certainly touristy, lots of Germans and Swiss from what I can tell, but it's nice and there should be some good restaurants tucked away on some of these little winding back streets.

Only photo I got today. More to come.

The biggest hurdle I have to overcome here is not having wifi in the apartment. It's not like I want to spend my vacation checking emails or Facebook-ing, but being able to spend time at the end of the day writing, researching, and planning is much easier from the comfort of your own place. That said, I am currently sitting at a little gelateria on the lake typing this. The cost of a gelato is not a bad price to pay for some wifi so I won't complain too much about how Italy still thinks that smoking in an outdoor cafe with kids around is somehow acceptable. I guess a little smoke won't kill me, but it's so strange how out of place that seems compared to what we've grown accustomed to recently in the US.
Besides that, my plans for tomorrow are to get my bike together, finish up with some grocery errands, and hopefully get on the Italian sleep schedule asap. I don't know if I'll actually get a ride in tomorrow, and if I do it'll be short, but hopefully with a little more energy I can spend some time walking around this beautiful town.
As I sit here now, I can see the lights of Laveno across the lake. That's another town I want to explore, as well as the Borromean Islands. Those, however, are plans for another day. For now, I think the sofa-bed (which is actually pretty comfortable) is calling! Until my next gelato-wifi stop, arrivederci!