A Full Suit Of Parma

Day: 228

Towns / Cities Visited: 145

Countries Visited: 27

Steps Taken Today: 10,244

Steps Taken Around the World: 3,745,278

The day had finally come for us to begin the next stage of Operation Italy, and thus, rolling out of bed and gathering our belongings, we bid farewell to our temporary home. As seemed to be custom for us in Milan, leaving proved to be just as problematic as arriving was. Despite following our host’s instructions to hand our keys to the receptionist of the nearby building, she wasn’t having a bar of it and we had to wait for our host to frantically come and pick up the keys himself. Not to be downtrodden, we hurried of to the nearby Metro station to shuttle us to the Central train station. Now, don’t panic, we were not going to be having another episode of ‘Italian Rail Services Battle Royale’, we were simply here to reach the nearby Hertz Car Rental store. You see, part two of our adventure involved a good old road trip.

Regardless of our somewhat shambolic, emotional rollercoaster of a visit to Milan, the friendly man in charge of organising our rental exemplified everything a good customer service worker should be: friendly, welcoming, upselling without being pushy, and full of well wishes for our journey ahead. We may have entered the store a little frazzled by the morning, and tired of waiting by the time we were called up from our place amounts the hordes of others seeking a vehicle, but by the time we left he had put…