4. An elusive museum and a train ride

15 July 2026

At breakfast, someone announced that a thunderstorm had been forecast for last this afternoon. Although the sun is shining, the air is close, cloying even, and there is a haze over the mountains and the lakes. It is already 32C when we leave the hotel at about 10:00 AM. We need to leave early-ish because we are going to visit a museum.

I think the heat has fried my brain because despite me looking for a sign of some sort, we just kept walking along the promenade: too far. Of all days to miss a turn, it had to be today! We wander back slowly and on the shady side of the road, then look at the steep steps that lead to a church. After consulting with a local, we realise the museum is behind the church. Red-faced, not from embarrassment, but from exertion we climb the shallow pink granite and cobblestone steps, where there is a little square tucked away behind the church. The Museo GranUM - Museo del Granito is located in the old municipal hall. Without stopping (because if I did, I would probably melt on the spot), we climbed the two flights of steps to the first floor where the museum is located.

Don't be fooled by the fact that we are in the municipal hall or in a museum. I know that you probably imagine some huge grand building like I did. The museum is housed in one room the size of an average Australian lounge room. There was much joy in my heart when I read the notice on the door telling visitors to keep the door shut because the room was temperature controlled. I stepped in just after Tom. I looked around me and spied a portable air conditioner in the corner of the room just near the door. Set at 23C, it was making no attempt to cool the room at all. If anything, I think it is heating the room! I walk over to surreptitiously adjust it to perhaps 16C just to cool the room to an acceptable level. There is a big sign above the device advising someone like me that there was a camera located nearby. I decided that to touch the machine would mean certain arrest, so I did not adjust it at all. We don't often see these ineffective air-conditioners in Australia. This unit does blow cold air, but in an upward direction rather than an outward direction, then because cold air falls, it actually does nothing. Did I tell you my brain was fried? I would hate to think what the CCTV staff would find if they had to replay the vision. First, I stood with my back to it, pulling my T-shirt from my sweaty back and letting the cold air cool that side before turning like a chook on a rotisserie. After a few minutes, and once my face and upper body started to feel cool, I moved away to view the items on display and to read about the history of the pink granite in this area. The further I moved from the air-conditioner, the hotter I became until I did what anyone remotely interested in geology would do.

No, I didn't leave... Tom did.

I, at least waited in this furnace long enough to take photos of the English explanations before removing myself.

Once outside, I could not find hide nor hair of Tom so I wandered into the Church of Saints Gervase and Protaso. Built in the 12th century as a dedication to two Roman martyrs, there is probably not a lot of the original architecture left as it has been updated almost every century since its construction. It is small and the painted vaulted ceiling is beautiful. I slip into the Baptistry briefly before tracing the painted Stations of the Cross under a colonnaded walkway.

I find Tom sitting on a stone wall cooling off in the shade. We discuss having a cool drink before our next activity for the day. And so we walk back to the main street, not via the sunny steps but by the walkway along a cool stone wall.

Finding a table near a fan (nothing is air conditioned here) and selecting some drinks, Tom searches his pocket for his phone, which also houses his money. It's not there. He checks the backpack, I call his number..... nothing.

Realisation set in. The phone had been left on the little stone wall up on top of the hill near the museum and church.

I told Tom I would wait for him....

He returned ten minutes later, phone in hand and watch on wrist. He forgot he had also taken his watch off and left both on the wall. Fortunately, the Italians are either honest or not dumb enough to be out in all this heat. Whatever the case may be, all's well that ends well.

I didn't think Tom would be interested in the 'choo choo' but he surprised me as we toddled back, now refreshed, to the main square to hitch a ride on a tourist train-like vehicle. The last time we had done something like this was in 2018 in Kilkee, so it's time we relived the experience in another place.

At €6, it was a steal! We take off! And no, we are not the only adult couple taking childish pleasure in this summer activity. Along the promenade briefly before our driver takes us up into the steep one-way hills we pass mansions that have been abandoned and ones that are inhabited with magnificent gardens. Despite the heat, mowers and whipper-snippers are trimming back summer growth. We glimpse the lake and the Borromean Islands from this height before turning and taking us past the Path of Picasass, which is an outdoor extension to the museum. I am content to let the driver take us all over town, but I would like to have had the opportunity to disembark when we came out onto the main road, which we would need to pass a little later when we return to the hotel.

It's time for a coffee, and no sooner are we sitting down with our cappuccinos, the skies open. Rain teems down whilst lightning and thunder provide a light and sound show.

We eventually make it back to the hotel, without getting too wet, and sink into our room for a rest after such an eventful day. Tom falls asleep whilst I download photos, and bring my notes up to date.

Then the lights go out for an hour.

It cools slightly.

It's time to meet the others on our tour for a drink before doing the big repack for the next leg of our Italian adventure.