Milano!

Today we left bright and early so we would get to Milan in time to enjoy our day there. We got up on time, but almost ran into a problem when the hostel's credit card machine wouldn't work and the dude there didn't speak English. I finally got him to write down my information and we left. Hopefully, they will figure it out later.

After a nice train ride on Eurostar again, we arrived in Milan. Eurostar trains are so much nicer than the regional trains. It's a bit more expensive, but the A/C alone (even in 2nd class) is worth the extra money. They also have plenty of room for luggage, seat trays, headphone jacks, electric window shades, and more comfortable seats.



Milan is a much bigger city than either Venice or Florence. It's the financial center of Italy and has a subway and other modern city conveniences. The first thing we noticed was that the city and people were significantly cleaner than the other places we had been. In general, Italy is not a clean place. The pollution from the cars and the omnipresent graffiti at times freally detract from the otherwise beautiful architecture. The hotel we stayed in was SUPER nice. It had just been renovated and really was outstanding for the price. I wish we had planned to spend more than just one night there.



Our first stop was to see Da Vinci's last supper (you know, the one in Da Vinci Code) but unfortunately you have to book tickets to see it two weeks in advance. So, that was a bit of a bummer. After that though, we headed out to see the Duomo, the 4th largest cathedral in the world. I have to tell you, it is VERY impressive. It took over 500 years to build. The level of detail is absolutely stunning.



After walking up a few hundred steps to the top, we were rewarded with breathtaking views of the city. Once we had our fill of that, we climbed back down (too cheap to buy elevator tickets!) and headed to the main shopping drag. Leslie badly wanted to go to a store called La Perla to get rid of some euros that were burning a hole clear through her pocket. Fortunately, it's easy to part with your cash in Milan.

The next day we did more walking around and visited the huge castle fortress and park that the city is built around.

 

Finally, we had an AWESOME cappuccino at a very nice place called Sant Umbroews. The presentation was really incredible and the staff were uncharacteristically nice. Sadly, that was the end of our time in Milan, so we picked up our bags and hopped back on the Eurostar and headed back to Venice. Of course we bought the wrong ticket, so we ended up in Venice Mestre instead of Venice San Lucia! This meant we had to get another ticket, which you can't get from the machine and pay two more euros to get to where we needed to go. Not a bad trip though. Milan is a neat place.