The first day, the first entry. Wahoo! Thanks to Lincy for switching seats on the train with me so that I can write much neater. So let's go back to the beginning of this trip.. Newark "Liberty" Airport. I left work early, and got through security in about five minutes. So I just had another 2hr15 to wait before my flight boarded. There was this super bitch woman on our flight who wanted 2 seats so that she could sleep, but the whole flight was full so they moved all these people around for her, and she finally ended up seating in front of us. I slept through most of the flight, which was pretty smooth.
We landed in Milan and stopped to get some money from the atm. Then we hopped onto the Malpensa Express train into the city. The train was really funky lime green and blue double decker. It was pretty empty and somehow I managed to lose my ticket, but I found it after 5 minutes of frantic searching. The train came into the Milan Cordona station (note: there are 2 major train stations in Milan) Train summary: €, 45 minutes. We stored our luggage at the train station for a few euros and the headed for the Duomo.
Well sort of, we were totally disoriented and had no idea where to go. We kept on running into the Sforza Castle. Finally we asked someone "Dov'e la duomo?" and got a rapid spat of Italian that we couldn't understand. Salvation came in the form of a McDonald's. It had a big billboard outside with all the McDonald's locations on it - in relation to tourist attractions. Go Mickey D's!
The Duomo was huge - the biggest church I've ever been in was St Patricks in NYC and it could fit in a little corner of this duomo. It's located in a giant piazza surrounded by gorgeous buildings. Of course it is also under renovation so the entire front is covered by scaffolding. We went in and were totally awed by the size. It is the 4th largest cathedral in the world. There are these huge ornate pillars topped by carvings of saints lining the church.
I was struck by the inability of people to stay within the boundaries prescribed by the church. In one area was a bunch of confessionals with signs in Italian and English asking people to stay out if they were not confessing. So of course you see tons of people traipsing through there. And then behind the altar was a section that was roped off, so of course this couple opens the ropes and walks right through. duh. A security person made them go back. But hello! Obviously the ropes are there for something. Anyway it was a really lovely church - a good way to kick off our trip - the tour di duomo.
So the best part of the duomo was the roof. The roof you say? Yup. We paid € 5 to take and elevator up to the roof. From there you can walk all around for an amazing view in the city. Keep in mind that no building were allowed to be high than the church - so it's the equivalent of standing on the Empire State Building - but much lower :) From the top you could see the entire city, the piazza, and particularly the magnificent stone work of the church. It was somewhat scary up there - you are walking on slanted stone roofs. However the stonework all along the edges works as a railing so you really can't fall off. I certainly wouldn't want to be up there when it was wet.
After climbing down we walked over to the neighboring galleria, which was also lovely. It had these amazing domed glass roofs. I supposed this is what today's malls come from since it was basically a bunch of buildings with a giant roof over the walkway. There were shops and restaurants. We checked out the Prada store.
One of my favorite parts were the floors of both the church and galleria. The duomo had inlaid floors with salmon, white, and black stone, while the galleria was filled with mosaics of many colors. Under the main dome was a mosaic bull with an indentation where it's balls would be. We stood around wondering what it was for a while - when a couple of Italian businessmen came up and sort of explained (in Italian of course) that you spin on your heel in it for good luck. So of course all of us did.
Our next stop was to see if we could see the last supper. You are supposed to make reservations ahead of time but we had no idea what time we could go. The only let a limited number of people in because it's all climate controlled because the fresco is disintegrating. Anyway we stopped at a cafe for lunch because we were starved and cold. We stopped at little cafe in a good people watching spot called Cafe Dante. All three of us got panini - the waitress tried to explain what it was in Italian to Lincy. I got brie and prosciutto - which in Italy is just ham. Merena got her first (of many) lessons in learning to order Cafe Americano instead of just cafe. Our bill was € 19.20. Not too bad - plus we got to people watch.
Some of our observations were:
- very cute kids - extremely fashionably dressed (this is Milan though)
- all the "native" women wore either leather coats or coats with fur trim
- you can spot most American tourists a km away!
We headed down the Megalvo to the Last Supper which is in a church. It was a long, long walk and we pulled out our map and looked touristy a few times to make sure we were going in the right direction. We did stop at Scarpe Italia (literally italian shoes) they had lots of nice shoes for € 50. Lincy's boot hunt began - with no success. So we finally got to the church - we were cold and tired - and no luck. They were totally sold out. So we sat inside and looked at some of the info and rested.
Next stop - La Scala for opera tickets. We checked out a map and headed across town. We get there and the entire building is under construction. Yikes! Well no, I knew it was under renovation - but the box office is supposed to be open there- but nope. The actual performances are being held at the Archimbaldi - so we followed the signs for that. And we walked and walked. Finally we just gave up and took a cab back to the Cardona train station for our bags.
It was a quick trip from Cardona to Centrale Train station, which is where our hotel is located. We found our hotel, Hotel Alexander right away. Of course then we ran into problems. Merena had booked a double assuming it would sleep 3 people. However the desk clerk said it couldn't - so basically we stood there looking at him for 5 minutes before anything happened. Finally he told us he could put us in a double with a rollaway bed for €150. Which is more than what we booked!! But we took it anyway.
Our room was hideous. It was a tiny room with a king sized bed and and tiny single bed. There were black marks along one of the walls, and the wall unit was all broken. There was a little minibar and a balcony. The bathroom was ok, it had a bidet type thing in it too. So we took an hour power nap - but since this is lincy - it was an hour and half.
After freshening up we decided to go out again. Merena suggested we go see the Duomo all lit up and then look for dinner. Silly Europeans don't eat until 8pm! We cheated and just used the same metro ticket to ride the subway. You don't swipe the tickets here like metrocards - you just stamp them and the gate opens. Lincy noted on this "No wonder our economy is better."
The piazza was very pretty at night. We walked through the piazza looking for someplace to eat but nothing looked worthwhile. However we did discover that La Scala was about 2 minutes from the Duomo - earlier we had walked about 20 minutes from there to get to it.
So we wandered around looking for a resturant and instead found shopping! There were several Sisley stores - they had cool stuff - so I gotta remember to look for them in the US. We went into a whole bunch of stores checking out clothes. Some guy followed Lincy into a store - which is why I started the Lincy hit count - how many guys she had hit on her that day. She doesn't even realize it sometimes. We also saw a bunch of pasticerrias that looked good, but no real food. Finally we spotted La Bicheletti (the bicycle). We went in at 7:30pm and they didn't server dinner until 8pm - so we just sat and waited.
The food was really good. I had fresh mozzarella for my antipasto, gnocchi as my pasta, and swordfish as my entree. We ordered a bottle of cabernet sauvignon - which I ended up drinking most of since Lincy discovered she didn't like wine. We got brave and asked the waiter where he was from (he didn't look like a native Italian) Lincy speaks Italian really well. I can say some stuff - but not much at all. We found out he was from Bangladesh. After dinner we had to search for a subway stop - and ended up going all the way back to the duomo stop.
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