Milan

Okay, catching up on all my posts up to Rome:

Day 1

Got in, got a set of metro tickets (with some unasked for help at the metro station) and checked into our (rather swanky) hotel. Not sure why that place was only 35 euro a piece per night, but I'm not complaining. It was a rather long train ride, so we got in right before dinner time. We planned a bit, thumbing through travel guides and whatnot, then headed to Dinner at a little place down the street, where the Italians began their ongoing campaign to feed me to death. That night, I bought an hour of internet, and caught up on posts and such, then bed.

Day 2

The next morning, we realized two things, in the following order:

1. Hey! Da Vinci's "Last Supper" is here!
2. Hey, we're NOT getting to see Da Vinci's "Last Supper!"

Apparently, you have to book 2-3 weeks in advance, and the booking fee is 15 euro. To see one painting. Then, apparently, it's often sold completely out, WEEKS in advance, because scalpers buy all the tickets, then sell them for upwards of FIFTY EURO outside the church where the painting is.

Needless to say, we didn't go.

Instead, we went to the Duomo of Milan (apparently, the second biggest cathedral in the world), where we were kinda bowled over by the sheer size of it. St. Peter's has it beat on both size and quality, but the cathedral in Milan just FEELS massive. After that, we went to the Galleria, the first "shopping mall" in the world. It's basically two intersecting covered walkway full of (really really pricey) shops. I did find it HILARIOUS however that the four stores on the intersection are Gucci, Prada, a ritzy antiques store, and...McDonalds. 'murica. After that, we headed over to the Parco Sempione to wander a bit. They were setting up for a local music festival, so it was fun to just wander and listen for a bit. There was a roving brass band that was HYSTERICAL. They were playing in a clearing when the bandleader spotted a couple making out in the grass. They snuck over and surrounded them (everyone following them of course), then started playing while standing all around the (now very embarrassed) couple.

After that, dinner (we were boring and went to the same place), avoiding a huge thunderstorm by a few minutes, then bed.

Day 3

The next day, we realized that we missed one of the main draws of the Duomo: going on the roof. So, we got our lift tickets, went up, and were massively underwhelmed by how small the section we could walk on was. Then we realized that that little square was about 1/10 of where we could go, so we wandered about, much more satisfied.

Afterwards, we went into a ten-story shopping mall full of NOTHING but Armani, Gucci, Prada, Versacce, Burberry, etc. etc. etc. ... and one tiny electronics store. I'm not complaining, that's what got me my baby back! Anyway, after that, we wandered through an electronics/games/movie/musical supply store in the Galleria and headed home.