Milan

I realized a few months ago that my time in Amsterdam is growing short, and that I still had a lot of cities on my list of places to go. I started searching immediately for cheap tickets and booked trips to a few of the places that were left - Milan, Oslo, and Venice so far. This past weekend was Milan. What I had hoped to turn out to be a pretty cheap trip really started adding up... the day before I was supposed to fly out, I got an e-mail from the hotel I had booked telling me that they were closed! The problem was that I had already pre-paid the hotel two months ago when I booked it. :( I booked another hotel, but not sure if I'm going to have to eat the money or not... I had already paid my credit card bill for that month, so I'm not sure how the credit card company will handle it. Oh well!

I got in late on Friday night, and, I'm proud to say, did not get lost finding the hotel on the journey to my hotel... actually, I didn't get lost the WHOLE weekend! Wahoo!! Since it was late, I just wanted to get a good night's rest, so I went to bed in my tiny little room. I've travelled enough to know that I need to bring a few necessities, earplugs being one of them. Thank goodness I brought them this time - my room was right on the street, and SOOOO noisy. They were a lifesaver! :)

I woke up pretty early to the sound of hammering... lovely! Decided to get on with the day, so I laced up my running shoes and saw the city my favorite way - via a long run! I meant to only run for about an hour, but ended up being out for two... I always take my camera with me, so it wasn't exactly a hard core run because I kept stopping to check stuff out and take pictures. It was a super great way to start the day! :)

Here are some of the sights on my run:


Sforza Castle - one of the few buildings that isn't new - the city was largely bombed during WWII, so not a lot is left... loved the reflection on this one...



Self-photo of yours truly with the moat in the background

After all this exertion, I went back to the hotel and figured out the day... Milan isn't famous for being a great cultural city, but it IS known for its shopping and opera. I wanted to get tickets to the opera, so I went to the ticket center to buy some. Story of Italy, I tell you, something is ALWAYS broken or closed. I got to the ticket center at 11:45, and they opened at 12... well, they WOULD have opened if their computers were working... I waited around until 12:30, and they finally got the computers to work. I was so happy to finally get to my turn... until I found out that the tickets were 187 euros each! No thank you... I was pretty bummed that I had wasted so much time for nothing, but, oh well. I started my shopping extravaganza next... which began with - the Galleria.

This is the shopping mall right off of the main town square... the original Prada store is in this building. It's gorgeous inside!

KP with her purchases... I got a sore elbow from having such heavy bags! :)

After dropping off all of my purchases at the hotel, I decided to venture out to see the National Monument Cemetery... I love sculpture, and this cemetery was supposed to have some nice ones. I have to say, Italians do death dramatically... all kinds of super sad sculptures and huge monuments in memory of loved ones. It was nice to be in such a quiet place in a busy city - I enjoyed it, if one can say such a thing about a cemetery!

Sad Sculpture

This one was called "Last Kiss"... heart wrenching...

I loved the light on this one... it was a split second in time, and when I came back, the shadow was completely different.

After the cemetery, I walked around some more high-end shopping (seriously - 5000 euro Versace dresses?!?), bought nothing, and then had a lovely dinner at a place called Paper Moon. It was absolutely amazing. A lot of people tell me that they wouldn't want to travel alone because of having to eat alone... to be honest, it doesn't bother me at all... I really enjoy savoring every single bite of these amazing meals. No pictures this time, folks... the setting was intimate, and you already get enough strange stares when you are by yourself, let alone taking pictures of your food. But, I assure you, it was amazing! :)

Sunday began very early for me, as I had tickets to see da Vinci's "The Last Supper" at 8:15am. I got the tickets 2 months in advance, and this was the ONLY time that I could get in. Since the da Vinci Code came out, it's been super popular. Basically, 25 people get in at a time, and you get 15 minutes to view the painting. It was amazing for me... my parents have had the painting in our dining room for my whole life, so, to see it in person, I was blown away. First of all, it's WAY bigger than I thought. Second, it's painted on a wall, al fresco, not on a canvas. Third, it's in a monastery, and the monks had a need for a door at some point, so they CUT OUT the bottom of the painting to make room for the door! It was amazing! I am so glad I got to see it. :)

After that, I went back to Sforza Castle, and got to see Michaelangelo's last sculpture of "La Pieta". It's not commonly viewed, so I had the unique experience of being all alone with the security guard in the room with the statue. It was beautiful. Evidently, M. didn't like the original position of Christ, so he moved him back... he didn't have time to remove the arm that he had already carved, so it is kind of dangling there in the front. Awe-inspiring!

Michaelangelo's "La Pieta"

Mother and son

After this, I went to the famous Duomo to check it out... it is the 4th biggest church in Europe, and quite impressive in its marble Gothic features. It supposedly houses one of the nails from the cross... wonder how many churches claim that?? :)

Exterior of the Duomo

Interior - mass was being said...

When I got outside, they were having a Ferrari festival! :)

After the Duomo, I really was getting bummed that I hadn't seen the opera house, so I paid the admission to the museum just so I could see the inside of the opera house... surprisingly, it looked almost identical to the opera house in Vienna that I visited last year. I was happy to get to see it, even though I didn't actually get to see an opera.

Inside of la Scala Opera House

My camera died after this (poor planning on my part), but I finished up the day with a visit to a museum about the history of Italy (learned about Napolean's rule there - that guy was everywhere!), and a climb to the top of the Duomo, which was amazing.

I was feeling super sick after this, so I went to the airport on the early side to relax. I think it was a combination of too much good food, shopping, and sunshine. Nothing to compain about, really! :)

Looking forward to a visit from my sister next weekend! We're headed back to Italy (in case you were wondering, I have established that Italy is pretty much my favorite country in the world aside from the good ol' US of A!) :)