Monday Madness in Milan

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I am currently in an internet cafe in Milan and I am struggling with the keyboard which is a little different to the EnglishAmericanAustralian version. I had forgotten how frustrating it is to use internet cafes. There is very little wireless access here in Milan ( at least not in the area I am in ).

I left Paris on Monday and was on a flight to Milan. The trip, which usually takes 90 minutes was completed in just on one hour thanks to the prevailing tail winds (or is that head wind? I never know!)

Milan is serviced by two Airports, Malpensa (where I landed) and Bergamo. The Terminal that manages the majority of internal European flights is small and so I was off the plane and collecting my bags within 10 minutes.

The Malpensa Shuttle travels to the centre of Milan from the airport every 30 minutes and so I jumped on board (having negotiated the purchase of a ticket) and was soon in the centre of the city.

Viviana had given me the address of her apartment and so I jumped into a taxi. The next 20 minutes was definetly edge of the seat stuff! Everyone in Milan is rushing to get somewhere, whether its work or home or elsewhere they are certainly not taking their time! I would compare it to the chaotic traffic in Rome where rules are meant to be broken and any gap in the traffic is fair game.

I arrived at Viviana's house to be greeted by her and a friend Mirco. I was whisked away to Mirco's place as we would be spending the night there - something about too many people at Viviana's. Once I can translate what was said i will report back on the correct reason!

We definetly have an issue with the language barrier - luckily Mirco speaks some English ( he is great with a hello, goodbye and ' have a nice day') Viviana speaks Spanish and I try to speak Spanish. Its all very challenging!

Viviana worked today so I was off on a solo visit to il Duomo (arguably the most famous site in Milan outside of the football stadium at San Siro).

Milan is a heavily polluted city and my eyes have been sore for the last 24 hours. Mirco's apartment was a culture shock, it is very very small, has very little natural light and every 3 minutes you can hear the roar of the metro train service under the building. The apartment is about 20m2 (as a guess) and its quite depressing. I am hoping we wont be here for long. I certainly appreciate the hospitality but by most standards the apartment is quite depressing.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we are off to either Parma or Lake Como- we havent decided which yet and then on Thursday its to Sardinia, where there will be more space, less pollution and hopefully sunshine.

Photos of Milan will be uploaded as soon as possible, this internet cafe doesnt allow the use of usb memory sticks.

By the way the lesson of the day? When asking for a latte in Italy, make sure you also precede latte with 'cafe' otherwise you end up with warm milk in a glass ( please excuse my ignorance!) By the way the warm milk was actually very nice! I embarrassingly paid for it and then headed to the next bar for cafe latte!

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