A Fashionable Layover

---

On the morning of the 20th, I met my sister Jennifer at the Frankfurt Airport. Jennifer just graduated from the University of Tennessee Knoxville and will be spending a year in Koln (pronounced Cologne), Germany as an au pair for a family. She agreed to come a few weeks early to travel with me to Italy. We checked our bags and were on our way to Milan.

Our first stop was Milan, the fashion capitol of Italy. We took a public bus, X73, straight to the city center. The information online all said to avoid taking a cab at all costs, which we were totally ok with. It only cost 2 Euros each way for the 20-30 minute bus ride.

The center of the city is the main shopping district. Name brand stores from around the world tower several floors high. After the massive glass storefronts ended, the buildings continued skyward with large arched windows and iron rod balconies draped with flowers and drying laundry.

We bought a map of the city, however this seemed useless because we could not find a street sign anywhere. This was not the end of the world. We were content with wandering to our destinations and were confidant that we could navigate our way back. It wasn’t until later that we notice the stone plates on the corner of the buildings in Italian. Alas, the street names had been found!

There was not a cloud in the sky and the sun poured waves of heat through the streets. People rushed about going in and out of shops, drinking coffee and having lunch on the small terraces outside of small bakeries. Despite the blistering 80+ degrees, many people walking around were covered with petty coats, dark jeans, tall boots, corduroy jackets and scarves of every pattern and color. Most of the men over 40 wore full suits, and the younger hipster crowd had a wide variation of fau-hawks, tattered jeans, and pink and purple button up and polo shirts. Pumped paten leather tennis shoes were also in. We witnessed “fashions” that seemed more like morning mishaps than well-formulated outfits. But who were we to judge such things?

We made our way over the stone streets, weaving through the clicking of heals, and past the many street vendors littering the walking ways. There were random people selling sunglasses, gelato, pieces of coconut, watches and knock-off purses. In the middle of all of this chaos was the Musea Del Doumo, which is the fourth largest church in all of Europe. It stands as the Lombard capitol and is dedicated to Saint Mary’s birth. The Gothic monument is massive and extremely detailed with what appears to be thousands of statues, stone archways, and steeples and spires. We walked all the way around it, admiring the many large doors, and intricate design work that must have taken years to build. In fact it appeared as though it was still being built with a large advertisement for Burberry Perfume covering the scaffolding. Squeezed between the right side of the Doumo and the street of shops was a large white tent with a crowd of people standing around the red carpet. Inside a fashion show was taking place.

The enormous Piazza in front of the Musea Del Doumo, was the play ground for hundreds of scavenging pigeons, people resting to enjoy their gelato, more vendors, and random people offering to take photos of tourists and then requesting payment for their services. There was even a couple who was attempting to get photos with the pigeons perched on their arms and shoulders. This was a cute idea if these were doves, however the pigeons in Europe are on the same level of cleanliness as street rats and cockroaches.

We crossed over to go under the Galleria Vittorio Emanuaele II, which is also known as the “Salon of Milan.” It is a large, arch-covered passageway that is now home to stores like Gucci and Louis Vuitton. It was built between 1865 and 1877, and was one of the first buildings constructed out of iron and glass.
After walking around for several hours, Jenn and I broke away from the crowds. We found our way to an umbrella covered terrace with about 40 small tables crammed on to it only feet from each other. The pizza from the restaurant smelled unreal and so we decided to pack in shoulder to shoulder with the others and have lunch. The large white umbrellas blocked the intensity of the sun. We relaxed at the small table, enjoying a bottle of wine and overlooking the piazza of a near by church. We shared a pizza with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and eggplant, just passing the time waiting for the reality of it all to sink in.

Soon it was time to take the bus back in and catch our flight.

Security mishaps and the joys international travel:

I was overall shocked at the drastic contract in the tightness of security leaving Frankfurt, and the lax of it when we left Milan. On my way through security leaving Germany, I was pulled out of line for a bag inspection; they had seen something skeptical in the x-ray. The security agent pulled out my bag of Kinder Surprise Eggs, which are a chocolate egg wrapped in foil that contains a plastic egg in the center with a toy of sorts (a car, figurine, puzzle, and the best ones are pieces with directions on how to construct your own toy). Just as they began to fall out on to the table, he looked directly at me and asked in an almost scornful tone, “Are these eggs?”

I smiled innocently and said, “Yes, but I am not sure what is in them.” I said jokingly as if it were their contents that had set off the alarm. He did not find my comment humorous in the least and continued digging.

He then pulled out the outlet converter I had borrowed from my roommate. “We will have to take you to a back room to run a test to make sure there is not a bomb inside.”

“Uh, sure,” I agreed and followed another gentleman to a back room where he prodded, brushed and examined my device for chemical residue. All was clear and we were shortly on our way.

Leaving Milan was an adventure all of its own. On our way back through security, no one inspected our boarding passes nor did they even look at our passports. This go around there was not even an interest in my potential “bomb” carrying device. We made it to the waiting area at the gate with over 3 hours to spare. After about 1 hour all of the flights were suspended due to a security breach. We were not surprised. People were crowded in the small area and guards would randomly walk through. We really had no idea what was going on because no one seemed to speak in English. When the announcements and updates came on the overhead, they were first in Italian and all was dead silent. After when they began to repeat the segment in English the hustle and bustle would continue and we could only gather bits and pieces. The boards said nothing about flights being delayed or on time.

Though no one had officially made any announcement, our flight had been delayed. Later a note appeared on the sign saying it would depart 40 minutes late. It was already over an hour after we were supposed to depart. By the time we boarded we had spent over 5 hours in the Milan airport. They decided to beef up security and as people boarded, and they patted everyone down and did a full body search. Though I think they had the right idea, it was quite pointless because they did not actually recheck anyone’s bags. I am not sure about the other travelers, but I did not feel anymore comfortable. Either way we were herded on to buses and shipped out to the plane. Sicily here we come.

---

Photos

Musea Del Doumo
With the coupe and their beautiful pigeons.

Pizza and wine for lunch, anyone?!
Jenn and I enjoying our lunch on the terrace

Galleria Vittorio Emanuaele II
Or the Salon of Milan

Milan Fashion Show
Outside of the Musea Del Doumo

Comments

[Chris Taylor]

LOVE IT!
Sounds like you two are having a great time! I miss you both. Keep the updates coming so I can live through you =) All my love... -Chris

[Joanna]

Woow Rebekah! All of this pictures are amazing. It sounds like you are having a lot of fun. Hugs from Alaska.