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Published: January 24th 2007
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The beathtaking Swiss Alps
Train ride from Zurich to Milan Milan.. Why Milan you ask? Well.... It’s all about Fashion..Lots of wine and pizza.. Italians....should be a great place to visit... hmm... high expectations set for Milan...
We managed to get fairly inexpensive train tickets from Zurich and off we were on a 7am train ride The ride from Zurich to Milan was arguably the most beautiful train ride..The Swiss Alps were breathtaking and the small villages covered with Snow were postcard worthy. Talar and I did take turns dosing off for about an hour or so but David was a diligent photographer through the entire 6 hours.
We got to Milan around 1p and were pretty impressed with the Milan train station.. It reminded me of a grander Grand Central. After trying to get some info on the location of our hotel with no avail, we decided to head outside and consult the always reliable GPS. After about 30 minutes of pulling our bags in the streets of Milan we found our Hotel. Hotel Aurora looked promising from outside, afterall it was on a shopping street and there was an H&M right across the street, not a bad start. We had decided to try and only pay for
two people to save some money. (It had worked in Zurich.. The hotel employees didnt seem to care at all).So I stayed outside while Talar and David took the bags up to check in. Our plan would have been flawless, had this hotel not been on the third floor of a business building..the entire hotel, reception, rooms, everything was on a single floor. You had to check in and out every time you left your room.. They even wanted us to leave our key with them when we left the room.. Kinda weird..and as expected by the end of the first night the dude at the desk had figured out our innocent little scam and called us on it... he’s exact words were.. “since she (as in Me) didn’t check in, I don’t know who she is.. She could be a terrorist”. Ehh.. Ok buddy..here is your additional $60.00 and a copy of my passport so you can send it to the local police to clear that we are not terrorists.. Such a funny world we live in these days.
After resting for a bit we headed out for a bite to eat.. The place we ended up
at was actually pretty tasty and easy on the wallet. We went there the next night for dinner too. We seem to be creatures of habit that way. After some tasty pasta and pizza dishes washed down with a karaf of red wine we headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit and get ready for a night out.
We wanted to check out one of the local clubs and ended up in a place halfway decent..about a 10min tram ride from our hotel. We were mostly people watching and trying to enjoy the monotone techno beats.. The vodka/fanta concussion we were consuming on the way to the club had done its job and David pulled me out to dance.. Well the second we left Talar alone she was approached by one of the Italian guys eyeing here since we walked in. Naturally we cut our dance short and slithered our way back towards my little sister.. The dood seemed harmless enough.. But nevertheless.. That’s my baby sister 😊
We left the club few hours and couple of 10euro drinks later and walked back to our hotel.
On our second day in Milan we wanted
to explore what this city had to offer. So far it just felt like a big city.. nothing exceptionally charming. We walked towards the town center and ran into the famous shopping streets of Milan. Via Montenapoleone, Via della Spiga and Via Sant’ Andrea. Calling these places “stores” is almost an insult, they were more like galeries or showrooms and every fancy name was present.. From Luis Vuitton to D&G, Versace, Prada, Armani and many many more..These streets were definitely meant for different types of tourists.. We got our fill of window gaulking and walked towards the city center.
Piazza del Duomo was impressive and truly a typical Italian piazza, The Duomo as expected was beautiful and massive. It took 500 years to built and it is decorated with over 3,500 statues. The first stone was laid in 1386 but the work continued until the 19th century where Mr. Shorty himself (Napoleon), was responsible for the completion of the facade. How about that for a piece of history for ya? We were able to walk in and check out the beautiful paintings inside. We had read that the crypt inside the cathedral was a must see, but to
our disappointed it was closed. One of the most impressive parts of the cathedral was the central door. It is made of hundreds of miniature statues by Ludovico Pogliaghi. We took the inner city train towards the Sforzesco Castle, we had read in our little Milan city guide that it houses some very famous pieces of art, including Michelangelo’s last sculpture, the Pieta Rondanini which he left unfinished at his death. The place looked deserted, there was lots of construction going on and it really striped the castle from any magical views it may have otherwise had.
We had read that Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” was housed in a church half a mile away, and decided to make the hike there to check it out. Maybe this will redeem Milan.. Afterall it would be a pretty amazing experience to stare at the OG paining.. Well we walked and walked and it was cold and we were getting cranky.. But had to keep our eyes on the historic prize. Finally made it to the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, after looking for a bit we finally found a tiny note on the outside of the Church
that said the painting is not actually in the church but across the street in a museum.. Ok.. So let’s head over there..
Me: “Three tickets to see Leonardo’s masterpiece please”
Girl at the counter: “No reservations?, no tickets until February”
Are you kidding me??? we just want to take a peak at the thing and we’ll be on our way.. promise we won’t stay more than 3 minutes max.. we have become pro’s at doing tourist things in record times..yea that’s not gonna work.. We were three very grumpy, tired and rejected tourists. After calming down a bit we decided to make the best of the day and walked in the Museum of Science and Technology, which also houses The Leonardo Da Vinci Gallery. The place is massive with 4 floors of everything you can imagine from old writing tools to paper making devices, old camera’s, a terrestrial Globe by a Venetian monk from the 16th Century and much more. There is an entire room filled with over 100 models demonstrating Leonardo’s work and guess what else was there... yup “The Last Supper” in all it’s glory. So it was not the original but it looked just as
great and it satisfied our tourist souls. The museum had an outdoor area also where they housed a submarine and an entire lot dedicated to old trains. You can easily spend a full day here and coming here at the end of our day doesn’t do it justice.
It had been a long day and we were all exhausted.. We decided to go back to the restaurant from the night before and feasted on some much needed carbs. We all agreed that we were done with Milan.and decided to start our journey back towards our final destination.. The Netherlands, and the city of Amsterdam.. At this point we are all talking about Amsterdam as if it is the holly grail..
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tracy powell
non-member comment
you guys just made my day! thanks. I heard you met up with our friend jeff, that's so cool. hope you guys are well. tracy