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Said arrivaderci to Venice and took the train three hours northwest to Milan. On the train ride I could see the Dolomites off in the distance and they were basically saying with their snow-capped peaks “you gotta get through us to leave Italy”. Which I am bummed to do. Its strange, I have been in Italy nine days, I feel comfortable in the country, I am getting the hang of the language and just how the people operate. Great place to visit. Visit and living are two completely different things though.
Made it to Milan. Big city, full of fashion and models and a duomo. Only here for the night, trying to cut down the would-have-been eight hour train ride from Venice to Interlaken. Now it’ll only be four or so tomorrow. Got off the train in Milan Centrale, which is a giant station, with strong stone facades and high ceilings. I think it was built in the 1930s or something. It was a dreary day, low clouds, and drizzling a bit. The station is in the commercial downtown of the city, tall buildings greet you as you exit, but it’s a Metro ride to the attractions the city offers, the duomo and the shopping.
Walked a short bit to the hotel with the bold name, The Best Hotel. We booked most of our places on a hostel booking website, but the last three places we have stayed in have been really cheap hotels. Its nice because in the hotels, Richard and I have two twin beds and our own bathroom. Its bad because in the hostels you meet people and are more electric.
I walked across the street from the hotel shortly after checking in and did some laundry. The owner of the place was a really nice gray-haired guy, only spoke Italian, but I was able to talk a little with him. It’s a self-service laundry place, but if you leave and say your clothes are done in the washer and you aren’t back yet, he’ll move them to the dryer for you, knowing which clothes should go in the dryer and which ones should be hung. He’ll also fold the clothes for you if are gone and your clothes are done in the dryer. I stayed and watched him throw bread out the door to the little birds or as I said to him his “amicos”. It made him laugh. After my laundry was done, Richard and I ate at this Turkish kebab place, which was really good. Nice change from our steady diet of pizza and pasta varieties. Then we walked to a Metro stop and took the underground to the duomo. It’s a really impressive site, not as impressive as the duomo in Florence, but if you have some time to kill in Milan, check it out. Its also by a building called La Galleria, which is a huge high-end shopping building that looks early 20th century, very high ceilings, murals on the ceilings and on the floors. Its kind of open aired, because there are no doors, but it does have a roof, so who knows what you’d call it. I call it pretty neat to see, probably better if you could afford to shop the stores in it.
We left La Galleria and continued walking around this central district of places to eat and a vast amount of clothing stores, you name the brand, we saw the store. I am happy to report it looks like the “surfing” clothing style is the next trend, which I actually own clothes that could qualify. We stopped at a pizzeria for our last taste of pizza in Italy. I cried. Just kidding. It was delicious, of course. Took the Metro back to the hotel and just kind of hung out inside, went on the internet on the hotel computer. I guess our hotel is in a shady area, so we didn’t want to venture out to greet the wolves. Don’t know if the area really was that bad, but the front desk guy said to us before we left for the duomo, “Be sure to be back not too late. This area is, uh, not very nice.” Milan as a whole was a nice stop. Glad to see it. Our waiter at the pizzeria said it best “Milan, its uh, its just Italy” Cool to see just a normal, everyday Italian city.
Tomorrow will show us a new country and a new currency. Very excited about seeing beautiful Switzerland and the intimidating Alps. Of course, after steeping onto that plane in Newark bound for London, very few things will be intimidating from now on.
Have fun,
Matt
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