Lost in Milan

---

After many hours of travel; sleeping with my head on a American Airlines 777 dinner tray from Chicago, circumnavigating the maze of terminals and security at Heathrow, and being delayed several hours waiting for my Alitalia flight to depart I had finally arrived at Milan Malpensa. Now anyone who has been to Malpensa knows that it is far from being in Milan. You need to take an express train from Malpensa to Milan proper, speaking little (well none really) Italian I managed to find the station for the express train in the terminal, buy a ticket, and embark on my journey into Milan. Now the train goes into Stazione Centrale, which was no where near where my hotel was, so looking at the map I had purchased at the Borders before I left I decided on what would be a good stop for me to get off that would be closer to my hotel. Or so I though. I got off at that stop...and it was like I had stepped into 28 Days Later. It was only 8:30 local time but the station was deserted. Not a single person in the station...just some trash gently blowing across the floor. I ended on out of the station and started walking in a direction, dragging my suitcase behind me on the cobbled streets of Milan. I wandered around a couple blocks before I decided to look at my map again...the spiderweb of streets that make up Milan are almost impossible to comprehend, especially someone who comes from a relatively gridded city like Chicago. The problem was I knew where I needed to go on the map but I had no idea where I was. I strolled aimlessly a few more blocks until I saw an older Italian man out walking his dog. Using the few Italians words I know I spit out "Dove Via Butti?" and he began spitting out directions to my hotel in Italian...finishing with "Capice?" I shook my head in pretend comprehension, but he could tell I didn't understand. So he told me again..."Capice?" I said "Si" and proceeded to walk in the direction that he had been motioning. He must of realized that I still had no idea where I was going because minutes later he was back by my side leading me to my hotel. We kept walking, kept walking, kept walking...and finally we arrived at my hotel. I left the gentleman with a handshake and a "Grazie Millie" I wanted to say thank you again to that man who guided to me to my hotel that night in Milan, if it wasn't for you I think I would still be wandering the neighborhoods of Milan.

---

Photos

San Marco
The domes of San Marco.

Duomo
The spires of the Duomo.

Ljubljanica
Looking down the Ljubljanica River of Ljubljana Slovenia.