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Published: October 22nd 2014
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The plan today was to leave Venice and head to Milan. Milan is one of the places I didn't get to do on my last trip. I wanted to go to Milan last time, but I had some complications with my Eurail pass back then. Unfortunately, I had to change plans on the fly and skip it. However, this time was different. Train ticket, check. Room, check. Beautiful girl by my side, check. We checked out of the hotel at about 10 or so and grabbed a quick bite on the way to the vaporetto. We headed to the train station soaking in the last few glimpses of Venice. It really is a beautiful city.
After a couple hour train ride, we arrived in Milan. Luckily, our hotel room was right next to the train station. We checked in, freshened up, and headed out to explore the Duomo. During my research, I saw a couple things I'd like to see in Milan, with the Duomo being one of them. Unfortunately, a lot of things are closed on Mondays in Milan, so we didn't get to see some of the other stuff. The other things were not significant to adjust the
amount of days in other cities. Oh well. Maybe next time. We hopped on the Metro and got off at the Duomo stop. I must say, the transportation in Milan is considerably less expensive than the previous series. A one way train ride was 1.50 euro. Just as a comparison, Venice was about 6.50 without the pass that we had. We also had a pass in Rome (Roma pass) that included unlimited travel for 3 days.
Anyways, we exited the metro and BAM! There was the Duomo. It was absolutely huge and stunning. In my opinion, it was much nicer than Florence's Duomo. I think I remember reading that Milan's Duomo was the 4th largest in all of Europe. Let me tell you, it was absolutely HUGE. The sheer size was enough to impress. Apparently, the powerful family that ran the area back in the day wanted to build a Duomo to not only house everyone in Milan (about 40,000 people at the time), but also to impress other business associates in France, Germany, etc. I'm pretty sure they succeeded. Katie and I entered the Duomo, explored the inside, etc. There's also an entrance on the far right side
to the crypt. From my understanding, the Duomo was built on top of another church that is 10 feet under where the Duomo is today. You'll see a couple of dark pictures of what was down there. Once we finished perusing the interior of the Duomo, we went up to the terrace. If you plan on going up, it cost about 12 euro. In my opinion, it was well worth it. You get to see great views from the top of the Duomo, a closer look at the architecture, and the sculptures. Katie really enjoyed it as well. As you can tell, we got a little trigger happy with the camera up there.
After the Duomo, we decided to explore the surrounding neighborhoods. We stopped at a little restaurant with outside seating for a snack. I thought it looked touristy, but Katie was starving by this point, so we stopped by for a snack. Personally, I wish we hadn't. Not only was the food mediocre, but there were flies in the outside seating. It was so bad that I asked to change tables. Much to my chagrin, the flies followed us to our new table. We had just showered
a little while earlier, so I know we didn't stink haha. After the mediocre snack we explored some more. Once sunset came around we went back to the room and hung out.
For those of you that may visit Italy, many of the restaurants close in the early afternoon and open up again at about 7pm or 8pm. Katie and I decided to go with a recommendation our concierge gave us and went to a restaurant about a 5-10 minute walk away from our place. It was a nice restaurant that specialized in seafood. However, I wasn't in the seafood mood and Katie isn't a seafood fan at all. I decided to go with the Milanesa. I figured if anyone knows how to do milanesa, it's a cook in Milan. It definitely did not disappoint, but still doesn't compare to my Aunt Glady's Milanesa Napolitana. Love you tia! After the meal we went back to the room to relax. We have to get up somewhat early tomorrow to head to Switzerland, so we decided to take it easy.
I must say. I'm a little bummed to leave Italy. I love Italian culture, food, and history. However, I'm very
excited to see what Switzerland offers. It's the only country on this trip that I've never been to, so I'm excited to see what it's like. Hope everything is going well back home. See you soon!
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