Woods 10th Anniversary Day 2: San Siro and Duomo

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Buonogiorno

Our first day in Milan was pretty quiet so today we're gonna get out and see some sights. My wonderful wife who knows that I love the beautiful game, so she agreed to visit San Siro Stadium with me, that's the home of AC Milan and Inter Milan, the two professional football clubs located here. The hotel isn't located far from Milano Centrale, the main train station in the city which is a good thing but the train station is massive and incredibly busy. You have the metro train that goes through the city as well as trains that go all over Italy, so once we figured out where to buy metro tickets and what metro line we needed to catch we were on our way. Milan is not as big as Paris so the Metro doesn't have as many lines so getting to San Siro only took two trains and we got there in about twenty minutes. The train stop lets you out right in front of the stadium, we just had to find the gate to enter the stadium.

So first gate we see is Gate 14 where the team store is located, but that's the wrong gate the security guard tells us that it's Gate 8, so we head around to Gate 8 to start the tour. We walk through the security checkpoint and enter the museum, the stadium museum is full of Italian football history not just AC Milan and Inter Milan but Italian World Cup victories, Champion League finals played at San Siro and concerts there. Next stop is the team locker rooms, two attendants are standing by the locker rooms to give us the rules and tell us that Inter Milan's locker room is closed for renovations, so we just get to see AC Milan's. We walk around checking out locker room and I sit in one of the players chairs, the closest I'll get to being a pro footballer, I have to say they took good care of the players. We leave the locker room and head through the tunnel onto the pitch, that's field for those that don't speak soccer and they tell us no walking on the pitch, so I can't go score a goal today. We leave the pitch and are directed to the team store where we started at, so I get a few things in the store for some friends back home, and back to the train.

Next stop is the Duomo which is probably the most famous attraction in Milan, the train ride from San Siro is pretty quick. We get off the train, walk up the steps and their it is the Duomo, I've seen pictures of it many times before and seeing it in person is pretty amazing. Located next to the Duomo is Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which is a huge shopping area with many high end stores and restaurants, I'll get to that later. We hang out in Duomo Square before we get into line to enter the Cathedral, the line is pretty long but it moves quickly, the security guard checks my bag and gives me a hard time about buying an Inter Milan football and told me I chose the wrong team. So we both have a laugh then he lets me in, the inside of the Duomo is amazing, the attention to detail all over the place is breathtaking. We walk around taking it all in, the history and the hundreds of years it took to build this massive building without modern construction is hard to comprehend. I head downstairs to see what's down there, my wife didn't go and it's a tomb to one of the bishops from the 15th century, I have to admit it was a little bit creepy to see. So I come back up and we head outside, we take the lift to the Duomo rooftops to see a view of the city and admire of the architecture of the Duomo. They have some more stairs that go all the way to the top so I head up there to get some great views of the city. Once we're done there it's time to do some shopping, Milan is the fashion capital of the world so we have to indulge in some shopping while we're here.

Milan is known as being very expensive, I won't deny that it can be but they have shopping for all levels of income from thrifty to Beyonce rich, we're closer to thrifty to Beyonce/Jay Z levels of wealth. My wife loves makeup and their a cosmetic store just about everywhere you look, so she had to plenty to choose from. I got a few things for myself as well, even guys have to take care of their skin too. So after that it's time to head back to the hotel, the guy at the hotel gave us a map and circled the stop closest to the hotel, that was the easy part but all the building and streets in Milan look alike, we come up from the train stop and can't figure out which way to go, yeah we walked in circles for a while before we figured out how to get back to the hotel, from now on we're just going to get off at Central Station then walk back to the hotel, it's much easier that way. We're done sightseeing for the day, so we make it back to the hotel and I go grab us some dinner, I get spaghetti with chicken and I got Marette some lasagna, then we relax for a while. You know what time it is, that's right time for some late night gelato. I make the 10 minute walk to the gelato shop and the owner remembers me from the night before and says hello, I make my order and head back to the room, after a day out and about, the gelato hits the spot, we unwind and watch the US Open before going to sleep. Day 3 we're leaving Milan and heading to the home of the Renaissance, Florence, until then arrivederci.

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