Blogs from Milan, Lombardy, Italy, Europe - page 3

Early start to Manchester airport for flight to Milan, good flight chatting to lots of nice people, one man and his son were on there way there for one night to see the Milan football match. About a 25 minute bus journey into the city and then a 20 minute walk to hotel, literally dumped our bags and went site seeing. Found the Duomo what a beautiful building can never understand how they could build buildings like that all those years ago without the machines we have now and yet today it takes us months to build a big standard house????? Walked round the square there had been a charity run on for cancer so lots of ladies in pink t shirts. Stopped for ..... quess what???? Pizza! Was really nice then just wondered through the ... read more

Greetings everyone, It's me again, I told you I needed to travel more so I can get Anthony Bourdain's job, well me and the Mrs decided to go to Italy. Ok the real reason is that it's our 10th wedding anniversary and we decided to visit Italy to celebrate. This trip was clouded with doubt the last few weeks, we live in Texas and Hurricane Harvey made landfall about 30 miles north of Corpus Christi where we live, but luckily we made it through safe and without any damage to our home. Harvey wasn't done the storm went north and rained on Houston for days causing catastrophic floods throughout the city. Guess where we're flying out of to head to Italy? That's right Bush International Airport in Houston, TX so after days of monitoring the damage ... read more

We farewelled Elisabetta and Andrea this morning and travelled by car (not willing to have another "long day" of misinterpreting ferry timetables) to San Giovanni station Como and effortlessly caught the train to Milano - I even helped an American lady and was asked while wandering the streets of Milano if I was a local (well I think that was what I was asked)!! I must be looking relaxed. Watch this space for the next result of this probably hugely displaced confidence!! Some random observations after our time as we prepare to leave Italy: - It must have been a good summer as I have never seen so many great tans!! The Italians look fresh, fit and healthy. - Just because there are “saldi” (sale) everywhere doesn't mean designer brands are affordable - sorry ladies - ... read more

To stave off jet lag and stay awake past 12.15pm we went to Musee Duomo yesterday which was a real bonus. It is dedicated to ALL things Duomo and we mean ALL. There was so much “stuff” associated with the Duomo and it’s construction and decoration including a wooden model, statues of every saint you could ever imagine (either models of the existing ones or ones that have been removed and replaced), tapestries, crosses, chalices, candle sticks and on and on. Some of the statues were huge and others “only” one metre high - tiny when compared to the magnitude of the Duomo. Fascinating. We will revisit the Duomo on a walking tour tomorrow. Last time we were in Milano we did not confess to the time we went to bed so the tradition shall continue. ... read more

This morning we got up at 8:30, still pining for more sleep but conscious that we only really had on full day in Milan (as the night before we had booked the first train not covered by our Interrail pass, at 07:10 from Milan to Nice). We had 'breakfast' or at least a coffee and a croissant, at the hostel as it was included in our room cost. Then we headed out for the day starting with a walk down a large road which ran parallel to our hostel and lead to a large park. At the entrance to the park there was a large paved area with a 3 arched statue adorned with a figure controlling a number of horses. The sun was already high in the sky and it took us a while to ... read more