Oct 26 – A Milano!

the shopping area

Fall Break continues…

Sunday morning, Aneisa and I woke up bright and early to catch the 8:14 train to Milan. Once the train started moving, we looked at each other in complete excitement.. Checkpoint number one! We arrived to Milan Central Station a little after noon. First thing we had to do was buy a map of the city and figure out where the heck we were and how to get to our hostel. Aw, sweet Adventure!

We set out on foot with our gnarly backpacks a good 5 or 6 blocks to get to the metro line we wanted to take. (Later we realized we could take the green line from the station to get to the red line). We slowly read signs and walked through the station, bought our 1,10 euro tickets and hopped on the next subway train that passed through. Okay, do you really need all these details? Nawww. The subway was definitely the most used public transportation in the city. Absolutely fantastic! I wish Seattle had a subway system. Anywho, we made it to our hostel–Hostel Emmy. Don’t ever stay there if you go to Milan! Okay it wasn’t that bad, the shower was hot, there were no bugs in my bed. It was just really old and a little shabby lookin’.

Allora! We put our packs in our room, ate some sandwiches that Aneisa had made that morning, and set out with my Rick Steves book to explore the city. We took the metro to Piazza Duomo and just started walking around! I liked that we went to the city with no expectations–it was fun to just explore and be spontaneous. (HOWEVER, we did not see Leonardo’s The Last Supper because you have to make a reservation a good month in advance Oh well.)

Me and the Duomo (Took about 600 years from start to finish, 1386-1965)

We observed our surroundings.. and decided we would take a gander into the Duomo. I followed Rick Steves self-guided tour so I could understand a bit about the history and statues inside. One of the statues, St. Bartolomeo, was very interesting. Bartolomeo, aka Bartholomew the Apostle,  was “flayed” and crucified upside down.. Thus, there’s a statue of him carrying his own skin. It’s a little weird… but it looks cool haha.

Statue of St Bartolomeo by Marco d'Agrate

From the Duomo we wandered into the shopping area. I walked through Prada just for kicks… MAMMA MIA!$$$$$! I don’t know how people spend so much money on stinkin bags and shoes.

We walked through the rest of the shopping area into an opening which became a piazza (which I forget the name of)with the statue of Leonardo da’Vinci and right across the street, the famous opera house, Teatro della Scala. We sat on a bench and watched pigeons walk around on Leonardo’s head and shoulders for a while. It was funny watching people position themselves for pictures in front of Leonardo to get just the right angle.

More to come!!! I promise!