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Shopping for a Real Milan Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n Picking up from our last episode, we made it to the Milano Centrale train station without too many problems – other than sore arms from carrying all of the extra stuff that we had bought in Tuscany. Our taxi ride from the train station to the hotel was shorter than expected (less than 10 minutes) and it was a sunny day. So far, so good.\n We are staying at a hotel called the Starhotel Ritz which is a block away from the nearest busy street so it’s relatively quiet but central at the same time. This is in contrast to our hotel in Rome which was central and<\/u> noisy all at the same time.<\/p>\n A block away from us is a main boulevard called Corso Buenos Aires and the street was really packed with people. Given that it was the late afternoon on a Saturday, there were lots of people out walking, driving or riding their mopeds through the streets.<\/p>\n As it was starting to get dark and it was only our first night in Milan, we didn’t really expect to do a lot of exploring but it only took us about an hour of walking around to be absolutely certain that Milan was a city of fashion.<\/p>\n It wasn’t only the fact that if you walked for 10 minutes in any direction that you woudl pass by 25 clothing stores. It was more the fact the the people themselves were obviously extremely<\/u> fashion conscious and stylish. You could just tell that compared to every other Italian city that we had been to that Milan stood apart as a city where people dressed in the clothing that made their city famous.<\/p>\n It would be less than 24 hours later that Barb and I would be talking that there was no doubt now that Italy (or Milan specifically), stood equal with any other European city as a true<\/u> shopping city.<\/p>\n The next morning, all four of us met for breakfast in the hotel restaurant and discussed how we were going to plan our day. As it is Sunday, many stores will be closed as usual but this being Milan, many will be open.<\/p>\n Perhaps one of the most famous landmarks in Milan (or all of Italy) is the Galleria Vittoria Emanuele II. The word shopping mall<\/i> is a crude word to describe the elegant architecture and history of this glass-domed arcade containing several stores and some restaurants. It is perhaps only the McDonalds that is located in the centre part of the galleria that stands out as the singular eyesore from all of the other stores.<\/p>\n One of the immediatly noticable differences that struck us about Milan compared to all of the other Italian cities we had visited were the streets. No longer were we seeing the narrow streets of previous cities and towns but grand boulevards. Obviously Milan was a place were their people could drive their fashionable car in true style. <\/p>\n And cars there are.<\/p>\n It was only within the first few hours of walking around did we see at least 3 Ferarris and Lambourghinis. Countless BMWs, Mercedes and Porsches were to be seen. We joked among us that driving these expensive cars were most often a 50-something guy with perfect hair and dressed to kill. In the passenger seat was often a blonde woman many years his junior. We figured that this was probably the guy’s daughter. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n Exploring Milan by Department<\/strong><\/p>\n Today in Sunday and our plans today include looking at some of the sights and we plan to later split up to go seperate ways.<\/p>\n Peter and I plan on going to the Leanardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology. Barb and Liz plan to hit the large department store in Milan that is open today: La Rinascente. <\/p>\n Before we did either of these, we all were going to explore the large Duomo in central Milan.<\/p>\n While we had all gotten our fill of cathedrals in Italy by this point, we had heard that the Duomo in Milan was not to be missed. <\/p>\n To be honest, I’ve heard this phrase before and was sceptical about the Duomo but it was centrally located and the lineup to enter was reasonably short. <\/p>\n I was glad we went.<\/p>\n I would not be overstating it by saying that Barb and I have seen a lot of spectacular things over the years in Europe and we have become a bit jaded with with impresses us. With this in mind, I have to say that Duomo in Milan ranks up in the top 3 of great cathredals of Europe that we have seen: St Peter’s basillica in Rome and the cathedral in Toledo, Spain. If you’re in Milan, seeing the inside of this cathedral shoudl be put high up on your list of things to do.<\/p>\n I think that what was most impressive about the Duomo here was that it was a Sunday and there was mass taking place. As a result, the organ was filling the cathedral with music and the choir was singing. Both of these added an indescribable effect to the abience of the church that we have never experienced before.<\/p>\n After we visited the Duomo, we all spent some time shopping in La Rinascente. Actually, Peter and I<\/u> spend some<\/i> time – Barb and Liz spent the rest of the day there. <\/p>\n While they were shopping, Peter and I took a few hours to go and visit the Leonardo Da Vinci National Science and Technology Museum. <\/p>\n We later gave Barb and Liz a run down about what we saw in the museum and they both couldn’t have looked more bored. <\/p>\n The Da Vinci museum has exhibits on his own work (many scale models made from the drawings that he did for many different inventions of his). The museum also had lots of other exhibits on things like the history of music, transportation, photography, printing – all of course with an Italian focus.<\/p>\n Overall it was very interesting but of course Peter and I are both interested in technology so you can probably undersdtand Barb and Liz’s feelings towards our recap of the museum.<\/p>\n We met up later on with Barb and Liz at the department store and, of course, found them in the women’s clothing section. Peter and I assesed how long they were going to be as they both had handfulls of clothes and were heading to the change rooms. While we were waiting, we found some chairs to sit and wait for them. <\/p>\n At the chairs were other men – only men. All of the men had an expression on their faces that I have seen on men in Vancouver and every other city to where we have ever travelled.<\/p>\n Their faces had the look<\/i>.<\/p>\n This is the look that (usually hsubands) will have that transcends all countries, languages and cultures. It is the look that says: how can this be taking so long<\/i>? It is shared by any many who is waiting for any woman to finish shopping for clothes.<\/p>\n Wine in a Basket<\/strong><\/p>\n Sunday night we went out for dinner and for the first time<\/u> since we have been in Italy, we were served wine in a bottle with the “basket” – as I call it. This is the woven material around the bottom of the bottle that I have normally associated with Chianti wines.<\/p>\n While we ordered our usual vino rosso di casa<\/i> (house red wine) we got our wine in the Chianti bottle with the basket – a large 1.5 litre bottle. <\/p>\n The waiter then started to explain something to us in Italian that we understood as soemthing like: “I will only charge you for what you drink”. <\/p>\n We figured that because we had ordered 1 litre of his house wine and he only had a 1.5 litre bottle was the reason why he gave us these special instructions. <\/p>\n In the end, we drank all 1.5 litres so it didn’t end up being a problem. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n To Como and Back<\/strong><\/p>\n On Monday morning we were going on a road trip once again out to Lago di Como (Lake Como). <\/p>\n About an hour by train out of Milan approaching the Swiss border are several large lakes – Lake Como being the central. We made a train connection in a town called Lecco and then on to our stop at the town of Varenna – location on the eastern side of Lake Como. <\/p>\n From Varenna, we took a ferry across Lake Como to the town of Bellagio (yes, this is the town that the Las Vegas hotel is based on). <\/p>\n Lake Como is a beatuful lake that has small towns dotting many parts of its shores. Unfortunately we had some mist in the air which prevented us from seeing from side to side of the lake but the closeup views were great nonetheless. <\/p>\n Many of the hotels in Bellagio are the old world grand<\/i> hotels – many dating back to the turn of the previous century with all of the grandeur that came with those old hotels.<\/p>\n I had heard that George Clooney had recently bought a house in the Lake Como area. As many of the properties offered spectacular vistas of the lake, I can see that the jet set crown would find an appeal in this area which is also very close to Milan.<\/p>\n Sadly, George could not be reached for comment on his house purchase.<\/p>\n We spent several hours in Bellagio and had lunch there before heading back to Varenna and subsequently back to Milan by train again.<\/p>\n For dinner on Monday we went to a restaurant close to our hotel on the way back from the Milan train station. The restaurant was very crowded and we were told that the only table available was reserved for 9PM – about 50 minutes from when we arrived. <\/p>\n We were seated and the head waiter must have told the kitchen staff that we needed to be rushed out the door fast as we have never had our dinner orders served so quickly before. Everything was so uncharactersiticaly Italian in this particular dinner. Every restaurant that we have been to so far in Italy have this deliberate slower pace to everything – never rushed. <\/p>\n