9/30 Milan
We arrived at Milan's train station and started to look for hotel. We ended
up in another Hotel Florida (remember Hotel Florida in Venice too?) for
L.214,000 a night. At least this one is a 3-star.
We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant next to the train station. Seems
like we are eating at Chinese restaurants more and more frequently as we
get closer and closer to the end of the trip. Like many other restaurants,
there is a L 2,500 cover charge, but that's getting less and less of a
problem as we get more and more hungry. We had some fried noodles, pot
stickers and a noodle soup. Other than the portion, the food was quite
authetic. In fact, we believe that the Chinese food is more Chinese that
those you find in America.
After retrieving our lugguage from the train station back to the hotel,
we took the Metro to the Duomo. Metro in Milan is L 1,500 for each trip,
but you can get a pack of 10 trips for L.14,000. The same tickets are good
for the buses. The Metro system covers only a small section of the city,
but good enough for the train to downtown and south/west. The tickets are
just small pieces of printed paper with no magnetic strip. We think the
entire public transport system is just a honor system society and people
rarely cheat.
Getting off the Metro at the Duomo station put us right in the middle
of the Duomo Square. Don't miss the stain glass inside the Duomo. They
are a lot more modern than the others we have seen. Outside the Duomo,
you can admire the spines of the Duomo building. But watch out of the street
people who were feeding the birds for you to take picture. Of course, they
are not going to do this for free. They are going to chase after you for
money after you are done with the pictures.
Leaving the Duomo, we walked through Calleria Vitorio Emanuelle II and
out the other side to the front of Teatro la Scala, the famous La Scala
Opera House. It isn't too impressive to see it on the outside. Around this
area, you can find lots of designer stores. Streets to watch for are via
Paolo, via Gesu, via della Spiga and Corso Vitorio Emanuelle. We stopped
for a drink and some snacks. If you want to sit down and watch people,
you can get a Coke for L.8,000 or a wine or beer for L.5,000. Hmmm.
We chose to go cheap and got a soda for L.2,300 at the Autogrill which
is a self-service restaurant. Since we want to conserve our cash, we avoided
the expensive and mostly cash-only sidewalk cafes.
10/1 Milan
In the morning, we took the 90 or 92 bus to Piazza Martini to the "discounted
shoe outlets". It turned out to be more like a flea market than what we
thought of as "outlets". We were really disappointed. But we got a taste
of the everyday Italian shopping area. You can get all sorts of household
stuff as well as cooked food, bread and cheese.
In the afternoon, we went outlet shopping on via Fratelli ___ (forgot
the name...). Lots of brand name and about 1/3 of original price. However,
they only take cash or American Express.
We hang out at the Costello for much of the afternoon since we missed
the "Last Supper" Santa Maria della Gracie. It's one of those places that
is hard to get into anyway. One short anecdote for fellow travellers. Just
when were were ready to get up and go, a couple of gypsy women and a (really
young) kid squeezes over. One of them tried to show me a cardboard which
has nothing on it. I was thinking that these people are quite picky if
they want to sit on clean cardboards instead of on the ground. Very quickly,
we realize that this isn't normal. I started backing off and my wife grabbed
one of the women by her arm and dragged her away from me. The backed off
and walked away. We don't know exactly what their complete game plan was,
but we don't really want to know any more. May be they want to use the
cardboard to block my view so she can grab stuff from my shopping bag (even
if it doesn't say Prada on it :-) or pick my wallet. So be careful out
there.
10/2 Lago Maggiore @ Hotel Dino
Since we got bumped from our return flight, American Airlines had to put
us up in a hotel. Since all hotels in downtown Milan were booked, they
ended up putting us up in a 4-star hotel by Lago Maggiore. Best deal we
ever had!
10/3 Leaving for San Francisco
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I got up early so I can see our last Italian sunrise. Here's a
picture as akeepsake.
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Picture of friends we met at Milan Malpensa Airport.
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