Italy Days 1 & 2: Arrival in Milan

We had two flights to get to Italy. The first was from Seattle to Newark. We woke up bright and early and went to the airport with dad, who volunteered (or was voluntold) to help us with transportation. After an uneventful flight, we wandered around the Newark airport, which was somewhat confusing and didn’t have very good way finding for restaurants. Our second flight, from Newark to Milan, was delayed by over an hour on the tarmac due to some customer service issue. We don’t know exactly what it was, but they had to fetch something out of the luggage compartment. We finally took off, and got only a fitful sleep before landing in Milan.

Milano cookies on the way to Milan! (We supplied these ourselves)

The best gelato we had on the trip so far! To be surpassed by all the other gelato we would later have.

The immigration and customs process was some of the quickest I’ve ever done. We were only in line for a few minutes, and we were quickly checked and allowed in. I was amazed at how fast it was. We bought our tickets for the Malpensa Express, and before long we were on our way.

After an hour or so, we arrived at Milan’s Centrale station. It’s an impressive building, designed by the fascists to make you feel small. Outside, we left our baggage in the hotel and were on our way to see the duomo.

The view of Milano Centrale station from our hotel window

The duomo, Milan’s cathedral, is a spectacular building with hundreds of spires. We decided to get the ticket that let us see the cathedral, rooftop, archeological site, and the museum. We started with the rooftop (we took the stairs). The level of detail is exquisite, and I loved seeing all the gargoyles and the various statues on top of and inside the spires. We also got a nice view of the city, although it’s not as tall as the other cathedral we’ve climbed (Strasbourg, France).

View from the front

Climbing to the roof

Pointy!

There are hundreds of spires

Liz's mom served her mission here, it was appropriate to send her a greeting

The inside of the cathedral is impressively large, with a very long nave and lots of beautiful artwork. It includes a grotesque statue of St. Bartholomew, who was flayed alive. They claim to have one of the nails from Christ’s cross, which I’m skeptical of. The archeological site, underneath the cathedral, includes an ancient baptistry and other ruins.

St. Bartholomew the Flayed holding his skin

We decided to head back to the hotel at this point, although we also enjoyed a light lunch of pizza (basically prosciutto on focaccia) and a stroll through the Galleria, a covered shopping center. We also saw the outside of the famous Scala theater, one of the world’s premier opera houses. While the interior is probably dazzling, the outside is nondescript.

First pizza in Italy!

Galleria

We took a power nap of about an hour, and it was awfully hard for me to get back up. We went back to the Duomo and saw the museum, which has lots of preserved things such as old spires that broke, and old statues and relics that for whatever reason they do not store in the cathedral anymore.

Gargoyles! Scary!

Scale model of the Duomo used for its construction

After this, we made it over to the canal district, where we had dinner. This is a happening place, with lots of people gathering to enjoy the evening. We decided to get dinner at a restaurant recommended by our guide book, and got a few Milanese specialties: Cotoletta alla Milanesa (a common meal from my mission, similar to the Austrian Wienerschnitzel), and ossobuco served over Milanese risotto. They were delicious and very filling. So filling, in fact, that Liz had an interesting bathroom encounter (more on that later). Aside from some extremely bright screens used for advertising, the district is very lovely and a good place to spend the evening. We dined al fresco, and thankfully it only sprinkled rain a few times but otherwise stayed dry. We were accosted by several people trying to sell us roses, and they all reacted differently when we said no. The first guy tried to shame us into buying from him, saying he was poor. The second guy just left without a word. The third guy tried to turn on the charm. None of them worked, of course.

Canal district

Ossobuco over risotto

Cotoletta

Guest paragraph by Liz: Towards the end of our dinner, I really needed to poop and couldn't wait until we got back to our hotel. So I used the restroom inside of the restaurant, but then I couldn't figure out how to flush it. There was no handle on the tank (which had a different positioning anyway from a standard U.S. toilet), and there was a giant switch on the wall which did nothing when I pushed on it. I panicked, thinking I was going to have to leave the restroom with the toilet unflushed, but then I tried a last-ditch effort of yanking on a suspicious-looking pull cord attached to the wall. Well, that was a bad idea. That set off a loud ringing alarm heard throughout the entire restaurant and I still didn't get the toilet flushed and had to leave the restroom in shame looking like an idiot. Come to find out, public restrooms in Italy are required to have an alarm pull cord in case there is an "I'm falling and I can't get up!" moment. I was so embarrassed for my acts as an ignorant American tourist and we finished up at the restaurant as quickly as possible. In retrospect, I think if I had held down the giant switch on the wall instead of just pushing it, the toilet would have flushed. Hindsight is 20/20.

Observations:

• Milan has lots of public art on display

• The pigeons at the duomo are braver than most and people were getting pictures of themselves with pigeons landing on them to eat food from their hands. Why would you want pictures of yourself covered with flying rats?

• The Milanese don’t like using the stairs much when escalators are available.

Falling asleep on the metro

Duomo pigeons