Milan, Italy

We spent a week in Milan, most of it revolving around chores – from Megan’s schoolwork to taking care of errands. Our first impression of Milan was not the best. It’s not an overly beautiful city and for the most part, doesn’t seem that welcoming. Read Rick Steve’s recap of the city – he seems to agree. But, our camping neighbors were from the UK and Megan enjoyed having a few English-speaking playmates.

The first day, we successfully took a combination of busses and subways to Central Station. It was a Sunday and we mistakenly thought we would be able to a) be near the town center and b) enjoy a nice lunch. We were wrong on both accounts. Milan’s Central Station is not near the tourist attractions and nothing is open on a Sunday afternoon around 2pm. While we were hugely impressed with Central Station (it’s a beautiful building, huge Roman columns….) and Megan had a head-first run in with one of the statues out front, we were limited to eating either at one of two McDonald’s in the area or at a rather uninspired looking Italian Cafeteria. We chose McDonald’s – and called it a day.

We spent one afternoon at the Dom church and Piazzo Square (sorry if I mis-typed - am rapidly updating the blog from a very expensive Internet connection). Will try to add pictures later - but basically, you're able to climb the church spires and walk among the buttresses. Very cool views of the city below and of the architectural detail for the church. The "arcade" nearby was awesome - great detail inside and the designer names to make those who are in Milan for fashion drool. We had to make a pit-stop at the McDonalds inside and it's truly one of the only "hip" McDonald's I've seen. The only irritating thing was the huge "Road to America" poster in the stairwell. Sheesh. No wonder Europeans hate us if they associate American culture only with McDonalds....

We spent our final day in the city with three goals in mind:
1) find 4amp fuses so we can have drip coffee again
2) visit the National Museum of Science and Technology (famous for the DaVinci wing) and
3) pick up a couple of gifts for friends back in the States.

Happily, we found the 4amp fuses; but instead of finding the National Museum of Science and Technology, we found the ruins of the Castle and a huge park. The area we visited helped to prove that there is beauty in every city. With buildings that didn’t appear to be the concrete, post-war reconstruction and which had fantastic detail work on the exterior. Some even had roof-top gardens that looked lush and inviting.

We never made it back to shopping. Instead, explored the Castle ruins and the adjacent park. As we we arrived at the ruins, a procession of bagpipes and individuals in medieval costumes paraded out of the ruins. Kind of interesting to watch, but we didn’t have any context, other than an article that I’d read which indicates this type of thing frequently occurs at the Castle ruins. Later, when we found the park, there was a full-on medieval fair with Celtic overtones! We wandered through their exhibits a bit (full on tents, weaponery, beverages from the period… with French fries and beer for sale at the concession stands… didn’t know they deep-fried potatoes back in the medieval period). Wandering through the park, we found a huge playground. Never have I seen such a site – the few women in the park were largely decked out in cashmere and stilettos. Forever etched in my mind is this woman walking through the play area, in cashmere and heels with children running wildly all around her.

We’ve developed some new food favorites while here. Among the new family favorites:

• Fresh tomatoes with mozzarella – four weeks ago, the girls wouldn’t try this. Now, they gobble it up like it’s candy.
• Milano salami … mmmm
• Italian cheese

Ciao!