Trip to Italy: Part 1

Alright, my trip to Italy. It started last Friday when we took a train from Aix, changed in Nice, then took another train from Nice to Milan. The train to Nice was a TGV: fast, comfortable, and clean. There was even a place to buy food and drink, and a voice announced the name of the next station. The train to Milan, however, was less impressive. It took five hours and was rickety. Each carriage had little six-seat rooms (à la Hogwarts Express from Harry Potter) and there wasn't anywhere to get food... for five hours. At one point, all the lights in the carriage went out for about half an hour... which was a shame, because it was dusk and we frequently went through tunnels in pitch darkness.

Anyway, when we finally got to Milan we were all starving and dived into a McDonald's near the station, then trekked off to find our hostel. It was fairly far from the station but our rooms were fantastic. The hostel is run by two brothers, Alfredo and Huberto, who spoke exceptionally-good English and were really helpful with guiding us around the city. Because our hostel was outside of the city center, not much was open nearby and we didn't do much Friday night.

The next day we found brunch at a little Italian cafe: cappuccinos and delicious mozzarella-tomato-lettuce sandwiches. We headed toward Milan's national monumental cemetery, which is filled with giant, impressive tombs for famous people from Milan's history. They're not just gravestones, these are practically mini chapels with amazing architecture. And the cemetery's huge: we barely saw a fraction of it, according to our map.

Next we saw Castello Sforzesco, a giant fortress in Milan that dates from the 14th century. It's now filled with art museums and, interestingly, was bombed by the Allies during World War II. Saturday was pretty hazy in Milan, which made for really cool light as the sun shone down on the fortress courtyard:


In Milan we also saw the Duomo de Milano, a giant 14th-century cathedral that, as you can probably tell from this picture, is incredibly impressive. Every corner, line, and angle of the building is ornately decorated with points, turrets, statues; inside, we weren't allowed to take pictures but the stained glass windows filled entire walls and were truly stunning. It's a gorgeous, immense church, and it had a very unique "feel" inside: it was cool, much cooler than outside, and everybody's whispers echoed all around. Even today, the Duomo dwarfs other buildings near it, and it's easy to see why people feared the church's power when the cathedral was first constructed.

On the way back to the hostel from the Duomo, we inadvertently took a shortcut through Milan's ritzy district. We passed Bulgari, Rolex, Brooks Brothers, Gucci, and other high-end stores; we passed Ferraris, Bentleys, scores of Porsches (everything from Boxsters to a GT3 RS), and even saw a Lamborghini Murciélago and Lotus Elise. There appears to be some serious money in Milan! One of the Ferraris, a yellow F430, saw us gawping at the traffic lights. When the lights turned green, the driver gunned it and gave us an Italian supercar symphony.

Speaking of cars, Italian police seem to either drive tiny Fiat hatchbacks or Alfa Romeo sedans, both in baby blue with "POLIZIA" or "CARABINERI" plastered down the side. Outside the train station, we also saw a military (national guard? army?) jeep; two soldiers stood nearby with machine guns.

Food in Italy was to die for. I had some of—or possibly the best—pizza and pasta I've ever had, and it wasn't even exceptionally expensive. I wasn't really surprised to find that almost everyone we encountered spoke English: we'd tried to learn some simple Italian words and phrases, and we used them, but each time we were greeted with a flurry of English.

That was a horribly-brief account of what we did in Milan, but for now it'll have to suffice. I took 275 pictures during the five days I was in Italy and am still sorting through them, but will post soon. Arrivederci!

Read part two of my Italian adventure here.