MILAN, ITALY

I walked to the train station in the morning and boarded my Milan-bound train at 10 a.m. and I was quickly out of France. The ride across along the Mediterranean was still very scenic. The train goes through tunnels every minute or two, but I was still very impressed with the scenery along the coast. We arrived in Genoa and then switched directions for the segment north to Milan. I was surprised to see quite a bit of snow on the ground most of the way up, but once we arrived in Milan there was no snow left.

I made my way out of the giant fascist-era train station and walked toward my hotel. I had reserved another bargain from the same web site that had served me so well, but this one turned out to be less than ideal. The hotel was about a 10-minute walk from the station, but in a perpendicular direction from all of the city’s tourist attractions. It was a very nice hotel and room, but it was perhaps a 15-minute walk from even the closest of the sights. It was only for two nights so it wasn’t a big deal, but the situation reminded me that I normally prefer a lousy place with a great location to a good place with a bad location. I checked in and headed out immediately to get some lunch.

There were some recommended restaurants in the area of my hotel, so it wasn’t like I was in the suburbs, but rather in a cluster of business hotels that offer cheap rooms during slow times. I found a pizza place I had read about and ordered a large slice. This place and most other places I saw in Milan had only thick-crust pizza, but it was delicious. They weighed the slice and charged accordingly.

Milan isn’t on every tourist’s itinerary because it doesn’t have many really famous sights. The main reasons I wanted to see it (aside from the fact that it’s a good stop on the way to Venice) were that it is a famous city for fashion and soccer. I had heard that all Italians are very well dressed all the time, but so far I wasn’t seeing it. I would say maybe 1 in 5 people really go all out, but the other 4 dress just like they do in NYC, at least during the winter. The architecture of Milan is nice enough, but I read that it was part of Austria not that long ago so it was also sort of generic European. I took the metro to the famous Duomo (cathedral) and was blown away by the outside. By the way, I have always had this theory that the reason New York’s subway was the most trashed inside is because it is the only one (that I am aware of) that operates 24 hours per day. The Milan metro is just as trashed looking and it closes at midnight so there goes that theory.

It really is an amazing building, but unfortunately they are refurbishing the entire front so scaffoldings and screens cover it entirely. The front is only part of the appeal so it was still quite a sight, but it would be far nicer if the front were visible. I decided to save the inside for the next day so I scurried down a few blocks to a bookstore where I was hoping to find a copy of Rick Steves Italy. I bought a copy of Lonely Planet Italy while in Nice because I hadn’t seen a copy of Rick Steves anything since Portugal, but I wanted to try one last place. I went to a store called the American Bookstore near this castle-like thing a few blocks from the Duomo and sure enough they had a copy. I was instantly very happy. At the risk of sounding gay for Rick Steves, I have found touring cities using his books to be far more enjoyable than using any other. I like Lonely Planet and Rough Guides, but they are just so dry and politically correct. Book in hand, I wandered around for a while, got some lunch and walked the 30 minutes or so back to my hotel on the outskirts.

On my way back to my hotel I stopped at a grocery store to pick up supplies for a sandwich as well as a bottle of wine as I planned to stay in for the evening. I’m sure Milan has an exceptional nightlife, but I was disheartened a bit by the fact that few people speak any English and I wasn’t near the tourist heart to complicate matters more. In the grocery store I noticed something that is actually very typical of this whole region. English language music dominates the radio airwaves everywhere, even in places like this where few people actually understand what they are listening to. As I shopped for meat, cheese, bread and wine I was serenaded by a soundtrack of Green Day and Staind as I toured the aisles amidst the Milan homemakers. Those bands would almost never be heard in a U.S. supermarket, but for some reason they were just fine in Milan. I spent a quiet evening catching up on writing and so forth.

The next morning I went downstairs to take advantage of the hotel’s buffet breakfast. I got a small pitcher of very good coffee and had a selection of bread and other pastries. Some hard-boiled eggs were the only protein available so I took advantage. The people in this area are thin, but their breakfasts consist mostly of bread and sweets and my system just doesn’t thrive on that without getting very hungry soon thereafter. I had already seen the outside of Milan’s main sites so my goals were modest. I wanted to get some good views and basically enjoy the scene in Milan in addition to seeing the inside of the Duomo and the surrounding area. I took the metro to the Duomo stop and was there in 10 minutes.

Once again, the Duomo is a stunning building on the outside. I wasn’t sure I would ever witness anything like the Sagrida Familia that I had just seen in Barcelona, but this was pretty close. It’s in a more typical gothic style, but it’s just as impressive nonetheless. I wandered through the famous shopping area next to the Duomo that consists of 4-story buildings making up a posh intersection under a glass ceiling and had a delicious gelati. The gelati (ice cream) is amazing and actually lives up to the hype, in my opinion. The absolute center of the area features the most famous designer shops and curiously a McDonalds on one corner. I went into what might be the world’s nicest McDonalds just to look at the menu. There was a promotion going on featuring Mexican dishes, interestingly enough.

My next stop was the Duomo Museum that is next to the cathedral. It closes for lunch, which I still find absolutely amazing and ridiculous. I was one of the first people in when they reopened at 15:00 and I paid for the combo ticket, which gets you into the museum and also the elevator up to the roof of the Duomo. Once inside I looked at the brochure they gave me only to find that over half the museum was closed for refurbishing. I went back to ask about it, but the price was low enough that I chose to just tour the open part and not make a big deal about it. It was sort of interesting, but not very memorable. I was soon outside to enter the Duomo itself.

I entered the Duomo (free actually) and was mildly impressed by its interior. The real hook of the place is its roof and the spires up there. I completed my tour of the interior and went outside to find the elevator entrance to go up to the top. I was quickly on the series of catwalks that go over part of the roof of the place, but I was disappointed a bit. You get to see the spires close up, but they are really designed to be appreciated as a group and from the ground. The views from the top are okay, but there is really no proper platform where you have an unobstructed view in one particular direction. It’s still an unusual place to be, but I expected a bit more. Back in the elevator and back out into the square. Every town square seems to be jammed with large groups of school kids just sitting there. I rarely see them inside the actual attractions, but they must be forced to go inside at some point on these school trips.

I walked around a bit more and looked more closely at the glass-enclosed shopping area that is so impressive. There is a bull in one of the floor mosaics that supposedly brings good luck if you spin on his testicles and as I watched I actually did see several people walk up to the thing and spin on it. I resisted the urge, mainly because I don’t believe that any bull’s testicles have control over our fates. That area is very impressive, but the shops are so expensive there isn’t really much I could do. I then looked through both of my Italy books and saw there was a chic neighborhood sort of on the way back to my hotel. I walked through it and it is very nice, but it seems to revolve around some outdoor cafes and the temperature was in the 40s or maybe around 50 so there wasn’t much action out there. The area reminded me a bit of Greenwich Village in NYC and I’m sure it’s really fun during the summer or with a group.

I wound my way back to my hotel and made myself another sandwich for dinner since I had eaten at a very nice restaurant lunch in the middle of town that day. The lunch cost about €13 and spending that much on dinner as well would have really added up.

Milan seems like a very nice city, but during my two-day visit I didn’t really get any sense myself that it is a fashion capitol, even though it undeniably is. I was seeing hoards of Japanese tourists there and they were probably also there for the same reason. Also, the soccer scene is pretty well hidden considering the fame of the team. I’ve been to cities and countries where their soccer jerseys are everywhere and banners are sold on every corner, but Milan seems to be more subtle in its fandom.

I could see why it’s not compulsory on the tourist circuit. The Duomo is breathtaking, but other than that it’s a fast moving business city that offers little that is unique for a tourist, or at least compared to the more notable cities. I don’t mind finding things like this out though. This trip isn’t about just following the most common trail and seeing only the most famous sights. I really enjoy seeing what a city looks like and how it moves. I noticed that people in Milan walk much faster than in any city I have been in for a while. I still walk much faster than most of them, but in Spain, for example, I was just flying by people even when I was just scoping out a neighborhood.

The next morning I went through the all-too-familiar ritual of packing up and walking to the train station for my journey to Venice. At this point I was finally feeling rested and recharged and Venice seems like a really wonderful place to visit so I felt my spirits lifting a bit.