Ciao Grazie, Milano

Managed to change for this flight, one day just before the flight. It was a tough decision between staying on my Manchester and changing for Milan. Cos I haven been to Milan, that’s one thing, but I dun mind Manchester cos I like that place and the crew is nice. But in the end, the lure of Milan was too great, I gave in… so its Milan here I come.

Sightseeing is on the top of my mind when I am doing the flight, initial plan was to go Venice and Lake Como. But the lack of sleep proved daunting, in the end. The first day was spent of visiting the icon of Milan, the Duomo, the second largest church in Europe, if I remember correctly. The exquisiteness of the Duomo, the stone carvings, the details were so captivating that I couldn’t stop taking photos of the place. Its almost enchanting. The queue was crazy long though, so in the end din manage to go into the Duomo to view and tour around. Life in Milan basically evolve around the Duomo, where all the shopping malls and eateries and shopping areas are all around the Duomo. The famous shopping mall with the 4 corners of Prada, Louis Vuitton, MacDonald’s and an antique shop was just beside the Duomo. Its really a shopping paradise for any girls as branded goods shops are everywhere and everyone seemed to be carrying a branded bag. LV, Gucci, Miu Miu, Salvatore Ferragamo, Botega, Versace, Chanel are aplenty, not surprising since most of them are from Italy itself. The most surprising thing is that there is this particular branded goods street are these brands and more… comprising of brand names which are unheard of to most in the world, like Pucci etc… actually I only remember one cos the rest are too sophisticated and they are priced above your usual LV. So, you think? They are out of our league even… haha….

2nd day was up early, deciding between going to Pisa and Florence or Venice. In the end it was Venice for me cos its equal distance to go Pisa and Florence from Rome and Milan, so probably I can go from Rome next time if I get it. Its nearer to go to Venice from Milan anyway. So it’s a 3 hours plus train ride, meeting time was 515am in the morning cos we wanted to catch the earliest train into Venice and come back early if possible cos we still have a flight to Barcelona early next morning. Javier and May could not wake up and I ended up being very pissed having to wait for 2 hours plus… things are not helped when Venice’s weather forecast was rainy and that really added nothing but gloom if we cannot see Venice clearly. I guess they felt bad and treated me to breakfast and things got better when we reach Venice, glad to find that it was in sunny conditions. We promptly bought tickets to ferry into the main Piazza San Marco and begin exploring from there. Its pretty amazing how the life in Venice is carried out, with only boats and Gondolas as their main transport tool. It’s a place where your driving license can be chuck out of the window, cos there isn’t even a single car in the streets, not like their streets is car-friendly anyway. But its all amazing how the city is built and life evolve ard the channels and rivers. Tried the local Italian Ice-cream there… the pizzas, pasta… paninis… everyday was just these and nothing else, it was then when I realized how much I miss eating rice. Haha.. amazing, though I am very ok with eating western food… after spending a day there, armed with a map and weaving in and out of the mazy Venice, everything looks boring towards the end of the day cos its just repetitive and same things all over. It was a good visit thou, and eye opener in fact but I guess I wun be going back for a while, unless I miss it again, for now… its exploring other new places first…