Milano

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Well we arrived the evening after we visited Verona (sweaty and exhausted - at least I was) and took the metro to get to the suburbs to stay with a couchsurfer (Emi).  He picked us up at the metro station and took us to his home (which is probably the coolest house I have ever been in - I absolutely LOVE it) Emi introduced us to his roommate, Luca (the others are out of town) and his two dogs who are very sweet.  We sat in his backyard chatting for a while, getting to know each other, and they had prepared dinner (we already ate, but apparently they do this most nights) and so we had a little bit to try it - delicious! Authentic italian food is way more creative than I hear about at home.  We all stayed up a little longer but I finally had to go to bed because I was exhausted.

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Yesterday morning we decided to go sightseeing - though there aren't many tourist sights in Milan.  First we headed to the Duomo (surprise!) but we were both pretty done with churches and it cost a few euros so we decided to pass on entering, although I've heard good things, I haven't heard that it's one of the must sees of Italy so I don't feel too guilty.  We walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele where all the high-end shopping is (the walkway itself is covered and quite beautiful.)  Afterwards we headed to the other end of the historic area of town to see La Scala Opera House (but actually visited the museum next door because the house isn't open except for performances - we did get a peek inside though.)  The museum itself was cool - it was so different than many of the museums we've been seeing, and it had all sorts of props, instruments, letters, sculptures of composers and performers, costumes, etc.  Even the rooms themselves were extraordinary (apparently this it the world's MOST prestigious opera house, according to Rick Steve.)  We grabbed lunch nearby at a cool restaurant where you could pick out the pasta and then the sauce you wanted (like a mix and match) and I was pleasantly surprised by the portion size - I could easily have split it, though once paid for I definitely made the most of it haha!  All the walking we've been doing keeps me hungry all the time!  We strolled to the nearby Brera Art Gallery - which has a school on the ground floor and one of the best collections of Italian paintings in the world (beat by Rome and Florence)- mostly from the Napoleonic era when a lot of art was removed from lands he conquered and brought back to Italy (among other museums.)  The collection itself was extremely well rounded, it had one or a few paintings by everyone, masters and artists I have never heard of.  It was huge though, I believe about 40 rooms or so, by the end I was exhausted, mostly it was Renaissance work and I'm not a huge fan.

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Sforza Castle was next - Leonardo lived here for several years, and Michelangelo's last (and unfinished) "Pieta" is here - I'm not a huge Michelangelo freak but the sculpture was pretty incredible to see mid-process.  The castle itself was way more interesting than most I've been to - the garden was beautiful, the center was bustling with tourists, it was definitely easy to picture how life could have been for someone living there a few hundred years ago.

For dinner we met up with Emi and some of his friends (also many couchsurfers) who climb trees and knowck off branches and bees nests, etc. for a living (though 4 of them went to engineering school together, Emi is doing that and working on his 2nd ph.d. and one of their other friends just started a bike messanger company in Milan a few months ago in his attempt to better the city - he also is an energy engineer - not sure of the proper title haha.)  We went to one of guy's houses who is from Sicily, and cooked us an authentic Sicilian dinner (minus the meat since one of the guys is a vegetarian.)  Zac and I laughed when he opened a cabinet and it was full of bags of pasta (probably 7 or 8 different kinds, at least 15 bags.)  Sundried tomatoes, olive oil, bread, wine, olive, pasta with eggplant and fruit soaked in a bit of wine for a sangria-type flavor was the perfect italian/sicilian meal and I thought very entertaining.

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About midnight we headed out (just 4 of us) for a drink and to walk around a bit to see Milan at night - it was Wednesday so it wasn't super crowded but was very nice.  We some sort of authentic italian drink, a type of bitter, and then sat in a square for a while just talking and hanging out (someone showed up with a drum and then a few others began "rapping" around him- it was very interesting.)  We finally made it home about 4am because we had to drive back to the suberb, so I went to bed pretty much as soon as we got here.

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Woke up and headed back to Milan today - I really wanted to see the Monumental Cemetary - which is pretty much as Rick Steves explains "an evocative outdoor art gallery with tombs showcasing expressive art styles from 1870-1930".  I always find cemetaries very peaceful and somehow renewing, but this one was outstanding - I could have spent the entire day there instead of only an hour.  It was one of the best "sights" I've seen on the entire trip - it's a place I would love to return to one day.

duomo
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Made it back home, trying to catch up with e-mail, blog and pictures while waiting for the other guys to get back before dinner.  Not sure on plans for tonight or tomorrow, but tomorrow night we leave for Paris.  Will include another paragraph or so about the rest of Milan then.

Ciao!

So we went to dinner with Luca, an old roommate of the CS friend we stayed with, and did the authentic Italian bar/dinner thing - you order a drink or two and there are lots of appetizers available for you to munch on, and you can go back as many times as you want so it really is a full dinner. Delicious fruit, pasta, pizza-like stuff, etc.  He also showed us the university main campus and we walked around a bit, trying to go see their other friend Luca's dance performance that evening - unfortunately, when we arrived about 10 pm, they still hadn't started and we needed to catch our train.  On the way to the train station we saw these rollerbladers practicing around cones to techno music - they were really good! They did all sorts of swirls and such with their feet, switching betwene back and forwards... it was a very cool thing to stumble upon.  At 11:30 we got on our train (which left about 20 minutes late, apparently not surprising to the Italians though we haven't had any trouble running very late on any of our other trains) and spent the night trying to sleep on the way to Paris :)