Milano

Plazza Duomo
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Milan!

The "most fashionable" city in the world.  Not quite my ideal place, however, it was the closest major airport for me to fly into to be close to my first farms.  Therefore, I decided to stay here a couple of days to get my bearings in the new country and city.  Being in Ireland didn't feel all that much like being in a new country.  I knew the language barrier would add a whole new element.

Plazza Duomo
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I landed at the Malapense Airport at around 8 pm, but didn’t get to my hotel until almost 10:30.  It was such a process, although, one I was proud of.  I figured out the train situation (the two I had to take) and made it to Garabaldi Station fairly easily.  Once I got there though, it was so late, I was soooo tired, and I just wanted to get to the hotel.  I thought that the hotel would be within clear sight, but of course it wasn’t.  Therefore, I started walking to find it and ended up down a dark alley late at night, by myself, with this big beacon on my back telling everyone I was a tourist.  After a couple of minutes of walking, I came to my senses and went to the taxi station and got in a cab.  It was right around the corner and cost about 7 Euros, but was totally worth it, considering the situation.

Castello Sforzesco
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Firstly, European hotels are so advanced.  If I still worked at the hotel, or if I ever work at another hotel, I would totally implement some of the things in this hotel.  Firstly, for the lights to be on, your room key needs to be in a slot.  Therefore, no leaving lights on when you're not in the room!  How genius is that?  Secondly, in the bathroom, instead of using individual soaps and shampoos, there are dispensers.  Duh!  Talk about saving soooo much waste!  Someday, I’m going to open the best hotel!  Hahaha... yeah right. 

Pinacoteca Brera
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The hotel was actually a bit farther away from things that I had expected.  Go figure; I should have known.  Just like how my hotel was listed on a few sites as being 1.5 miles from the slopes when we were really 3.  Ha.  In any case, in the am, I got directions to Garabalidi Station (or I thought I did), and headed out to go exploring for the day.  So, most of the staff at the hotel speaks amazing English, although, it’s a second language to them.  Therefore, when the front desk in the morning told me to walk left out of the hotel, I later found out he had actually meant right... I ended up God knows where, but it was such a beautiful day, there were lots of people out, and it was such a cute area, I didn't mind.  I eventually found the station and was headed towards one of the art museums in the area.  According to the front desk, it was the best one to go to in the area.

Outside
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After finding my train stop (oh my goodness the trains here are SO easy, it’s crazy.  Compared to the US cities, like Boston and Chicago that I've gotten lost in, here, as long as you can read, even in a different language, you can find your way around.  EVERYTHING is labeled... it is idiot proof, and I love it!), I walked in what I thought was the direction of the museum.  Ok, the trains are super easy, but once you get off of the train, that's a whole different story!!  The streets are SO hard to navigate!  I got SO lost.  But these are the gorgeous little neighborhoods I got lost in, quintessential Italy, in my opinion.  It was completely what I expected from little Italian streets. 

City Center
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Finally, after I was done being lost, I asked a young woman in a perfume shop where the museum was, since I knew I had to be close.  She was probably my age and spoke English (which pretty much anyone under 25 here does) and after she tried explaining it, she actually left her store and walked with me through the plaza pretty much right to the museum.  She was the cutest! 

Cute Italian streets
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Pinacoteca Brera was my first taste of a European art museum and it blew me away.  It was small, but the art that was there was simply breathtaking. Not only that, but it took away my frustrations of the language barrier I was already facing, because once you step into a museum like that, all language barriers are pushed aside and you're reminded that art and beauty are universal.  Raffaello and Bellini were a couple of the big ones there that rang a bell.  Most all of the art was from the 15th and 16th century and very religious, colorful, and detailed. The magnitude of it though, was unlike anything found in a US art museum.  Some of the pieces sheer size were amazing.  It reminded me of stories my dad used to tell me about the experiences he had in French art museums.  There were a few contemporary 19th and even 20th century peices mixed in, which I found incredibly strange and I wanted to ask about, but after not being able to think of ANY Italian words that could even get close to that question and after my sad Spanish attempt to ask, I gave up. 

DSCN0042.jpg
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After the museum, I had a better idea of where I was, so I decided to head to the city center, Duomo. I figured that I couldn’t go to Milan and not see the famous city sites and fashion district.  The area was beautiful and at one moment when I walking in the hot sun by myself, I had a moment of “oh my God… this is Italy… oh my GOD IM IN ITALY!”  It was such an overwhelming feeling I actually stopped walking and had to shake my head out of this overwhelming realization.  It was great.  Quite honestly though, the center was beautiful, don’t get me wrong, however, it had definitely been made into a tourist trap.  I walked around for a bit and played gaper, since it was much easier to do when so many other gapers were around, but then I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and was starving, but didn’t want to get sucked into the prices in the center.  Plus, I've always had much better luck with little hole in the walls that are found off the beaten path. 

Piazza S. Marco
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After riding around the train for awhile (I was so hungry and tired that I kept getting off at the wrong stop and would have to get back on the same train the opposite direction, but would then do the same f-ing thing all over again... haha... it was good training though!  Now I know the Duomo area better than a local!), I found a tiny little hole in the wall pizzaria.  The pizza was cheap and average, but the wine... oh my.  Firstly, I've found from most places I've gone, you order wine by the bottle.  There just isn’t a by the glass option on the menu.  It's available, but apparently they don’t want to waste the print space.  I like it.  So after looking at the wine menu for a few minutes, I just asked for the house.  (A friend in CO who travelled through Italy told me to do that... it’s usually cheap, but always delicious!)  The waiter / son (it was a definitely a family run and operated place, the best there is!) stood at his wine wall and went through each bottle with me, it was hilarious.  He was half talking to himself and half trying to explain things to me.  He spoke just about as much English as I speak Italian.  In the end, he picked a wonderful bottle that ended up still being under 20 US dollars and tasted like something I would have spent $40 on.  I LOVE Italy!

Seriously... why dont more US hotels do this?! Genius!!
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After refueling and dropping off the last half of my bottle at the hotel for me to finish later, I decided to venture out.  It was still early, about 9pm, and I didn’t want to get on the train, so I just walked around the hotel.  After awhile though, I realized I was pretty far from the hotel, alone, down back streets.  I ended up finding this place called the SugarHouse (I should have known from the name), that just ended up being a great place, way over commercialized.  It was a beautiful restaurant with an amazing rooftop bar, but the wine they gave me tasted like cheap American wine that would come from a box.  To make it even worse, they put a strawberry on the side of the glass as a sad attempt to aromatically trick your taste buds.  It was crap.  AND it was 10 Euros.  ($14).  It was a pretty close to a double pour though, so whatever.  I sucked it up to being the one shitty glass of wine I'd have in Europe... it had to happen eventually.  The people watching on the roof was worth it and it was a beautiful night and I just read through my farm and vineyard lists that needed help in Oct and Nov so I could get out of going to Spain.  I also ease dropped on my neighbors who were totally talking about me, but I couldn’t understand enough of what they were saying!!  Soon my Italian will be there!  Ha!  It was a beautiful night and I had a wonderful view of the moon, so despite crappy wine, I was in great spirits.

It was a long day... this bottle had my name on it.
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My last night in Milan, tomorrow morning I head to my first farm!!!