Milano

DAY 1: Milano

I flew to Milan from Salt Lake City. Andrew flew to Milan from Chicago. Andrew's sister, Marika (who also came on the trip) flew from Washington. All three of our flights arrived at different times (Marika's, a day early) so we decided that we would meet up in Milan. My flight got in on a Saturday morning so the plan was for me to rent a car and drive down to meet Marika at her hostel in downtown Milan. We would spend the day seeing everything we could and then pick up Andrew from the airport that night. 

That was the plan.

That plan sounded a lot easier than it ended up. But only because I forgot that I am not very good with maps/directions. And I don't speak Italian. Minor problems, right?

I first knew that I was in trouble when I drove my rental car outside the parking garage and realized I had no idea how to exit the airport. I didn't know the word for "EXIT". So I drove around and around and around until I saw a bus leaving and decided to follow it. That is when I learned my first Italian word, "USCITA" or "exit". 

La Galleria

 It only got worse from there. I should also mention that my plan for fighting jet lag was to stay up all night before my flight and sleep on the plane. But the sleeping pill didn't work and I didn't sleep much on the plane. So I had been awake for about 48 hours....driving in a foreign country....with only mapquest directions. I will skip the details and just say that I got utterly and completely lost. I thought I had written down the phone number to Marika's hostel so I could call and tell her what had happened, but the number didn't paste into my word doc.

There I was. No Italian. No Internet. No Map. No idea how to contact Marika. I pulled over on the side of the road and cried, but mostly because I was tired and had no brain power left. All reason had completely left me. (I should also mention that Italians are CRAZY drivers. In every other way they are amazing and wonderful people. But crazy drivers. My car even got side-swiped and the guy just kept driving like it was no big deal). Anyway, I finally decided that I needed to call someone. I knew the perfect person to call would be Andrew's Dad because he is a very kind, forgiving man who likes to get up early (it was about 4 am Eastern Time). He was asleep, but woke up and kindly navigated me to Marika's hostel. I would probably still be driving aimlessly around Milan if it wasn't for him.

Inside La Galleria (formally called, "Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II". The oldest mall in Italy built in the late 1800's. Can you believe this is a mall!?

What I look like after being awake for about 60 hours and balling my eyes out.

The Duomo

As soon as I found Marika, the FUN officially began. We still spent a lot of our time lost, but we were lost together, and it was a blast. Miraculously, we made it to all the places we wanted to see. It was amazing.

One of the funniest things that happened to us was when we were trying to find a metro station where we could park our car. We weren't having much luck understanding Italians when we asked for directions so we were so relived when we finally saw a huge sign that said 'METRO' in big blue letters. There were even plenty of empty parking spots and no meter which I thought was a bit strange. So we locked up our car and started walking toward this "Metro Station". We met a man in front who spoke a little English so we asked him in disbelief, "Can we really park here ALL DAY!? For FREE?!" He looked at us strangely and said that we could. So we happily started walking in the building through the first set of automatic doors. Then we noticed there were FREE bathrooms. SCORE! So we went inside and kept commenting out loud about how we couldn't believe this metro station had FREE bathrooms that were so clean. We left the bathroom and started walking towards the sliding doors and THAT WAS WHEN WE REALIZED IT WAS A GROCERY STORE. A grocery store called "Metro". Can you believe that? The same guy we had talked to earlier was inside the store now...still looking at us like we were the dumbest Americans ever.

We laughed so hard I honestly couldn't even stand up. I can't believe that I didn't notice it was a grocery store until I walked through the second set of automatic doors. I can't believe that I asked an Italian man, with so much enthusiasm, if I could really park in (what turned out to be) a grocery store parking lot all day, for free! Maybe you had to be there. Maybe I was just tired. But I think I will laugh about that story for the rest of my life.

We did find a real Metro Station eventually in case you're wondering. Lesson learned: look for a red "M". Who names a grocery store "Metro" anyway? Is that some sick joke to play on dumb Americans?

Inside of the Duomo

Each of these little stained-glass windows depict a story/event from the life of Christ

Top of the Duomo

Andrew told us that there is some sort of law in Italy that if a church is undergoing construction then they don't have to pay taxes. So it is very common for church to be "undergoing remodeling" but in reality they just have scaffolding set up even though no one ever seems to be working on anything. Maybe it is just a rumor but I wouldn't be surprised.

Couldn't resist impersonating some statues

From the top of the Duomo (center of Milan)

 We eventually got hungry and decided to see what the street vendors were selling. Wraps filled with good cheeses, prosciutto, and a little bit of arugula, grilled in a panini maker (at least it looked like a panini maker). Even their street food is delicious! Why don't we all eat like this?

This is just one of the many streets that are part of the Quadrilateral of Fashion. See Valentino on your left? 

My favorite part of Milan was visiting the Brera (Pinacoteca di Brera), a famous museum inside of a famous art school. We saw the original of this painting which took my breath away:

I wish you could all see it in person. Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio. The original is so beautiful that we just sat and stared at it for a long time. Marika is an artist so her appreciation is probably on a whole different level than mine. But even though I have very little knowledge of art, I can tell you that seeing this painting was a spiritual experience for me. It made all the craziness of traveling and getting lost, completely worth it.

Up Next: Lake Como